大象传媒

Mr Roy Smith鈥檚 World War 2 reminiscences of rural Lancashire.

Roy:

As I was born in 1937 my early formative years are coloured by WWII. We lived at number 1, New Lane, Eccleston (just within the parish boundary!) near the Rose and Crown, Ulnes Walton. This was 鈥楴o Man鈥檚 Land鈥�! This was just about at the meeting point of the parishes of Croston, Eccleston and Ulnes Walton on the West Lancashire.Plain. It was very, very rural and the full horrors of war therefore passed me by 鈥� apart from when my mum took me with her to visit her friend in Manchester, where we were caught up in an air raid and had to go into an underground shelter. I was also taken to Liverpool soon after the war and found it difficult to comprehend all the damage; seeing a bombed out church with a faceless clock is one of those quirky things that sticks in my mind. I remember seeing the Overhead Railway too 鈥� 鈥楾he Dockers鈥� Umbrella鈥� as it was known.
However, back home in the comfort of the countryside there were still signs that something was going on:-

1. Any large, flattish pasture had lots of posts 鈥� perhaps 10 feet high 鈥� standing in them. These were to deter glider landings.
2. An octagonal concrete pill-box stood beside Eccleston bridge (over the RiverYarrow), and alongside there was a row of cylindrical concrete blocks waiting to be rolled out into the roadway to obstruct traffic. On reflection I don鈥檛 suppose either would have been much of a hindrance to a Tiger tank!
3. Some local men were in the Home Guard or the A.F.S. (Auxiliary Fire Service) in the evenings.
4. A searchlight was stationed in a field opposite to what became Auldene Nurseries in modern times 鈥� you could perhaps still find the circular hole dug for it. There were wooden huts for the soldiers who manned it and they built a diving platform for swimming in a nearby pit. The platform was still there, in part, well after the war.
5. All the houses had blackout curtains on the inside of their normal curtains.
6. A neighbour, Mr Rupert Dennell, was a test driver at Leyland Motors and it wasn鈥檛 uncommon for him to call at home for a cuppa when out testing a tank (only small ones, Bren Gun Carriers I think they were called). We loved touching them and crawling under them!
7. I recall a number of men being described as 鈥榠n reserved occupations鈥�. There was quite a list of them locally, what with men involved in farming, miners at the coal pits in the Coppull area.
8. I also recall a number of businesses being closed down until hostilities were over: the two local brickworks (Crompton鈥檚 at Croston and Littlewood at Ulnes Walton) were examples.
9. Men came home on leave from time to time. My dad always seemed to come home at dead of night, bringing with him a tin crammed with chocolate he鈥檇 been saving up for me.
10. Our next door neighbour, (Sgt.)Tom Almond, was based up in the Shetlands and I came across his name when reading a book about an undercover operation named 鈥楾he Shetland Bus鈥�, which smuggled men and equipment into Norway by fishing trawler. Next door to them lived Jackie Thompson, who was in the Navy.
11. Our neighbours across the field, on the other side, were Mr and Mrs Newman Eveson. They had come from Liverpool. They had Stanley, roughly the same age as myself, but she had been married before and had half a dozen children (surname Greenhalgh) by her first husband: 2 girls and 4 lads 鈥� all the lads were of age for the Services. Tommy went into the Navy and was killed; Freddie was a Paratrooper and was captured; Maurice went into the Navy and was killed; Len went into the Navy and survived. How the poor woman remained sane after that lot I don鈥檛 know, and yet she always put on a brave face, was far more lively and cheerful than most other folk, and had a wicked Scouse sense of humour. She eventually moved to Australia with Stanley, but kept in touch with my mother.
12. There was a siren on top of Croston police station.
13. I remember having a Mickey Mouse gas mask, and was mortified when eventually it was deemed too small and I had to exchange it for an adult-type model. I remember us taking them to school from time to time to practise putting them on.
14. Occasionally we also had to take to school a container with a lid 鈥� usually it would be a National Dried Milk tin or an Ostermilk tin 鈥� and we would receive a ration of a mixture of cocoa powder and sugar. Travelling home on the bus that afternoon we quickly had the tops off the tins and were wetting our fingers to dib them into the heavenly mixture. There were lots of, 鈥滿mmmmms,鈥� and rolling eyes!
15. I remember tinned bacon from America, and powdered egg 鈥� which I loved, although other people only seem to remember it as something unpleasant.
16. The only enemy aircraft we saw were at night 鈥� obviously trying to pinpoint Leyland Motors 鈥� and being caught up in the beams of searchlights.
17. 3 bombs were dropped at Croston 鈥� perhaps aimed at the railway. One fell close to the target: just at the back of Jubilee Mill, where the hole eventually filled with water and someone put in goldfish! Another fell beside the road to Bretherton, and I don鈥檛 know the location of the third 鈥� somewhere out in the fields I assume.
18. There was the Royal Ordnance Factory at Euxton, where some local people had jobs, and there was 鈥楾he Dump鈥� at Ulnes Walton (site now occupied by the 2 prisons Wymott and Garth) which was a huge ammunition storage area 鈥� a satellite of the ROF. Again, some locals worked there, including Mrs Eveson.
19. Large air raid shelters I only saw when I visited an uncle and aunt at St Gerard鈥檚 Road, at Lostock Hall and an aunt at Southport. The first was brick built, with a thick, flat concrete top and stood in the roadway; the second was covered in black sandbags, with grass growing over it, and it stood on a wide part of the pavement.
20. Front gardens as well as back gardens were turned over to growing vegetables and soft fruits. I remember farmers being very protective of their orchards too!
21. A lot of people kept a few hens; some had a pig cote and were able to keep a pig or two.
22. We also 鈥榣ived off the land鈥�: rabbits were snared, hunted with ferrets or shot with a catapult (my dad taught me how to make my own catapult); there were blackberries and mushrooms to be picked in season, and birds eggs 鈥� especially peewit (tewit, to us) and waterhen 鈥� were a tasty addition to the menu. I suppose the Squire鈥檚 estate at Croston mysteriously lost pheasant and partridge! There were fish and eels (snigs we called them) in pits in the farmers鈥� fields, and watercress in certain ditches鈥� if you knew where to look.
23. It was incredible what could be bottled in jars or turned into pies or put into stews! Home-made everything was the order of the day.
24. There was much trading of goods between neighbouring housewives and, of course, they became great hoarders of foodstuffs. My mother never lost the habit! When she died in the year 2000 it was incredible how much sugar, for instance, she had stored away 鈥� and tinned foods.
25. My Great Aunt Alice lived in Croston and I remember seeing the Victorian iron railings being cut off the top of her front wall, to be taken away and used for the war effort.
26. I remember fund-raising efforts to buy a Spitfire: one method I saw used at Eccleston was to try to get a Mile of Pennies on an allotted day. People were stationed at intervals along the route, begging passers-by to part with a few coppers, which were then placed along the tops of the kerbstones 鈥� each coin touching the next. Maybe they never did actually get a mile of them, but every little would help.
27. Recycling was part and parcel of everyday living.
28. When we went to see relatives at Southport, all along the 鈥楴ew Road鈥� i.e. the dual carriageway from Tarleton to Banks (A.565 these days) we saw huge stacks of timber and piles of wooden crates containing machinery and engines and aircraft parts. Safer than being stored in Liverpool, or any other urban area, I guess.
29. I recall refugee children from Liverpool coming to live at Croston. Many were accommodated in the Rector鈥檚 Dower House, close by the church. They attended the local schools but didn鈥檛 seem to be amongst us too long before they returned home to take their chances with the bombs.
30. I also remember Italian prisoner-of-war working on hedging and ditching at the neighbouring Platt鈥檚 farm, and helping to fell a string of poplar trees which lined Highfield Road, Croston. These men were from a camp at Moss Side, Leyland. Their uniforms were a deep rich brown in colour and, as prisoners, they had large yellow patches of material sewn onto them here and there.
31. I also recall the arrival of the Yanks. They were based at Washington Hall, near Chorley (the Fire Training Centre nowadays). We saw them out exploring the neighbourhood on bicycles and, yes!, we learnt to call out, 鈥淕ot any gum, chum?鈥� to them. Often they鈥檇 respond by throwing a handful of gum, or sweets, to us. I also remember them putting on an exhibition of baseball on Croston cricket field one sunny afternoon 鈥� and smashing someone鈥檚 window in the process!
32. The Police, Home Guard and A.F.S. combined to put on displays on Astley Park, Chorley, on occasions.
33. I also recall cutting out cartoon characters from the Daily Express and sticking them into a book: Potato Pete was one. Others included a carrot, and they all had names, but I can鈥檛 remember what they were any longer. Perhaps the carrot was Clarence?
34. There were no new toys to give at Christmas 鈥� unless some Serviceman had brought something back from abroad. Mothers would often swap children鈥檚 books and add a cover of fancy (or brown) paper; Mr Schofield used to 鈥榙o up鈥� bicycles, and other men specialised in making wooden toys.
35. I also recall that there was very little traffic on the roads and that we walked or cycled a great deal. Bus and train services were limited, no doubt. Even though we were in the age of the internal combustion engine most farms still relied on horses and there were still steam wagons to be seen on the roads. I think that Sumner鈥檚 (corn millers) and Horsley Smith鈥檚 (timber merchants) - both of Chorley 鈥� were running them to and from Liverpool docks.
36. I was on holiday in Blackpool with my uncle and aunt and my two cousins from Lostock Hall when VJ Day was announced. Suddenly there were children and adults dragging timber down to the beach to make bonfires and, that night, there was a long, long row of them blazing away as far as you could see in either direction.

Immediately following on from the war I recall being given my first banana: I didn鈥檛 know what to do with it!! I also recall the first cream horn from Christopher鈥檚, the local confectioners in Croston. Imagine too the excitement when it was announced that Mrs Mayor, who had a small shop across the road from us, would be making ice cream on the coming Sunday! Norris鈥檚 and Catterall鈥檚 at Croston soon followed suit. The first crisps I had were made by the firm Tattis 鈥� and I don鈥檛 remember being much impressed with them! Smith鈥檚 were much tastier when they became available. (And do you remember the little twist of blue paper which contained the salt for you to shake onto your crisps?!)

A local man, Mr Wolstenholme, rented a field (near what is now the Highfield Farm eatery at Croston) and covered it in surplus war materials he was buying up. He made rather a lot of money, I think, out of his wheelings and dealings.

In that same post-war period we kids were paid so much per pound for picking (wild) rosehips 鈥� to be turned into rosehip syrup. It was an even more painful task than picking blackberries, but there was money in it and we put up with the pain!

Dorothy- Roy鈥檚 wife also was out in the country during the war and here are some of the things that came into her mind when asked about those times.

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