大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Clive Bishop of the CSV Action Desk, 大象传媒 Radio Newcastle on behalf of Noah Shanks and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was born in 1941 in an air raid shelter on the Old Colliery Road, Radcliffe, Nr Amble, Northumberland. I had seven brothers and four sisters. Dad was a miner and Mum was a housewife. My first haircut was called a pudding basin cut, where my Dad put a pudding basin on my head and cut around it with scissors. One day I wanted to go to the pictures and held out my hands for some money from Mum. I was surprised to be given two jam jars which were handed in at the cinema in exchange for tickets. These were later recycled and the cinema received payment.

I always remember Sundays when the older men of the village went to the allotment and killed two pigs, these were then transported on a wheel barrow back to our street. They were hung up, covered in boiling water to enable the hair to be easily removed, disemboweled and the blood ran into buckets to make black pudding later on. The meat was cut up and distributed to the rest of the street. One of my other strong memories was having to wear short trousers until I was eleven.

On Saturday mornings I had to help my Mum get in eleven loaves from the baker, these lasted until Wednesday, when she baked bread on a hearth at home that lasted until Saturday. At thirteen I broke my leg playing football and had to be plastered up for a total of thirty six weeks as there were several complications. One of my chores was to go to the corner shop to buy five woodbines for my Mum.

When I was about fourteen and a half I started work in the coal mines. I remember that my wage in 1956 was about three pounds and ten shillings. Right from my first pay until I was twenty one I had to give it to Mum as a family contribution. I stayed in the mines until 1986 (30 years). Two of my sisters went into the Land Army and most of my brothers worked in the mines

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