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Mr and Mrs Robert Bignold

Mr Bignold:

On VE Day, for us, we got some wood and built a big fire, a bonfire, that was in the street. Outside our house there鈥檚 a green, or was green. We had a lovely bonfire, and then a sweet party afterwards. We were living Mottingham near Orpington, and we were all collecting wood from a small wood at the end of our road, so we went up there, got all the wood we could, there was loads of singing and shouting. It was absolutely lovely, everybody was celebrating, although we were only youngsters at the time, but we all got into it. I was twelve or thirteen and it was really nice.

At the street party we had fun and games, and lots of food that was shared by everyone. Everybody had a little food here, and a little there and it all came out for the celebration. We used to keep chickens and rabbits, so we could supply eggs and that sort of thing. Mum always used to manage something or other.

Mrs Bignold:

I鈥檓 from Mottingham too. I was an evacuee and was sent to Devon, and it wasn鈥檛 a happy time because people ere not kind to us. They would keep the good food to themselves and give us scraps here and there, and I think they were told that they had to take children from cities. We didn鈥檛 stay there long, we moved to somewhere in Leeds.

I was only five or six, and it seemed like a bit of an adventure to me, so there are some memories, Devon was lovely. I went back there two years ago to see if the place was still there, and it was so I took a picture of it.

I just remember the people were not very kind to us.

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