大象传媒

Shrewsbury wasn鈥檛 too badly affected during the war. There was the rationing that I鈥檝e mentioned already and there wasn鈥檛 much traffic on the roads - the Midland Red buses were running but not like they used to, and often when they did run they were very full and you鈥檇 have to stand. There were a few taxis but they were very expensive, so more people than ever had to walk or cycle, or those that could find the petrol could use the car.

Petrol was rationed of course and very dear, but we were allowed a small allowance for our farm machinery - we didn鈥檛 have a car at the time anyway. We had some petrol to spare because of this, so we were able to give some to a friend who would sometimes take us out in her car, but it had to be an essential journey. Downes鈥檚 garage was in Meole at the time and still is. I can just remember Mr Downes starting to sell petrol. Before that he used to hire bicycles out, I remember hiring a bike. (It was sixpence an hour for children or a shilling an hour for grown-ups.)

I remember a few planes going over, but at night time you could hear the German planes going over. They were going to Liverpool and places like that. They made a slightly different sound from ours and you learnt how to distinguish the difference. Night after night when you went to bed you鈥檇 wake up and hear the buzz of these German planes going over to bomb the cities.

It was very frightening but we got used to it. One night, instead of going on to Liverpool, they dropped two of these bombs at Edgebold (on the way to Hanwood). I remember the night it happened; all of our windows upstairs and down burst open, and with no lights (you daren鈥檛 have any lights on) we couldn鈥檛 see a thing! Claire and I were sleeping in the same bedroom at the time as we were so frightened at night and I remember Father coming in and calling out 鈥淵ou alright girls?鈥� We were alright, but of course we鈥檇 woken up with all the windows blowing open with the force of the bombs. Luckily it didn鈥檛 damage anything 鈥� no one was hurt, not even any animals. I remember hearing afterwards what actually happened; everyone had something to say about it all. Kynnaston鈥檚 鈥� the people who had the farm at the time were friends of ours so we went with others in a vehicle to have a look at the great big craters that had been made by the bombs 鈥� they were huge! But as I say, the bombs dropped in two fields and didn鈥檛 cause too much damage at all. They missed Shrewsbury town altogether.

We had blackouts in Shrewsbury 鈥� you daren鈥檛 show a light once it became dusk in the evenings, or you would be summonsed. The police were always going around and reporting if they saw anything like that. If they saw the tiniest chink of light anywhere you would be summonsed. We had to have big, thick, dark curtains to stop the light. I spent hours with a sewing machine sewing them together. You鈥檇 only need a candle to give off enough light to get you in trouble as the Germans might see you. I didn鈥檛 hear of anyone being summonsed locally, it went on but you didn鈥檛 talk about it. We were allowed small hand torches for getting about with, but you still had to be very careful not to show them very much.

I remember we had some evacuees staying with us to start with. The first three months of the war from September until Christmas we had two girls from Liverpool. They were girls of about 12 or 13 years old, but at the end of the term their parents wanted them back. They didn鈥檛 stay long because I s鈥檖ose they didn鈥檛 have the bombing in Liverpool which they鈥檇 expected, so all of the school鈥檚 from Liverpool that had been in Shrewsbury went back and we didn鈥檛 see them again. They hadn鈥檛 wanted to mix much with the Shrewsbury people anyway, I don鈥檛 know why but they didn鈥檛 like us so they鈥檇 rather be in Liverpool and risk the bombs.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Eva Sambrook and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See another of Eva's stories:

• 1) (On the quiet, of course)

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