大象传媒

I have fond memories of living as a child in Stoke-on-Trent in the years leading up to the war.
I went to Glass Street School and remember finishing school at 4.30 and going to Burgess's in the arcade at Hanley to buy a bag of "seconds" i.e broken biscuits, yesterdays cake etc.
As a child I used to love cocoa and sugar in paper, rhubarb and sugar and quaker oats and sugar. We would get 2 penny a week and I would spend half a penny on a lucky bag.
On Saturday mornings we would go to Hanley market where there would be various animals in the cockloft.
Christmas memories include carol singing where instead of money we would be given lovely home-made mince pies.
I was 16 when war broke out. My dad put up an Anderson shelter in our back garden on top of which was a shed. The shelter was kitted out with a first aid box, bottle of Whiskey ( which we often helped ourselves to!) and blankets.
Whenever we heard a siren we would all dive into the shelter including Duke, our beautiful Alsation dog.
When I turned seventeen I went to work at Swynnerton Arms factory. At first I worked on 7C which was the detonators and tracer bullets section. It was very dangerous work and we had to work behind a glass panel. A good friend of mine lost three fingers and a thumb doing this work.
I was asked to work on 1 West which was where you worked with the Yellow Powder but I refused to go! I went to work for Group 4 where we put together the smoke bombs.
There were girls from all over the country at Swynnerton including Welsh and Irish girls. We worked long hours from 7am to 7pm but we had a lot of fun.
We all used to meet at Hanley bus station to catch the old buses to Swynnerton.
I then went to Drake Hall to train as a plumber. It seemed funny having a "Women at Work" sign outside the mens toilets when we had to mend a leaking pipe!
Drake Hall housed the Ameriican soldiers, they were all brilliant chaps and we had some good times there.
It was about this time when I met my future husband, Wilf Lye. At 18 he was the countries youngest ever sargeant in the RAF
We bumped into each other outside the Regent. His first words were "I'm walking you home!"
He was stationed at Market Drayton and we met quite regular after this. We used to go for tea at the upstairs cafe of the Regent.
I remember once he walked me home and my Mother called him in. We didn't have much food to offer but he enjoyed a big plate of chips and egg.
We married at Shelton Church on Sunday 11th April 1943. People were very generous and gave us food such as a tin of fruit, tin of ham. Someone made a trifle and we had a bucket of beer brought from the pub.We had the reception in my mothers parlour.
My dress was a pale blue two-piece from "Mary Harlams" and Lily Lancaster was my bridesmaid but there are no photographs as we counldn't afford a camera.
There were about thirty airmen at the wedding which made it extra special.
Not long after Wilf was posted abroad to France. I still have the letters that he wrote to me.
I remember the celebrartions at the end of the war. One pub in particular in Hanley was full of Australians who were drinking, singing and dancing. People were literally screaming for joy.
My father had put "Welcome Home" banners around our house for my brother Johnny who was returning from Dunkirk. When he saw the banners he became very upset because so many of his friends were still over there.
I was lucky enough to get one of three small cottages in Bagnall Street in Hanley. It was tiny, one upsatirs room and one downstairs. We had parachute silk which were made into curtains, and I put two straw mats either side of the bed. Some of the furniture came from Tinsley's pawn shop in Hanley. Our bed was an iron bedspread and we used two army blankets.
Our son, Barry was born in 1947 - everyone said what a beautiful baby he was with lovely blond curly hair.
My over-riding memories of the War Years are that people were eager to help each other and that we all worked together to make the best of what we had.

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