大象传媒

My childhood was dominated by the war years yet at the time I was not aware of that fact. My early memories evolved while the war was going on and to me it was part of normal life. It was only after the war that life changed back to normality and this was a long, slow process. Because to me it was not normal it was new and strange. One immediate effect was that the children evacuated to live in Tynings Lane went home. When the war started children living in what were considered to be dangerous parts of the country were moved to live with families in what were considered safe areas. Men who had been called up to fight in the forces came back with stories of all parts of the world where they had served. Some came back badly wounded, without limbs, without eyes, with severe burns and some with shell shock and some to children they had never seen or wives they barely knew.

Men and women were called up for the services except those in reserved occupations, such as bakers, coalminers, key factory and railworkers, and even those people joined the home guard or the air raid wardens. Women were employed in many jobs previously done by men and most schools were staffed by women teachers because most male teachers were called up. Many men were sent down the mines to work rather than to join the forces. As a result many men went 'missing' from society during the war and most of the men you saw were the old and retired. While most men smoked it was very rare to see a woman smoke - I do not remember any. During the war women wore very little, if any makeup.

There were very few vehicles on the roads because private cars were stored during the war - often jacked up on piles of bricks in garages because there was no petrol. There were more movements using horse and cart than vehicles. Steam driven lorries with wooden tyres were common while steam engines pulled heavier loads. Many of the cars in use had large inflatable bags on the roof full of town gas which powered them rather than using petrol for fuel. In any case cars were expensive and many people could not afford to buy one even before the war and during the war new cars were not available. Houses were not built with garages, let alone garage space, and the only garages I remember were with houses with large gardens. Because people could not use private cars the only way of getting about was to use public transport, buses and trains, walk or use a cycle. Locally the usual option was to walk and men, women and children used to walk vast distances. I cannot ever remember being driven in a car during the war and even long after it was a rare event.

All road repairs were undertaken using steam engines. Tar was sprayed on the surface of the road and men threw fine chippings over it using large shovels before a steam roller rolled the surface flat. The surplus chippings were swept up using large hand brushes and reused. Roads and lanes were, as I recall, in a better state of repair during the war than they are today. Road surfaces were regularly treated and there was neither the weight nor volume of traffic. Many roads (Paddock Lane, Quicksand Lane and Whetstone Lane to name but three) did not have curb stones and several roads in the area were still tracks - Harborough Drive was not made up for much of its length. The road sweeper was a common sight - a man with a trolley with containers for rubbish, one or more shovels and brushes, tools to lift drain covers and a scoop to empty them. He would sweep the gutters of roads and cut off and remove weeds before shovelling the rubbish into his cart. He would lift drain covers and clean the drain with a metal scoop with a long handle.

(This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Wyre Forest Volunteer Bureau on behalf of Paul Bailey and has been added to this site with his permission. Mr Bailey fully understand the site's terms and conditions.)

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