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I was born in 1936. I recall the corner shop, they rarely had chocolate, but when they did get it they kept it under the counter. The chocolate was only given out to special customers. I remember the sweet coupons. On the land at the rear of our house there was a place called Heaps Court —which had tiny back to back houses, I did odd jobs for an elderly couple that lived there — best of all I was paid in sweet coupons! There were several cinemas in the town, also lots of cotton mills. My Brother used to go to the Saturday matinee. My brother used to let me go along with him and his friends as I made sweets. The ingredients cocoa, dried milk, nestle milk and shredded wheat. I made a pulp and rolled it in cocoa.

In the early war years when we were sleeping upstairs, we had to rush down into the cellar when the siren sounded. My brother and I were allowed to take one toy each, I always took my doll — Stella and my brother took a very special game called Buccaneer.I remember one Christmas, the Manchester blitz was happening, by this time we were actually sleeping in the cellar, we had a bed downstairs. I remember this because I had to go upstairs to see what Father Christmas had brought me, rather than going downstairs! My mother had collected a large cardboard box full of family photographs and the occasional comic or two and we spend early evenings going through the box, talking about the people. There was always something new. We also had an open range.

I remember unpacking my pillowcase, getting a stencil case. I examined the present and realised it was second hand — felt ashamed. Remember getting a dutch doll, removed her cap, only to find she was bald underneath her hat. I then cut her plats off and Mum made new hair from yellow wool. Father worked at the wagonworks. We thought that secret work was going on in the town. Lots of workers came and went. Father couldn’t go to war, he was classed as A3. He was very upset, I believe he felt ashamed. During the war, we were obliged to have two lodgers. One was called Ted Parish from Poole - he was middleaged. He was wonderful, he used to mend my dolls. The other was about 20 years old, his name was Ernie Rice from London — he was very handsome. I thought he would wait for me and get married. I remember them getting me a papermache panda, with a ring underneath which stored sweets. And also a pack of glitter wax, in strips, with gold. You could warm it up with your hands and mould it into models. I recall having a recurring nightmare when living in the cellar, this was associated with a poster of German soldiers goosestepping. I associated this with the soldiers goosestepping over Dante Street coming to get me. At school I was given a Mickey Mouse gas mask and we had to practice daily using our gas masks and walking (not running) in line out of school across the road and into the Vicarage garden where an air raid shelter had been built for us.

Dukinfield — was a very caring community, looking back I realise how people had supported each other during these years and in spite of the war years our childhood had been full and amazingly we felt safe. To bring the community further together and rejoice after the war the first Christmas following the war we staged a pantomine in the St.Marks Church school, involving many many people in the area. The pantomime was Babes in the Wood, and I was a babe.

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