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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Ruth Miles, and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

A METHODIST LOCAL PREACHER'S EXPERIENCE OF SHEFFIELD'S BLITZ
By
Ruth Miles

My father, Mr. Harold Hudson, was a Methodist Local Preacher during the war. We lived in the little village of Brierley, near Barnsley. One Sunday, Dad was planned to preach at the Methodist Chapel in Platts Common, which is only a few miles from Sheffield but was in the Barnsley East Circuit. Being wartime, there was no petrol for private cars and so Dad had to catch a bus into Barnsley and then one to Platts Common.

The service had not been going very long when the air raid siren went. Dad asked if anyone wanted to leave and one woman said that she would have to go as she had left her son on his own. The rest of the congregation stayed and the service continued. All the lights were put out except the one over the pulpit.

The sermon had begun when the local air raid warden came and, just like Mr. Hodges in 'Dad's Army', he shouted, "Put that light out!" Dad finished his sermon and the rest of the service in the dark. When he left the chapel, the bombs were falling on Sheffield and so all the buses had been cancelled.

Dad walked the fourteen or so miles from Platts Common back to Brierley, completing the last 4 miles with his shoes in his hand because his feet were so blistered.

He was exhausted when he got home, but all he could say was,"Oh! Those poor souls in Sheffield. God be with them."

My father died 10 years ago at the good age of 93, but he never forgot the Sheffield blitz and his walk home - in the black-out.

Pr-BR

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