大象传媒

There were two prisoner of war camps, one was just through the Westwood gates as you go to Walkington, but the big camp was where the agricultural college is at Bishop Burton.

The Italians went out to work on the land, then Italy surrendered and they were more or less dispersed on to farms and into factories.

Then the German prisoners of war came, and we used to go up to Bishop Burton college, or Bishop Burton Hall as it then was, the headquarters. In the grounds where the college is now were Nissen huts with prisoners in them. They used to go and work on the land, and various other places 鈥� woodyards and things like that and you used to see them going out under escort with maybe two soldiers with them. Then the war finished and so they relaxed the conditions for the German prisoners of war and some of them even married Beverley girls. There鈥檚 three or four stopped here all their life.

At the end of 鈥� 44, 鈥�45, that was the time when the V-bombers, the doodlebugs were coming over. We were too far out of the range of them but they did launch a few doodlebugs from aircraft, and they did fly over here. I think one of them dropped at Willerby but most of them went over, and this particular night, it was a real moonlight night, we were stood outside the ARP post at the top of Grovehill Road and one chap said 鈥渂y, that motorbike鈥檚 making a big noise鈥� and all of a sudden this thing come across the sky. You couldn鈥檛 really see it, but you could see the exhaust, and we realised it was a doodlebug and for three or four nights after that there was these doodlebugs.

My eldest brother had been stationed in Scotland and had married a Scottish girl when he came home on leave, and we went up to Scotland for the wedding. I can remember going on a night train from York, absolutely crowded 鈥� no luxuries, and we went up to Paisley for three days and while we were there we went to a cinema. Suddenly the lights went on in the cinema and the manager came out and said that they鈥檇 finished hostilities in Italy and that was maybe three or four days before they finished fighting in Germany. By the time VE day came we were back home and I can remember going to work and they declared a public holiday. We cleared all the telegrams and had the rest of the day off and at night there was dancing in the market place.

You weren鈥檛 allowed to wear uniform off-duty, so most of the postmen used to have a gabardine mac in their locker and if they were going into a pub after they鈥檇 finished work they鈥檇 put this coat on. Us boy messengers, if we didn鈥檛 finish while nine o鈥檆lock and the last show at the Regal or Picture Playhouse or Marble Arch used to start about quarter past, half past eight so I used to say to my friends, save us a seat, and I used to take my uniform jacket off, put it in my locker, put a mac on (you didn鈥檛 have so many clothes as we do now and there was rationing), and go to the pictures late.

I was on early turn at work around September 1945,and one of the postmen who had been down to the station came back and said, 鈥渂y, you want to see 鈥榚m down at the station this morning. I don鈥檛 know who they are but they are queer looking chaps鈥� I had to go down that way and I can remember in Beverley railway station all those sidings were full of trains, and the station square was absolutely full with a column of men marching.

They were Ukrainians who had been captured and there was a lot of controversy about them. They brought them to Beverley and there was a big, hutted camp in the woods approaching the village of Leven, which had been vacated by our troops when they went to Normandy, and that鈥檚 where they were bringing them.

I set off on my bike and I rode off from the station. The head of the column was where Swinemoor roundabout is now and they were still coming out of Beverley station. They had big long overcoats on and they had a bandolier blanket round them and various other bits of kit and they all had Cossak fur hats on. They were huge men and a lot of them had mandolins (I think) and they were playing them as they were marching, and they had armed guards with them.

They eventually went after maybe a month or 6 weeks, and there was a big march back to Beverley, and they took them to Liverpool, put them on a ship and took them to Canada. These were the ones, among others, that Stalin wanted repatriated and would have massacred them because I think they had been fighting for the Germans in the Russian brigade.

During the blackout, my father was handy with wood and he made a wooden frame which he put on the outside, they had felt and clips on. We never used the front room, the Sunday room was very rarely used anyway, and when the blackout was on we just didn鈥檛 use it. On a night we had big thick curtains and you didn鈥檛 put big lights on a lot of the time.

I saw them knock all the iron railings down and of course they never used them. They went down the streets smashing all the railings 鈥� Grovehill Road, Westwood Road and all these old streets, Grayburn Lane, St Mary鈥檚, Wood Lane, they all had ornate iron railings and they just knocked them all off. It was found to be too impure to be used. They never knocked the railings down on the Minster of course!

You had things like Wings for Victory Week, when they had big campaigns to raise money to buy Spitfires or to pay for a ship or things like that and they had a lot of parades on Sunday morning down to the Minster. All the troops used to have to go to service and you鈥檇 see a little detachment break off and they were the Roman Catholics.

You had the Regal ballroom, Hodgson鈥檚 in Priory Road, Masonic Hall, Constitution Hall, and they had regular dances. When I was a telegram boy one time beer supplies got rather desperate and landlords would only let the regulars in. You鈥檇 see a queue outside a pub, and he鈥檇 had his beer allocation for the week, so the regulars were all there trying to get their beer.

In the morning you used to see queues outside the pork butchers because there was various offal things that were not so much on ration. There was one next to the Cross Keys, called Greethams, one in Norwood, there was the Spotted Cow, one down Beckside. All the little streets had their own general provision merchants, like even Keldgate or Lairgate. It was quite different to what it is now.

My mother always used to complain about the cuts of meat and of course you didn鈥檛 have lamb in those days, you only had mutton (we used to call it 鈥榡umpdyke鈥�). My parents were great providers and we made do but we were maybe lucky. Things like 鈥� my mother could make the most wonderful egg and bacon pie. It was never a problem because my Dad would be cutting bacon all day for rations and all the little bits he put to one side.

In April/May 1945 the British prisoners of war started coming home, and they sent a telegram to say they were safe 鈥� I think it said they had landed back in the UK and would be home shortly, something like that, a standard text. We used to know about them 鈥� the girls used to say 鈥榠t鈥檚 a PoW one鈥�, but the mothers and wives used to get a bit hysterical about it. You鈥檇 be going down the street and someone would say 鈥榯here鈥檚 a telegram boy鈥� and in the war telegram boys were either bringing good news or bad news. That was the other side of the job. Again, the telegraphists used to say 鈥榳atch that one鈥� and it would be to announce he鈥檇 been killed in action, which was a bit traumatic. We were drilled to try and see if there was somebody in next door before we delivered it, we had some quite nasty scenes.

My mother made her own bread on a Thursday for a week, and wrapped it in linen cloth. She had an earthenware bowl and she used to make breadcakes, fruit loaves. There wasn鈥檛 the confectionery in shops, only basics.

As telegram boys we got a ration of drinking chocolate. It wasn鈥檛 very good 鈥� like cocoa mixed with dried milk. It was like dried egg powder and came from the States. But there again beggars can鈥檛 be choosers and we thought it was wonderful.

The first one who went to Dr Holdroyd鈥檚 in a morning always got sixpence. You went round to Mrs Noddle鈥檚 in Norwood which was near where the music shop is now. She had the most wonderful pastry shop. Her apple pies and bramble pies were out of this world. We used to go back and share them with the other boys. Woe betide you if you got the sixpence from Dr Holdroyd鈥檚 on the first run and didn鈥檛 go to Mrs Noddle鈥檚 after. That was the done thing.

When we were going by where they were harvesting potatoes you could always scrounge a few potatoes. People kept chickens, rabbits, and of course everybody ate wild rabbit and hares 鈥� it was a very basic food, like chicken is now.

Mothers were always very clever at knowing how to fill us. They hadn鈥檛 a lot but they made do. If they got the chance of some offal, liver or kidneys, they could make up all sorts of dishes, and they were very good at making pastry, putting a few currants in and spreading it. My mother always had in her side oven an earthenware dish with bones in. She used to simmer it and it was the stock for everything.

People don鈥檛 realise this but rationing of coal and things were worse in 鈥�46 to 鈥�49 than ever they were during the war. Things got very bad after the war.

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