大象传媒

My name is Raymond Evans, I was born at Wildfell Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham. I had a brother Dennis born in 1930 and two sisters Margaret born 1936 and Brenda born Dec 1939, so she was born after war was declared on 1st Sept 1939.

I went to Dolphin Lane School starting I think in early 1937. The first indication we had of the start of the war was when a brick air raid shelter was built in the front playground. When we had a test air raid, ringing of the bell and blowing of whistles we all filed out to our shelter. I remember a girl named Sheila I wonder if she is still with us and remembers me!

Each house had an Anderson Shelter delivered. This you had to erect in your back garden - away from the house was preferred, and covered in earth. Most of them were damp as they were sunk 2陆 to 3 ft in the ground to make them safer from the expected bombs so wooden floors were made and bunks to sleep in raised from the floor. Our father was called into the Army in 1939 so mother had us four to look after, seeing us settled in the shelter each night so that we could settle down in the light. No lights were allowed to shine outside the shelters as the Blackout was enforced.

One Saturday night in August 1940 the four of us children were upstairs dressing for the night in the shelter when mom said 鈥淕et dressed again, we are going to Auntie Alice鈥檚鈥�. Aunt Alice Mom's sister lived in Gospel Farm Road so we walked up Pool Farm Road and through the park to her house and knocked on the door. Aunty opened the door and when she saw who it was said 鈥淲hat are you doing at this time of night鈥�. "They are going to bomb my house" mom replied. We stayed with them and went in their shelter with our three cousins and aunt and uncle. The air raid sirens sounded after a while and we heard the German planes flying over (we could tell they were Germans as they made a much different sound to the English). There was a loud bang 鈥淭hat鈥檚 my house鈥� said mom. Sunday morning we left Auntie鈥檚 house and set off through the park for home, as we neared the end of Pool Farm Road and the join with Wildfell Road we could see lots of people, Police and Firemen and the road roped off. Dennis and I were in front of mom and the girls and ducked under the rope and tried to get past the crowd, a policeman stopped us and told us that we couldn鈥檛 go through, "We live there,鈥� said Dennis, 鈥淭hank goodness鈥� the policeman said 鈥渢hey are digging for you鈥� Our house had been hit by an aerial torpedo and was completely destroyed. The three other houses in the block were also damaged very badly, unfortunately four of our next door neighbours, the Princes, were killed. That was the first time that we realised what being at war meant.

Dennis and me were evacuated, though we can鈥檛 remember when we went, we agree it was to a place named Retford in Nottinghamshire. We stayed with a couple who had two sons and got on quite well, though of course we missed mom and our sisters. We found it difficult to settle at school for the first few days, but we soon settled down. There was a local playground with swings and a roundabout, the the base that they were on was gravel. I fell off the swing and grazed my knee and elbow. The lady we were staying with bathed and bandaged them for me. Unfortunately mom chose that time to come and visit us with a friend in his car, thought that I had not been looked after properly and took us home 鈥� we had only been away 10 days.

After being bombed out we were rehoused in a back to back house near the City Centre at 1 back of 23 Cardigan Street this was quite a shock, no garden just a yard that was shared by about 10 other houses, a row of toilets (no toilet rolls, just pieces of newspaper hung on a nail) and a wash house. Our house was infested with mice, it had been empty for some time before we moved in. Mom and her sister complained strongly and often and after a while we were promised that we would be getting another house. Eventually, we were given a house at 100 Gospel Lane, Acocks Green, much nicer and similar to the one we had lost in the bombing.

We often went on the 44 bus from the bottom of Olton Boulevard East along the Warwick Road to Albert Street in town to visit our grandparents. One day as we passed Golden Hillock Road we saw that a whole row of houses had been destroyed and were told that a land mine had exploded on them during the night. I think there were six to eight houses in the row.

Whilst we were living in Cardigan Street we would spend a lot of time with our Grandparents at their house at the corner of Market Street and Coleshill Street. It was a General shop selling cigarettes, sweets, bread etc. There was no indoor toilet, you had to go up the yard to where there was a row of four toilets, one for each house using that yard. Newspaper cut into squares and hanging up on a nail. It also had an outside washhouse which was shared by all four neighbours. As there was no garden they were issued with Morrison air raid shelters, they were large square dining tables made of thick steel with strong linch steel mesh sides. We had a mattress of Dunlopillow on the floor for comfort. The theory was that if the house was hit or collapsed we would be safe under the table under the table until rescued. I never heard of anyone having to use their Morrison shelter.

During this period I went to Bishop Ryders School in Gem Street with my two sisters. This had four class rooms, two buildings two storeys high with outside steel stairs. The girls鈥� playground was inbetween the classrooms and the church, the boys鈥� being on the other side of the church. When I reached 11 years old and living in Gospel Lane I went to Hartfield Crescent School and met up with a few friends from my early days at Dolphin Lane. I found that I had fallen behind them in some subjects and had to work hard to catch up. This was the first time that we realised that different schools gave more attention to some subjects than other schools, and that Dolphin Lane had been a very good school.

In a field by Richmond Road there was a Barrage Balloon site. We quite often went to see it, mostly when it was lowered meaning no air raid at that moment. We could carry on in the next field searching the stream for Newts.

As most of the men were in the forces and lots of women were working in factories, on the land and in the forces, the farmers were short of labour to pick the crops when they were ready. Our school was lucky enough to be chosen to help with the potato harvesting. A charabanc (coach now) would pick us up with our teacher Miss Boon, and away we went to a farm in the countryside but no too far away. We would be put in teams and given buckets and allocated rows of potatoes to pick after they had been turned up by the tractor. Mid morning the farmer鈥檚 wife would come to the fields on a cart pulled by the tractor with a large pot of hot cocoa for us which also gave us a rest before we carried on. if it turned out to be a rainy day we were allowed into the barn which was half full of hay 鈥� of course we had a good time climbing to the top of the hay and sliding down again. At the end of the day鈥檚 work we were picked up by the charabanc and taken back to school - we always had a sing song on the way.

Our school had quite a large playing field, a strip of it was turned into gardens. Each Class had a patch which we dug over and were taught how to plant and look after vegetables We grew potatoes, turnips, lettuce, swedes and radishes. When each crop was ready for picking they were sold to the class that had grown them, the money then bought seeds and fertiliser ready for the next season.

Most children of our age didn鈥檛 realise how much the war affected everyday life except when we wanted some sweets or cakes and found out that we had used all our coupons for that month, as so many things were rationed. Those of us whose fathers were in uniform felt it when they were sent overseas as my father was in 1943 when he went to North Africa with the 1st Army. We didn鈥檛 see him again until the end of the war in 1945.

My friends and I had another reminder when the block of 4 houses on the corner of Thornfield Road. and Gospel Lane was hit by a bomb and very badly damaged. No one was hurt luckily. This was within a few days of us moving to 100 Gospel Lane from the house In Cardigan Street. My brother tells me that Mom said 鈥淭he B*s are chasing us鈥�. After the houses had been inspected and rendered safe we used to play in them, even making holes in the walls to get from house to house. Two or three of the houses opposite had machine gun bullet holes in the bedroom level.

Football and Cricket were not played as a school sport until 1943/44 as it was difficult to get the equipment, to get a football from a sports shop you needed a permit, leather being another thing that was rationed. Permits were only given to teams in properly organised leagues. Most schools had teams in the Birmingham School competitions. We at Hartfield Crescent got to the Final of the Aston Villa Schools Cup in 1945.

Any member of that team reading this the Captain Syd Bardell and myself would like to Hear from you.

Contact: RaymondEvans3@activemail.co.uk

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This story was contributed by Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service, Solihull Libraries by kind permission of the original contributor, Raymond Evans. It was originally contributed to Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service's collection in 2005 (ref: NC Solihull Historical: Reminiscences 2005/11).

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