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A brick built communal shelter had been erected opposite our house-we used it for a time, but not for long as we moved to a shelter which had been built in the back garden of Chantry House in the Newarke, there was a nightly trail of neighbours going across with pillows, blankets, eiderdowns, thermos flasks etc. into the smell I will never forget — fusty / new bricks/ cement/ damp. We were in that shelter when a bomb dropped in the front garden of the house, I remember the heavy blast curtain at the shelter entrance being blown inwards and being thrown on to the floor myself and mother throwing herself on top of a pram with a baby in it.
I think it was some time around then that I had a cold and desperately wanted an orange, but of course, there wasn’t a hope of getting one.
After Chantry House we were allowed to go into the cellars of Leicester Castle, which had been fitted with bunks, they smelled even more damp ( I used to think they were dungeons). There was a small door which emerged at the bottom of the castle mound and I remember my Father taking me to that open door, pointing out the glow in the sky and saying ‘that’s Coventry burning.

‘This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Irene Frith and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.’

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