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Audrey Steele was born in 1921; she was 19 when the war broke out. Audrey still lived at home with her family in a small terraced house in Byker. She described how she felt terrible when the news of the war was broadcast. She heard this information by the wireless. The war made her feel nervous and unsafe.

Audrey claims the war does not have an affect on her life at present but still remembers the war vividly. Her first memory of the war was when she heard the news from the prime minister one Sunday afternoon. Audrey lived in Byker when the war broke out and during the war. With Audrey being a 19 year old woman at this time she was working and had little time for hobbies or leisure activities, but occasionally went dancing with friends locally when not working long shifts at Vickers.

Of course at this time rationing was put in place. At that time people had to grow vegetables for nutrition. Audrey named some of the general foods that were rationed like citrus fruits, meat, sugar and fat but she explains how she missed chocolate the most with little choice and a small rationing allowance. Audrey now thinks the food we have at present is much better than at the time of the war with more variety and no rations.

Audrey was not evacuated as she had to work and would have rather stayed at home even though Byker was a dangerous place to live with Newcastle being a key target. During air raid attacks Audrey was uncomfortable and felt terrified. She always felt anxious with the air raid sirens regularly going off, they became normality for her. This was every night or very often. During blackouts Audrey and her family made sure all the light from inside there small house was covered up with thick black curtains because if it wasn鈥檛 they would have a knock at the door from a warden. In lots of occasions Audrey was very tempted to stay warm in her bed and ignore the air raid sirens warning but never did this happen as her mother always insisted she came down to the shelter.

With Audrey only being 19 she didn鈥檛 have all the responsibilities that a women of her age with children would have as she still lived with her mother but Audrey always remembers how her mother took insurance policies and important documents along with personal items when the siren sounded. She shared an air raid shelter and said they were incredibly uncomfortable with tiny bunk beds and the damp with only a few personal items to comfort her. Audrey鈥檚 shelter or house was never hit and none of her family members were killed but regularly woke up to find her friends or neighbours houses destroyed.

Zoe Mingoia and Chloe Simmister, both Y9 students from George Stephenson High School, Killingworth, Newcastle upon Tyne.

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