大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Durham Clayport Library on behalf of Marjorie and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

I was a little girl of 5 years when war was declared. I remember clearly the sound of the air raid siren and the all clear. At the village school in Evenwood we had an air raid shelter which was very dark with wooden slatted seats. The glass in the school windows was covered with mesh like paper which was glued on and which was dreadful to remove after the war. That task was allotted to the top class girls, of which I was one!
Blackout curtains were at the windows to stop light shining out into the street. Air raid wardens were on patrol to check on lights.
My father, Mr. Ronald Cree, was employed in the Coke Works and was not enlisted for the war but was in the Home Guard. His sister, my Aunt, who lived in London was in the A.T.S. (Women鈥檚 Auxiliary Training Service) and of course experienced lots of bombing in London.
I recall hiding under the stairs at home during an air raid. We, like lots of other people didn鈥檛 have an air raid shelter in the garden. A bomb was dropped at the Sun Inn, just a mile along the road from Evenwood Gate. There was a huge crater in a field and lots of local people walked there to view this in the days following. Incendiaries were dropped at Ramshaw and the boys out playing in the summer evening jumped into the River Gaunless to escape from them, my husband Denis being one of them.
A cousin of mine from Cockfield, Connie Heaviside, was employed at Aycliffe Munitions factory.
I remember rationing for food and clothes, sweet coupons, bread units, and oranges being for young children only. Concentrated orange juice for babies was distributed by the Ministry of Food.
Mr Arnison the owner of Evenwood Village Fish Shop used to cycle to the Railway Station at Ramshaw and push the bike uphill back to his shop with a box of fish strapped to it. Villagers seeing him would know he had fish to fry that evening. People would form a queue in readiness to purchase fish and chips, possibly 2-3 hours before opening time! Denis, my husband, would queue when he got home from school in Bishop Auckland and then his step-sister Janet (Walker) would take his place when she arrived home from work.
Gas masks in cardboard boxes were supplied at the Institute, the distribution point in the village. You could buy a leatherette case and this was hung by a strap around your neck every time you went out. It stayed by your desk at school. Younger children got Mickey Mouse gas masks.
I remember rose hips were collected at school for Rose Hip Syrup, fresh eggs were kept in Waterglass / Izing glass, butter was made from the top of the milk to eke out rations and my father kept a pig and some chickens.

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