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A Wartime Childhood — Recollections of John Payne — Part Two

One day the Army pitched a large bell tent on the green at the corner of Main Street and Chapel End, opposite Mrs. Brawn’s shop. The following day a huge convoy of military vehicles passed through Great Gidding, there were lorries, armoured cars, scout cars, field guns and motorcycle escorts. The soldiers who occupied the tent gave directions to the convoy as it passed through.

The owner of The Repetition Tyre Company for whom Dad worked, a Mr. Harvey was a member of the British Fascist Party. Some time after the start of the war, but I don’t know when, Dad told his boss what he thought of fascism and lost his job in so doing. After a while, probably in late 1940 Dad got a job with a rubber company in Huntingdon and Mum and Dad lived for a while with Uncle Fred and Auntie Nell, their daughter Brenda was away serving with the A.T.S.

Holt
In the early part of May 1941 Dick and I left Great Gidding, I know we were both very reluctant to leave our beloved Aunts and Uncle. We moved back to Wiltshire to number 334 The Street in the large village of Holt. Dad had a job at Nestlés in Staverton, about two miles away and we lived with ‘Uncle’ Jack, who was, I believe an uncle of Uncle Percy. Uncle Percy was the husband of Mum’s sister, Eleanor. They lived on a farm at Broughton Gifford. They had four children, Priscilla always known as Philla, Joan and the twins, Brian and Philip. We sometimes walked over there from Holt, it was I suppose about on and a half miles to two miles. The twins had Meccano so I always enjoyed but it was never the same as being at Great Gidding. I think Mum acted as Housekeeper to Uncle Jack possibly in return for the accommodation. It was, I believe, quite a pleasant house, I remember particularly that Dick and I shared a bedroom at the rear of the house and that one wall abutted the neighbouring building at that time used to garage the cars of the very large house next door. One night there was a fire in the garage and we all had to evacuate the house. Our bedroom wall was quite hot to touch!

I also remember that Uncle Jack had a large greenhouse where he spent quite a lot of the daylight hours. I was fascinated by his activities and it was there that he introduced me, then a nine year old, to the taking of snuff. Mum used to get quite cross over the brown snuff stains on my handkerchiefs.

Dick and I both attended the village school at Holt but it was a larger affair than the one at Great Gidding and I was not very happy there. I remember more of school work than at Great Gidding, particularly being introduced to the joy of fractions with their highest common factors and lowest common denominators. I was also becoming more able at reading and whilst I can picture the covers of the reading books, they were a series, I cannot remember their titles. I do however remember quite clearly having to copy out the 46th Psalm, strange that the two most memorable religious memories from school should relate to Psalms.

There occurred in Holt two events that strengthened my love of the steam locomotive. The first happened when some boys I knew said they were going to the station, that is, or rather was as it no longer exists, Holt Junction. The reason they said was because there was a bulldog at the station. At that time I thought a bulldog was a breed of dog and wondered why there was one at the station to cause so much interest. Of course, it transpired that the dog was a most elegant railway locomotive, a 4-4-0 of the ‘Bulldog’ Class engaged in shunting some of its goods train at the small goods yard. The second event was my attendance with Mum at a village or Church fair and I bought a rather dogeared copy of ‘Great Western Engines — Names and Numbers’, a paperback published by the GWR before the war. I treasured that book and although I no longer have it, I have a copy of the 1946 edition and reprint of a pre-war edition, although unfortunately not of the one I bought in Holt. From that time my knowledge of Great Western engines started to grow. I also went to Holt Junction whenever I got the chance. It was an interesting place where the line from Devizes met the Chippenham to Westbury line.

We were quite close to Trowbridge and sometimes Mum took us by bus to Trowbridge to go shopping. It was at about this time that my stamp collection started to grow as I would often be bought a packet of stamps from Woolworths. The buses serving this part of Wiltshire were operated by the Western National Omnibus Company, they were painted attractively in green with pale cream at the window panel level, they also had very neat rectangular fleet number plates. Although I didn’t then known, Western National was a large organisation operating over much of South-western England. The Great Western Railway had formerly owen the major shareholding but had been forced by Government’ transport policy in the 1930s to dispose of its holding.

Corsham
I am not sure how long we stayed at Holt, probably less than a year for in 1942 Dad got a much better job with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, he worked in their underground factory, a former stone quarry called Spring Quarry just outside Corsham. In the summer of 1942 we moved into a brand new Ministry of Supply semi-detached bungalow, number 18 Meadland Avenue. The bungalow had three bedrooms, a decent sized living room with a serving hatch to the kitchen which was fitted with an electric cooker, a bathroom and a separate W.C. There was both a front and back garden, the latter being about the size of a small allotment, there was also a brick bicycle shed, semi-detached with the neighbouring one. Dad was very industrious in the back garden growing a variety of vegetables as encouraged by the National ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign. In the spring and early summer Dad would pay Dick and I threepence for every two pound jam jars we filled with caterpillars we picked from his cabbages so we worked for our extra pocket money and also contributed to the war effort.

On Saturday mornings I would often join the queue outside Johnsons the bakers at the Corsham Court end of the High Street for bread, a large loaf was fourpence halfpenny and their delicious doughnuts. Sometimes in winter when coal was very short Dick and I would take a sack truck down to the coal merchants to try to get a sack of coal otherwise we would be in for a period of no fires at home during the cold weather. I was always fascinated by the stationers shop near the Methuen Arms, one had to go up several stone steps to the shop door and I often spent my pocket money there.

There were other ways in which we helped, during the early autumn we would go out with Mum collecting hips and haws, the former were used to make rose hip syrup which was issued by the Government as a vitamin supplement for children. What the haws were used for I don’t know, but as they are very similar to rose hips, perhaps they were also used for their syrup. We also collected blackberries for pies and jam. I think that in general my health was good although I remember one hot summer when I got a touch of sunstroke and was confined to bed in a darkened room for a few frustrating days. I also had a series of boils on the back of my neck. Mum would treat these by heating kaolin paste in its tin in very hot water then remove some of the paste from the tin to make a poultice on lint and placing it over the boil. The idea was to ‘draw out’ the core, which it did, but the hot poultice was agonising at the time.

Often on a nice Sunday afternoon the four of us would often go for a long walk, sometimes in the direction of Thickwood on the North side of the A4 and sometimes around Neston and even on to Atworth or Broughton Gifford to visit Auntie Eleanor and Uncle Percy.

On or about 23rd September Dick and I were admitted to Corsham Methuen School which was not far from the Methuen Arms on the road to Neston. This school became very overcrowded with the influx of people moving into the area for a variety of ‘War Work’ and being allocated houses or bungalows built, like ours, by the Ministry of Supply. Two memories stand out, first a plague of nits, most children including the two of us, had them and I remember the discomfort when Mum searched for them with the ‘nit comb’, a double sided comb with very fine tines, second is being in class singing ‘The Trout’ I have never liked it since!

One 3rd May 1943 a new school, ‘Corsham Regis School’ was opened with 259 pupils growing to 310 by the 9th August when I believe we broke up for the summer holidays. Dick and I were transferred there, as were most if not all of the children from the new estate, from the opening day. The new school was much nearer to our home and we all settled in quickly although strangely I have no recollections of the school. It was there however that, along with many others I sat the Scholarship Exam, this was a forerunner of the ‘Eleven Plus’. I remember that, at least some of, the questions were multiple choice. I know Mum and Dad were very pleased when, a few weeks later, the results arrived and I had passed. I would accordingly be able to go to the secondary school. There were a few pleased but more disappointed parents around that weekend, in particular the parents of twin girls, Rita and Pauline Brown of King’s Avenue who both passed, felt they could not afford the expense. At about this time I went into long trousers, abandoning for good the standard grey flannel shorts with the blue and red striped belts with snake style fasteners, we all seemed to wear to the Junior school. Mum and Dad bought me a ‘Swan’ fountain pen as a present for passing the Scholarship exam and with this together with the long trousers I felt rather grown up. We then had to go shopping for the school uniform and physical training (as it was then called) and games kit and that most essential item, a satchel in which to carry homework.

On my eleventh birthday, 9th September 1943, I started at my new school, Chippenham Secondary School at Hardenuish Park. I caught the 8.25 train from Corsham, this train comprised two autotrailers with the locomotive, an 0-4-2T Class 48xx between them. We then had a good walk from Chippenham Station to the school. The school buildings were modern, light and airy with the classrooms in wings off the main block which comprised the hall and gymnasium. In addition to this building the old Hardenuish House accommodated the Headmaster’s study, the school office and library. The whole was enclosed by extensive playing fields and a large kitchen garden. We had to go to the School Office at the beginning of term to pay our fees, I think it was about £3 per term and represented I believe about half of Dad’s weekly wage.

After the initial welcome from the Headmaster, Mr. Farrar, in the School Hall, all the new first year pupils went to their respective classes. I was placed in Form 1B and assigned to Monkton House. There were three other houses, Rowden, Lowden and another whose name I cannot remember. My House Master was Mr. Holman and the Form Mistress was Miss Knight but I cannot recall the names of the subject teachers. I also have no recollection of many of the pupils names. There was a dark haired girl named Yvonne who sat in front of me in class, whom I was to meet again in Finchley and, of course there was the boy who was to become my best mate, Roderick Sperrin, known to one and all, including his parents as ‘Spadger’.

Spadger’s parents kept Pickwick Motors, a motor repair garage and petrol station on the Bath Road (A4) at Pickwick and lived in the bungalow next door. Mr. Sperrin also ran a private hire car, an Armstrong Siddeley saloon made in about 1934. Whilst I was in Corsham, Mr. Sperrin bought another Armstrong Siddeley of the same type, it even had the registration letters and number immediately following his first car. Dick and I spent most of our leisure hours with Spadger. We played a variety of games and smoked our first illicit cigarettes. Spadger’s parents in addition to the garage were licensed to sell tobacco, it was therefore quite simple for us to raise the price of a packet of 5 Wills ‘Woodbine’ cigarettes. Spadger would pay the money in and we would take the cigarettes down to their garden shed, well away from the house, and have our first puffs. Of course the garden shed was used for many other pastimes, we made our bows and arrows there, worked out the ‘bus routes’ for our Meccano and other model buses or built our more modern weaponry for forthcoming games. We often went into the fields behind the garage and we would roam for hours pursuing Red Indians or German paratroopers. Another favourite play spot was an old three-wheeled Reliant van which was dumped at the far side of the garage, that became for us a submarine, a bomber, a tank and various other vehicles in which we could play our part defeating Nazi Germany. One day we were playing around with Spadger’s air rifle, shooting at targets we put in the field at the back of his garden, by some fluke one of the pellets hit the wire washing line and ricocheted hitting Dick in the leg. He yowled but no great harm was done.

We, of course had our comics. But they were not like today’s picture strip ones, they were then usually only for the younger children. My favourite was ‘Hotspur’, but the others ‘Champion’, ‘Wizard’, ‘Adventure’ and ‘Rover’. However, we were still not averse to reading ‘Dandy’, ‘Beano’, ‘Radio Fun’ or ‘Film Fun’, the latter two being based on Radio and Film characters respectively whilst the ‘Dandy’ and ‘Beano’ are still published today. I also avidly read books, adventure stories like ‘Biggles’ and of course, ‘Just William’ and his gang’s escapades. Most Saturday mornings we crowded with virtually every other child in Corsham into the local cinema for the children’s matinee. Unlike the cinemas in London, this cinema seemed to show the normal evening programmes with sometimes a cartoon film thrown in. It was always a noisy affair, particularly when the projectionist managed to put the film in wrong way round with the result that there was no sound, the soundtrack being on side of the film only. There were of course a lot of ‘Western’ films with stars like Roy Rogers and his horse, Trigger, the dog star ‘Lassie’ was also popular. There were a good number of British films with stars like Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc, Tommy Trinder and Will Hay. These were supplemented by American comedies with Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy.

Sport in winter at Chippenham was soccer for the first and second years, rugby for the third year with a choice in later years, it was of course cricket in the summer term.

Through travelling to school by train my interest in railways was greatly fostered. As I mentioned earlier we went to school by the 8.25 am auto train which operated between Box and Calne, sometimes however it did not arrive and we had to travel by the 9.05 am to Chippenham, this was, I believe a Bristol to Swindon stopping train invariably hauled by a Class 45xx 2-6-2T. The non-arrival of the 8.25 am meant we missed School Assembly and first period, we were not in trouble because the whole contingent from Corsham would be late. If it occurred on a Wednesday, it was, for me, heaven sent because Music was first period and we had music teacher with a shock of uncontrolled hair who was apt to ask you to stand and sing solo, and I lived in dread of being so asked. Even if the 8.25 left Corsham on time we were often held up by the signals on the approach to Chippenham, which we nicknamed ‘Cabbage Patch Halt’ as there were railway allotments alongside the line at that point.

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