大象传媒

I remember vividly one night being awoken by a very loud noise and being told by my mother that we must leave quickly, I dressed and came down stairs to find the front of our terraced house sticking out in the street, literally standing alone. Apparently a bomb had exploded in the playing field of the Barnfield Private school and the blast had forced the front of the house out. The ARP warden Mr Inch came to check that we were OK and to know if there was somewhere we could go. My mother made the decision to go to her elder sister Ellen who ran the rather large and impressive Hotel in Queen St, The Queens Head, so we started to walk, and I can still remember the fire hoses strung across Sidwell St and High St as we walked through the rubble. We stayed in the annex of the Queens Head for a few days until my father came home to collect us and take us to Gloucester to stay with him. On our return to Exeter almost a year later, the house was repaired (sort of)and we remained there for the remainder of the war. I still have the tail of a German Incendiary bomb that fell in our back yard during that time. I still have some of our ration books from 1941 through 1954.

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