大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥� War by a volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of Margaret Parker.and has been added to the site with her permission.Margaret Parker fully understands the site.s terms and conditions

Army

My brothers were both in the Armed Forces, well they weren鈥檛 old enough. I know Eric put his age on, because he was 17 I think, when he went in the Air Force. He said he was 18. they didn鈥檛 check it no. He went in, and my brother, the other brother was a year younger. He went in, I think he went in when he was 18. So Eric was 17 when he went in, and Arthur was I don鈥檛 know, he would probably be 18 or 19,I should imagine, because it was afterwards. Eric was sent out to America to train, in the Air Force. He used to send stuff home, and I can always remember he sent me a lovely Waterman Pen & Pencil, you know, when I was little. Then my other brother, he went to Canada, he was sent out there to train, in Charlotte Town he was, and he did his training, all his training in Canada, and Eric did his America. I think they sailed out when they went out. Because Eric used to fly Beaufighters, the planes they were fighting. You would just have a pilot and a navigator, on Beaufighters, but Arthur was on the bigger planes, he was a navigator.

I can remember when the Indians were at the Racecourse, and they all had these turbans, and horses, mules, they were. They used to go down through Chepstow with their carriage to pick up the mail from the station.
Well like a truck thing behind, you know to collect them. We used to see them. I can remember going along to Prices, High Beech, when I was Larkfield. They were short of milk for the cookery you see. And walking along there, we were coming back now, coming back. I don鈥檛 know who was with me, they stopped a whole lot of them, you know, on horses. Was I the 鈥渕ilky lady鈥�? you know! We were carrying those carriers with about six bottles in.

Home Life

We had an evacuee from The Bullring, Birmingham. They arrived at the Racecourse Station, at the bottom of Garden City. I can remember them arriving, all with their gas masks boxes, you know, they had them round their necks; and a label, a luggage label on with their names. That鈥檚 all they had, they didn鈥檛 have any clothes or anything.

Because when we had Betty, I can remember my Mother going out and buying all the clothes for her, and the daps she had on, had holes in the soles, they had gone through you know! A lot of people, gave her things, Mrs Curtis, they used to live in Portwall Road. She had two daughters, and gave Mother, I can remember, a lot of clothes that they鈥檇 grown out of, and things like that. But I can remember my Mother going and buying her clothes straight away, and shoes.

Oh she was quite a character, I think she knew everybody in Chepstow, Betty Baker. She stayed with us practically the whole of the war, she was like one of the family. She was just a younger sister sort of thing, because she was only five when she came, they were very tiny you see. We never saw her Mother, but her Father used to run a bus, I think down for the Parents, about once a month or something, from Birmingham. And he used to come down to see her her Father, but we never saw her Mother. Well in fact she didn鈥檛 really want to go back I don鈥檛 think. But Mother, my Mother was thinking now she is getting into her teens, you know, it was her responsibility. So she did, but she came back and saw my Mother a couple of times, she was married, you know. But I mean, we鈥檝e lost touch with her, you know.

We used to go off walking with the dogs. Because Iris Sharvel had a dog, and there was Beryl Henderson that used to live, her Mother was the caretaker, at the Baptist Church down in below, in Church Street. They lived at the house behind. There was a crowd of us, and we used to have all these dogs, and we used to go off, and we鈥檇 go down Llancaut, or down round Mounton, or all over these places. We used to go out to Beachley, we鈥檇 have Barbecues and things out on the grass.

I can remember when a siren went, we were down at Llancaut, and there was a few of us there. Stupid you know, kids, and we went in the little church, you know the ruins down there. We sat in there, and we heard these planes going over, well I mean they could have been British for all we knew. We said well none of us had our identity discs on, and I remember Beryl Henderson had a scripture card. So she tore it up, and we all wrote our names on it, and stuck it in our shirts. Well, I mean, if we had been blown to pieces, they wouldn鈥檛 have seen this bit of card would they? We used to do some daft things. I always used to think after, what good a bit of card would have done, wouldn鈥檛 it? Oh dear, Not that we would have much shelter in the church because there was no roof!

We used to make this dried egg, and my mother used to put cheese in it and tomato, and it was quite tasty then. You used to have it in sandwiches and things like that. And you made cakes with that, because it was bright yellow wasn鈥檛 it? Really bright yellow.

I can鈥檛 remember when, you know, exactly what weddings you know were there. I think you know, and the same with food you know, if somebody was getting married, you would sort they used to do their home catering, and everybody would make something and give you know..

If you had a few eggs, you would swop for something else. I mean like, if you get a farmer kill a pig, well he would let you have a bit of meat, or something like that, sort of thing.

I had an aunt, and she lived in Lydney. Her husband, he was teaching Morse Code, in the air force in the war. I mean he was retired, but they took him back. So I used to go up in the holidays to keep her company, and she had two evacuee boys from Yardley Grammar School at Birmingham. Stanley and Geoffrey I think they were called. They had an air raid shelter, in the garden, which was dug out, you know, in the garden. And it had a pump because if there was a lot of rain, you had to keep pumping to get the water out you know! I can remember going there, and the siren going, and mu Aunt telling me to put my dressing gown on and take my coat because it would be cold. I went down in a summer dress, with one over my arm half asleep.

But these boys from Yardley Grammar School Stanley and Geoffrey I think they were called, the boys were quite good, they had a secret society, and they used to print a newspaper. Well I was there with them, so I was one of the sort of the gang, you know, sort of thing. It was quite entertaining, I used to think it was marvellous. We used to buy five cigarettes between us you know, woodbines. They used to you write about what had been happening, and they used to bring out a middle, I don鈥檛 know whether they had a printing machine or something, Because they used to print it out, it used to come out about weekly. They used to distribute it between all the lot that belonged to it, you know. They used to put puzzles in it, and all sorts of things like that. It was home made, like a comic.

We didn鈥檛 have an air raid shelter home, no. We usd to go behind the chair in the kitchen. I don鈥檛 know why it鈥檚 going do us any good. We had a big armchair, we used to go and sit behind that. But I went over to Bath, and there they had, is it the Anderson ones, like tables weren鈥檛 they? Is it Morrison ones, I don鈥檛 know, but they would. And my, they had one in their living room, and they had a mattress in it you know, when we were there. We just went to bed in there. Of course there was a lot of bombing wasn鈥檛 there in Bath Oh yes, their avenue was all right, and the next one had just gone completely.

Personal Events

I can remember he had to pick up a new plane. a Beaufighter from Bristol. And he came over, and he flew down through the Shipyard, through the cranes, and then he came and went up over the Red & White. Because before, he was an apprentice at the Red & White, when he went in the Air Force. And he went low, we were out in the garden, and he seemed to come up our garden path, you know. We knew he was going to collect this plane. Then he flew out to Ceylon with it. He had two crashes, something went wrong and they had to bale out, and they came down in the jungle. He was lucky, and his navigator broke his leg, only they were lucky, somebody found them quickly. Then he had another crash land, it finished up in the ditch. But he had to get out of that plane, and get in another and take off you know, because, but um, he enjoyed his life in the Air Force. But for a while after mind, he used to get these, he used to go at white as a ghost, and we used to think it was reaction from the crash.

Schools

Of course when we were in Larkfield, we went to the houses across the road on Newport Road. We just stayed in the room there, you know. I mean, there were no cellars or anything. But there was some of them went to.. do you know that Annie Morgan? it was where the Two Rivers Hotel was. She was an old school Headmistress, they used to go there, and she used to send them down in the cellar, with a candle! She was quite a character Annie Morgan. But I went to one, I can鈥檛 remember Price, I think her name was. He was an inspector on the buses. We used to go, they used to put us in the back room, you know, and we used to have lemonade and biscuits, when we went, you know. We never heard the all clear, so we were always late !

Birmingham, they evacuated first to Chepstow, and then later on they had the Grammar School came. But it was, you know I can remember, it was Mrs Orlidge, was the infant teacher. There was a Miss Davies took the ones, the class you went into first, she used to live at Woodcroft. Mrs Orlidge, and then there was Mrs Rees, S.P. Rees, who used to live in Welsh Street. Miss Jones, Ada Jones, she was from Lower Church Street. Miss Joliffe, Ruth Joliffe was the Headmistress, she was Headmistress when we were there. Because I can always remember if there was rows, children, and the parents come down she used to always say 鈥渟ix of one and half a dozen of the other鈥� Always sticks you know, its very true yes. They shouldn鈥檛 take sides. My Mother would never go down. It was your own fault if you got into trouble. They were exciting times.

Then we had the Girls Training Corp in the evening, and that was at Larkfield. It was Miss Seldon, and I think it was Miss Johns used to run that. It was something like the girl guides, you know, you did training, and P.T. and different things like that. I mean I don鈥檛 think we did anything really for the war effort! We wore navy skirts, and white blouses and the ties, and we had a hat, like a cap, and a tie which I think it must have had GTC on it. And we used to go on parade, you know like Armistice Day and all those sorts of things.

When I was in Larkfield, West Ham Grammar School were evacuated to Chepstow. We went to school in the morning, and they had the school for the afternoon. So we went from nine and finished about half past one. Then they went, they took over the school for the afternoon. I can remember we had, still had the same things at school. But I mean we just did the morning. But I suppose we didn鈥檛 have a break or anything, you know. You worked straight through. Then of course you finished, at half past one. Normally you would have had sort of an hour or more for lunch and two breaks. So I don鈥檛 think we lost such a lot, because of course we got homework, you know.

Well it was in the war time when we had school dinners. Because I can always remember, we had pastry with grated carrots, you know, and things like that. Then they made tarts, and they were with the elderberries, and they used to go like black buttons. Elderberries yes, they were just in the pastry in the tarts you know. We always used to think the best day was Friday because we used to have like a stew. I think everything that was left went in the stew, it would be baked beans and all sorts, in it. I really used to like the stew. In fact I ate more vegetables when I went there. I remember you had that phase when you didn鈥檛 cook them really, they were fairly firm. You used to have cabbage that used to be sliced up, and it would be like lettuce, and it used to be steamed and that sort of thing.

My gas mask I don鈥檛 think, would have been any good at all, because I had a Scottie dog, and I had it in those cases the shape of the gas mask. We came down one morning, and he鈥檇 chewed the outside to shreds, whether the gas mask was punctured, or whether he didn鈥檛 like the taste of that I don鈥檛 know. We used to have to take it everywhere! we had to take it all to school with it. I can remember when I went to the Church School, it was in a box case there. I always remember we used to always have a bar of chocolate in there, that was your rations in case you know, you were a long time in the shelter. Everytime the siren we went we used to eat the chocolate! I can remember that, it was a bar of chocolate, always had to be a bar of chocolate, for emergency rations.

Well the Headmaster at Larkfield joined up didn鈥檛 he? What was his name? I can鈥檛 remember his name now, he lived up St Lawrence Road, because he came back after the war. He was there before the war, and Mr Robinson took over, he was acting Head, when I was there during the war.

Story continued on ID No. 4087190

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