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This story was submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of the author who fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was 18 years old in 1939. My boyfriend was called up in 1940 and we decided to marry in 1942 at Wymondham Methodist Church.

My dad gave me clothing coupons to get material for a wedding dress to be made and it cost 30/-. My mum saved food coupons so that we could have a small wedding reception at home for about twenty. We had a chocolate cake, as there was no white icing sugar. From Wharton’s, the butchers, we had a tongue and a joint of ham.

I worked in the Briton Brush factory during the war and all the brushes for the war were stamped with an arrow. One day, whilst walking home to Melton Road from work, a plane flew low, machine-gunning all the way. Shells were dropping all around me. It was really frightening. I stood up tight against the wall in a doorway and I could hear the sound of shells hitting the house. I got home safely but I was shaken.

We spent quite a lot of time in the shelters — singing.

I had three brothers. Frederick, the youngest, was too young to join up at the beginning of the war. However, he was killed in 1945.His name is on the war memorial.

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