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This story was submitted to the People's War site by volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of Jacqueline King and has been added to the site with her permission. Jacqueline King fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Mrs Jacqueline King

WARTIME REMINISCENCES

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Father - Charles Evans was in the hairdressing business with his father before the war at 13 High Street. At the start of the war he entered the RAF Volunteer Reserve.

Mother - was secretary to the Board of Guardians based at Regent House. These cared for orphans, down and outs, old and infirm and disadvantaged people. She was secretary until war broke out, then she went to Caerwent to work for the Admiralty at the R.N. Propellant Factory.

Grandparents - were also from Chepstow, in fact there are five generations in the local churchyard. Jacqui is the last of the line on both sides. For many years her maternal grandmother - Mrs Cranmer - had a shop in Hardwick Avenue. It was pulled down in the early seventies.

Jacqui was nine years old when the war started and remembers listening to the announcement on the wireless with her parents and grandparents.

SCHOOL

Went to the Chepstow Church School in Nelson Street on the site of the present car park. It was the first school in the town to have central heating. There were five classes. The teachers were Mrs Orlidge, Miss Davis, Miss Ada Annie Jones, Mrs S.B. Rees - and Head Teacher Miss Ruth Jolliffe of whom there is a memorial in the parish church. She was the sister of the local solicitor in the High Street - C.G. Jolliffe.

SCHOOL DAYS

Every morning there would be prayers and the catechism and psalms to learn. Then arithmetic and at playtime 1/3rd pint milk was given to each child. Then English, reading and writing.

Every afternoon there would be sewing, knitting and crafts. On special days the curate would take the children out to visit local churches to study the architecture. On market days, that is every other Tuesday, the children would go home to dinner, then stop to see the animals at the market. The headteacher always had to round them up for school, with a cane - which she never used!

Playground Games - Sang wartime songs 鈥淩un Rabbit Run鈥� etc. All the usual children鈥檚 games 鈥淪ally sits a-weeping鈥�, 鈥淔armer鈥檚 in his den鈥�, 鈥淥ranges and Lemons鈥�,鈥漌hat;s the time Mr Wolf鈥�. 鈥淗opscotch鈥�, 鈥淐owboys and Indians鈥�. Skipping with rope and hoops, and 鈥淟eap-Frog鈥�.

Crafts in Junior School

Older children made socks for the war effort.

There were collection drives at school for salvage, unwanted clothes. They collected rose-hips and blackberries for competitions to be made into Vitamin C drinks for babies.

School Parties- only at Christmas and then only pop and a bun for tea. These functions were curtailed because of food rationing and the time element with the blackout.

Evacuees came to Chepstow in two waves. The first wave came from Birmingham and the second wave from East Ham. They were welcomed by the local children and they mixed well. They had to have part-time school to accommodate the evacuees.

Bombing Drill - The schoolchildren were all issued with gas masks. For their bombing drill they had to walk up Nelson Street to the bottom of the High Street to the basement of a building used as an air-raid shelter. Not a pleasnt experience as it was full of dust and creepy-crawlies!

In 1941 Jacqui went to Chepstow Grammar School - Larkfield. She left at 18 for further education at St. Mary鈥檚 College, Cheltenham.

School Clothing - All clothing was a problem with few clothing coupons and fast growing children. At Larkfield they had to have uniform and so their coupons were saved for this (1 - Tunic, 2 - Blouses, 1 - Blazer, 1 - Tie, and 2 - Knickers for P.E.).

HOME LIFE

Food was very short - remembers always feeling hungry. Supplemented food rations with eggs from local farmers and fish caught in the river. If you knew any farmers you were lucky because of the blackmarket trade. Arthur James was on the food committee and the Food Office was in Beaufort Square for the management of ration books. They kept chickens at home for food, but they attracted the rats, so rat catchers were employed, with great excitement. Grew their own greens in the back garden. People were good at sharing their food.

People wo could sew and make clothes were very popular as they could add false hems and re-use materials to help clothe growing children.

Bombs and Air-Raids and Wardens

There was no air-raid shelter at home, they used the cupboard under the stairs. Remembers the bombing of Bristol and seeing the sky lit up with the fires. Also when the bomb dropped in Ditch Woods(back of the Castle)on a Friday all the china fell off the dresser in Hardwick Avenue. The ARP Wardens always seemed to be irritable and cross, always shouting 鈥減ut that light out!鈥�. Windows were festooned with sticky-tape crosses and also blacked-out, for which there was an allocation of material. Large buildings didn鈥檛 hold events or services after dark as they were unable to black-out. Most people stayed indoors after dark as it was too difficult to get about in the dark and with little transport available.

Evacuees

Victor stayed at Jacqui鈥檚 for the duration until his parents moved here from London. His father worked in Fairfield鈥檚. The evacuees mixed well - most returned, but some stayed after the war.

Holidays were spent with grandmother鈥檚 relatives in Cornwall on the farm. Travelled down on her own by train. After being ill with Diphtheria in the Isolation Hospital on the Usk Road, she recuperated in Cornwall for 6 months.

Weekends were spent doing jobs for parents - gardening, shopping, etc. Any spare time was spent down by the river at Beaufort Quarry. They would slide into the river on the mud and cook pinched potatoes on a bonfire in St. Peter鈥檚 Cave nearby. Another popular game was pitching stones into the railway wagons - below the railway cuttings in the cliffs.

Local Farms would pay children pocket money to harvest potatoes. They would be collected by lorry from Albion Square.

Home Entertainment - Only remembers listening to the wireless. The news bulletins were listened to in silence to catch all the latest information. Regularly listened to I.T.M.A., Workers鈥� Playtime and 鈥楾he Man in Black鈥�.

THE TOWN

Voluntary Organisations - Knew many neighbours in these organisations but no family members. LDV鈥檚 were called Look, Duck and Vanish! By the children. Neighbours in The Home Guard. In the WRVS - Mrs Ballinger and Dr. Horan鈥檚 wife. Fire Station was in Lower Church Street; most firemen lived in lower Chepstow. ARP鈥檚 operated form Regent House or the Police Station.

Shops - 7 Grocer Shops(3 High Street, 1 Beaufort Square, 2 St. Mary Street, 1 Lower Church Street). The Co-op was in St. Mary Street with a bakery and a bank upstairs , it backed onto Nelson Street.

Clothes Shops - a shortage of clothes to buy but there were shops - Bon Marche in the High Street, Herbert Lewis and the Co-op.

Hardwear Shops - Walkers in Beaufort Square and Proctors in the High Street.

3 Hairdressers who dealt with men and women clients - Mr. Mundy, High Street, Sam Seagers,White Lion Square, Vick Harris, St. Mary Street.

Entertainment

Only 1 cinema - The Gaumont in Beaufort Square(the other closed at the start of the war). Margaret Lockwood, the film star, opened The Gaumont with her film 鈥楾he Wicked Lady鈥�. Programmes changed twice a week. Children鈥檚 films every Saturday morning. Other functions, which were very few, were held in The Public Hall and The Drill Hall.

Restaurants and Canteens

Remembers The British Restaurant at the bottom of School Hill, but did not eat out.

Troops

British and American troops were stationed all around, some at The Racecourse and some at Cop Hill Farm, Itton Road. The London and Scottish Regiments paraded through the town in their kilts. The black American troops made a big impact on the locals who were not used to coloured soldiers. Throughout the war there was a constant stream of soldiers, and many accidents happened on Hardwick Hill with the large vehicles and tanks trying to negotiate the bends in the roads. The Americans were popular for they always had goodies for the children.

There was rivalry between The Beachley boys and the local boys.

Prisoners of War

Would talk to the Italian prisoners through the wire at the hospital/camp. They would give wooden toys to the children which they had made. Later in the war they would do gardening and work on the local farms. You could often see them walking about town in their uniforms.

Displaced Persons

Worked on the local farms. Knew of two local girls who they later married. Misses Cullinane asnd Waters.

Defences - Knew there were some at Cop Hill.

WORK

Shipyard Workers - were responsible for invasion barges for Dunkirk. Hush-hush work and long hours. There were welders, rivetters, carpenters, platers who worked shift-work. So the work carried on all night. The locals would somehow get to hear of the launch of one of these barges and would go to the river to watch.

Dendix - employed mostly women, because most of the able-bodied men available went to war. George Cavill was the design engineer.

EVENTS

There were drives held in the halls to get people to save more for the war effort. 鈥楤uy National Savings Stamps鈥�, also publicity for 鈥楽alute the Soldiers鈥�.

Very few events held, none in the evenings because of the black-out. Doesn鈥檛 remember any birthday parties and Christmas was celebrated very quietly and sparsely.

The only celebraties remembered who visited the town were Margaret Lockwood - the film star - and Anthony Eden - the politician.

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