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On the morning of the start of the war I remember being at home and feeling apprehensive and even a little bit excited. There was a lot of formality on the day of the announcement.

When the war started I was at primary school. My Dad had worked at Hollins Paper Mill but was moved to ammunitions when war was started. Of those people who were conscripted, some went into the army and some went to work down in the pits. Most men went away and women took their jobs. I was 13 when the war ended.

There were bombs dropped in Darwen. I was at a party at my Aunties in the garden. A bomb dropped whilst we were in the garden. One dropped on Sunday and one dropped on Monday but there was no significant damage.

I remember going up to a farm on the moors for a chicken. We were allowed 7 pennies worth of meat for our weekly ration. Meat seemed to be a lot more expensive in those days that it does now. There was a black market for meat. I remember the women buying eggs and pickling them.

Saturday afternoons was the time that kids used to go to the pictures in Darwen and it was usually a Western. There would be a film on for half an hour and then it would be continued the week after. That’s how the pictures made money.

We played lots of games as kids. Simple stuff and quite a lot of cricket and football at Whitehall Park. I broke my leg during the war — there was some spare land near to Whitehall Park where they built some air raid shelters. In those days they were just square buildings with a grass verge. Some air raid shelters were being built on Swan Street, Darwen and there were trestles and planks across them. We were pretending to be soldiers walking along the planks but the whole lot fell and I broke my leg.

I can remember when the end of the war was announced. I was riding my bike down Bolton Road, Darwen. Lots of people were out celebrating.

Pre war I have a vague memory of the Jubilee celebrations of George V and Queen Mary. Everyone had a day’s holiday because of the Silver Jubilee. It was 1935 and there were trams up and down decorated in red, white and blue. Soon after the Jubilee George V died and was succeeded by Edward VIII, who later abdicated and then there was the Coronation of George VI.

My Dad was one of seven children and every Sunday night we used to gather at my Grandmas house. The men used to play cards in the other room and the women were nursing the babies.

We used to have warship and airship fund raising weeks where families used to get together to raise money. We would have potato pies.

An evacuee came to live with me from Manchester when I was about 9. He was alright but I had a job to tell what he was saying. We used to hang around Darwen. There were too many of us for the schools. They used to split us up so that some of us went to school in the morning and some of us would go in the afternoon. I used to catch a bus at 8.30am, school would start at 8.40am. The dinner times were staggered to fit everyone in and we finished school at 4.15pm.
There were only about 300 pupils at Darwen Vale High School, compared with 1200 today. There were 35 people per class.

I joined the army two days after VE day and came out 27 years later with not a single medal. We were keeping the peace then you see.

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