大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Departmentand Josh Senior and Hayley R from Darton Community School on behalf of Mary Froggett and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I lived in Barugh Green, this was a safe place to be. I was 11 years of age when the war began and in sixth form when it ended. I had one brother. I went to school at Wakefield High School, they had cellars underneath which were the cloakrooms and we use these as air raid shelters.

When I was at my Auntie鈥檚 house, which overlooked Sheffield, I saw the bombing during the air raids. There were terrible explosions, it was very sad.

One night the sirens went and one man, Joe Fryers, wouldn鈥檛 get up and a firebomb landed on the bed. We used to go under the table and put cushions all round us as our Anderson Shelter always had water in it, my Dad was hopeless at some things. The Anderson Shelters were dug in and had earth put over them.

When the firebomb was dropped the Germans were trying to bomb the chemical works near us as the Germans had built them they knew they were there. One Saturday I was walking up the road to get some sweets and was nearly hit by the shrapnel of an unexploded bomb from that raid that decided to go off. The blast blew all the windows out of Barugh Chapel. Shrapnel went for miles!

The food was good I was issued with oranges and apples but no bananas, I was seventeen when I had a banana. We lived on healthy food.

There were dances in Bretton Village Hall and Cawthorne Park for the soldiers, sometimes in Barugh Geen School. There were Canadians and Polish amongst the soldiers. Mosley鈥檚 busses used to transport them to the dances. We played snakes and ladders, cards and snap.

Mum was not sent to work in the munitions but sent to work at our local fish and chip shop. My Father worked at the mines. There were no women working in the mines but I think some worked on the pit top in the offices and canteen.

My three Uncles were in the forces. Two in the army and one in the airforce.

I used to get very scared during the air raids.

We didn鈥檛 have a Youth Club and I lived a bit isolated but I had lots of friends. My really good friend was Enzia Stekel. She lived with the headmistress of Wakefield High School. Enzia was brought out of Austria as the Germans were invading her country.

At the end of the war there were street celebrations, I don鈥檛 remember much about them though.

My Grandma played at musical events and we used to go out to Grandmas and Grandfather played the tin whistle as well. It was the main entertainment for us.

I can remember once being at my Grandma鈥檚 as a huge convoy of soldiers were going past. Something stopped them and they were held up for ages. Grandma made everyone one of the soldiers a cup of tea. She used the last of her tea ration. Just as the convoy got rolling again someone came in with 录lb of tea!

We had social l evenings at the Chapel; we played plate spinning. The boy spins the plate and the girls have to catch it. If they do then they don鈥檛 have to kiss the boy. If they don鈥檛 then they do.

We used to get 1 shilling. It cost 9d to go to the cinema; 1d for the bus each way and the last 1d was used to get a half share in a 2d choc ice.

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