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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 born in 1924 and lived in London until I was two years old. My mother’s health was bad and so we moved to Colney to live with my grandparents, Hilda and Charles Chamberlain.

I left Little Melton school at fourteen and, soon after, it was bombed. My aunt, who lived near to the school, went to see what damage had been done and said that people appeared to be taking things from the rubble. We thought how awful that was.

After that I worked in the kitchens at Colney Hall, plucking pheasants, skinning hares and doing similar jobs. I didn’t earn very much. The family liked eating game that was high and half cooked. The blood poured out of the carcasses and the smell in the game room was powerful, so I used to tie a duster around my mouth and nose. Rationing did not affect the people at the hall much as they had the game and produce from the gardens. When a daughter of the family was married to a gentleman from Scotland, they had a ‘do’ on the lawn and sent food and drink to us in the kitchen.

We, too, were luckier than city folk as we seemed to have plenty of food. Grandfather went rabbiting and we grew our own vegetables in the garden.

My mother and granny worked at Norwich City Training College which was based off Earlham Road. They did housework.

I remember the day that Boulton and Paul’s Riverside factory was bombed. On the 9th July 1940, I was collecting wild plums with a friend, Russell Goldsmith, from fields in Hethersett Lane. Our grandmothers made wonderful jam with them. At about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, German aeroplanes flew overhead and dropped high explosives, which fell on Boulton and Paul’s Riverside works. I heard the massive explosion and saw the smoke. We were terrified and scarpered under a hedge for protection.

I hated the night time bombing. We had no shelters. When the flares dropped, everywhere was lit up, It was as bright as day, even though the shutters were closed. Grandfather was ill during the war. A bomb fell across the water (River Yare) on Earlham Road on 30th March 1941. The blast blew out the stove in grandfather’s bedroom. He was very frightened and I tried to pacify him.

For a while I worked at Macintosh’s chocolate factory. I was put out of work when it was bombed. That was frightening and I saw people running about in nightdresses on Earlham Road.

Then I found work sawing trees in Hockering Woods. We were paid by the ministry. I was young and energetic in those days and could cope with the hard work. I think that the wood was needed to build storage dumps for our bombs.

At the end of the war, I had a job cooking at Bylaugh Hall. It was a lovely old place and I remember its beautiful chandeliers. The RAF was using the hall at the time. One Sunday it snowed hard and I walked the three or four miles to work. The foreman told me off for being late. I told him that, if he was not satisfied, to give me my cards and I would walk home. Of course he didn’t and he took me into the office and made me a breakfast. A day or two after, I heard that he had got the sack, for taking cutlery and blankets.

During the war social life went on and I loved to go dancing. We would cycle to Weston and Reepham for a night out. I heard the announcement that the Germans had surrendered, on the wireless and we went to the pub in Weston Longville to celebrate with my friends.

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