大象传媒

Growing up in wartime Colmworth, Bedfordshire Part Three 鈥� A schoolboy鈥檚 memories of entertainments laid on by the Italian POWs. Celebrating VE Day.

Part three of an oral history interview with Mr. John Hughes conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淎nother thing about wartime when we were kids at school - we used to have our parties laid on for us by the Forces and down at Duck鈥檚 Cross Camp, that鈥檚 Channel鈥檚 End, Colmworth, just as you go out towards Wilden, on the corner there. Channel鈥檚 End at Colmworth they used to have a Prisoner of War camp and they were mainly Italian Prisoners of War. And every Christmas they used to come up to the school and pick us up in this canvas topped lorry, we used to scramble in the back and they used to take us down for a Christmas party that they used to lay on for us, the Italians. I know we used to have the odd magician but I think that would be done when we used to go to the Prisoner of War camp. They used to put something on down there whether it was one of the Italians themselves I don鈥檛 know. I can remember they used to make rings out of whatever, perspex, aeroplane glass and they鈥檇 make slippers as well and we all get a present or two to bring home and we thought that was great. When we got home we鈥檇 put them out on the floor and looked at them and thought 鈥榳ow鈥� what they鈥檇 did for us and we鈥檇 had a nice meal as well.

The Italians used to work on the land. They used to take them out in lorries to work on farms all around. Most of them were nice chaps but one or two. Because working on the land myself, although I know I was only a kid at the time but I used to come into contact with them when they had their meals and that because nearly always one of them used to have to be the cook for the gang. And when we got home from school or whatever if we were off school we used to go and talk to them in a way. Never used to have any fear really of them although there were incidents at different times when they used to try and get away and different things. They were out in the open and there was only one guard looking after you, but where did they go?

Also I can only ever remember going to one party or concert this was at Little Staughton, in the first hangar up there. I think we had to walk there that night to that concert. It snowed, we were only little kids at that time, the whole family went but I know we had to walk up there and walk back. Come back in the pitch black and the snow and it seemed a hell of a way away but it wasn鈥檛 really but they were the only types of entertainment we had really. There were no televisions then, we used to make our own games at home.

We went on the bus to Bedford, yes, shopping that was. I went Christmas shopping - one day out of the year really was going to Bedford and that was an event in itself. The bus used to come all round - it used to go from Bedford to St.Neots through the villages. You could either go to St.Neots or take the one back and go to Bedford. Otherwise we were in the village and that was about it. I can remember we never even had a radio for a start because when I first went to school someone was down the school and the kids were talking about this programme on the radio and I thought, 鈥極h, I wish we鈥檇 got a radio鈥�. Of course we didn鈥檛 have a newspaper either for a long time but then gradually we got these things. We then used to have a radio with an accumulator, what they called an accumulator what had to be charged up every fortnight. There used to be a chap, George Ayres from down St.Neots or Eaton Socon he used to come in his old Morris van. I can see it now, every fortnight and he鈥檇 take your old accumulators away for charging and bring you a new one, you had to pay for it of course. I don鈥檛 know what it was. I don鈥檛 suppose it was all that much, they were crackling old things anyway those radios.

We always used to go to Sunday School definitely, yes and get our stamps. At Sunday School you used to have stamps that tell you how many attendances you had done in the year and we perhaps got a little book, I think that鈥檚 what it was.

And Glenn Miller and all that you know. I wasn鈥檛 old enough to appreciate that sort of thing then. We knew that he went missing but that was all. I suppose the teacher had told us that perhaps, I don鈥檛 know. Oh, we did know who he was - he was big - even to us kids. He was the big band leader, big American band leader because the Americans were rather brash and I mean they used to pride themselves quite well, different to what we did you know, or still do come to that.

I know there were big celebrations when the war ended. I think they had a party in the village, you know tables out and one thing and another. There wasn鈥檛 a village hall then. Anything we had then was in the little school, which as I said before wasn鈥檛 very big because we are only a small village. But anything that happened was held there then. I suppose this would be in the wartime, they used to have odd dances in the old school. And of course floorboards then, I remember when people used to get up and dance and they鈥檇 bounce on these and dust would come up through the floor, it was that old and that type of thing. There wasn鈥檛 many modern facilities then!鈥�

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