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All houses had to lose all their iron railings and gates from their gardens. We were short of metal to make planes and shells. It was in aid of the war effort. I can remember my mother getting her friend to come and lift the great big heavy gate from our garden in Ladysmith Road and put it under the stairs.

The railings we had were taken and never put back. But the gate was put back eventually, after the war. Everyone lost all their lovely railings. And our garden at the back, which had beautiful plants in it, was dug up to make way for an Anderson shelter made from corrugated iron. It was arched like a dome shape and planted very deep down into the garden. After that, you could put wood flooring down, a mattress, and seats, whatever you could. And in our’s, my boyfriend at the time, put down groundsheets in order take away people’s perspiration. With everyone breathing, it used to get leaking wet, so he did it to save people from getting affected by the damp.

I remember my mother putting a big mattress in the shelter because we never had any wood, and she put something waterproof beneath it too. We also managed to get some chairs in there too. You couldn’t have any lights on in the shelter, because even though the ‘doors’ might block it out, it wouldn’t be safe to do so because of the air.

There was no real door as such, just what I’d describe, as a square, for an opening and we would leave that open and then you would leave a box or steps or something to get in and out.

The Service shelters were different, long and oblong in shape, similar to a wardrobe. And you would go in there to shelter from shrapnel mainly, should you be caught out in the street. Some of the shelters were underneath and one shelter had a direct hit and killed all the people . That was at the back of Tavistock Road. It was just filled in and covered over and that was that. There are trees growing there now.

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