大象传媒

Estelle Moira Ingram (Moira) worked in Manchester during the early war years. She later served in the fire service as a firewoman in Nantwich, serving from December 1941 until April 1945, when she was unable to continue.

During her time in Manchester, Moira often wrote to her Mother in Nantwich. The following is one of the letters she wrote:

"October 4th, 1940

Dear Mother,

I have received the flowers etc. tonight, and they have kept surprisingly well. It is lovely to get them too, it reminds me of home. The mushrooms also have not been badly crushed, and I am looking forward to eating them. I was longing for some one day this week, but they are 11d per quarter here and I couldn鈥檛 see paying so much for them.

You have certainly been having it hot with Uncle Adolf. So have we! Last night we had a peaceful night with no warnings, but the night before I got the scare of my life. I was in bed when the sirens went, and feeling tired, I decided to stay put. However, about five minutes later there was a terrific banging and crashing and whizzing, about 10 bombs dropping. Well, the bed shook and the ornaments jumped, but I, being unusually brave stayed put, thinking he had finished.

About three minutes afterwards, however, he sent another stick of bombs down, and one of them was a screaming bomb. These fell very close, in fact I closed my eyes and waited for the house to fall, but nothing happened. Mr Powell ran upstairs and shouted to me to get up and go downstairs. There was no need for him to tell me, I was half dressed by that time, although my knees were knocking and my legs wouldn鈥檛 hold me up.

When I arrived downstairs I found that beds had been made up down there and we retired in comparative safety, the Air Raid Shelter being three inches deep in water. (We could have gone in but it means that we have to carry crowds of cushions and things in to make it comfortable, and we can鈥檛 leave them in with it being so wet). Then, about ten minutes, after he dropped nine - one after the other, but this time further away, and later still, in fact most of the night he was dropping them, but not near enough for us to get windy.

Eventually we went to sleep and were awakened the following morning at 7.15 by the sirens again. Evidently he had come to view the damage. Anyway, he did not hit any military objectives, but he dropped one incendiary at the top of Heywood Road, just on Bury Old Road, one explosive near Taunton Grove, and one delayed action in a road by the Mayfair. All the houses have been evacuated, and the people are being housed in the shelter under the Mayfair Cinema. He started a huge fire in Salford, but it was only a jam factory. It took some getting under, but they managed to keep it from spreading. The Ardwick Hippodrome was hit, but I believe the actors gave an impromptu sketch and all the audience stayed where they were. The bomb was an incendiary but it fell back stage and was got out by the company. Probably you read about it in the papers. The chorus girls helped to put out the fire. One of the men who works at our place and who lives in Prestwick had his windows all blown out. The nearest one to us was the one at the top of Heywood Road, which is a matter of three or four hundred yards away. I wouldn鈥檛 like them to be any nearer, my goodness. I was still trembling when I arrived at work the following morning.

During the raid which I told you about in my letter of Tuesday last, the nearest bombs fell on Bury New Road, not 100 yards from where Mr Dowell went flat on his tummy. No wonder he felt as though it was coming straight for him. One or two houses were demolished, but there were no casualties. Also a car was blown out of a garage and into the next door neighbour鈥檚 bedroom. 鈥淐ars from Heaven鈥�!! No one was hurt, all being in their shelters. I never heard what the big fire was, but it was somewhere near the Pilsworth Aerodrome. Anyway, I think we have just had a taste of what other people have been experiencing for months. We have really been very lucky up to now.

I have had a letter from Trevor today and he seems to be still hanging on waiting to be sent over to England. I don鈥檛 know where he will be sent to, or when. All we can do is to wait and see. I hope it is not too long to wait, but he seems to think it will be sometime during next week. I shall be glad when he is back, and I hope we shall see him in the near future.

I had a nice letter from Doug today too, but he says 鈥測ou explained about the cake which I baked, and sent another in its place.鈥� What happened to the one I did? Wasn鈥檛 it a success?

Trevor was very pleased with his parcel, particularly as you sent him fruit, something which noone else had thought of. He wrote and told his Mother about it, and he has mentioned it in two letters to me.

Well, it is now 9.15 pm and up to now we have had no sirens. I hope he doesn鈥檛 come tonight.

Your loving daughter,

Moira

p.s 鈥� Let me know about my coat material as early as possible will you please Mother. Prices are rising rapidly, and the purchase tax will be or soon. I will look out for a dress for you xxxx"

This story was collected by Ruth Haycocks and submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh, both of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Moira Ingram and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Ingram fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Moira's stories:

• Letter home, September 18th, 1940
• Letter home, October 1st, 1940
• National Fire Service promotional letter
• National Fire Service discharge letter
• National Fire Service Certificate of Service

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.