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This story has been contributed to the People's War by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning Centre, Gloucester, on behalf of Marjorie Barnfield with her permission.

I was 19 when war broke out and being a young housewife with two little ones, living out in the Cotswold countryside during wartime was quite a challenge. Ingenuity and resourcefulness helped. One grew up learning to ‘make ends meet’ but ration books with their meagre allowance of foodstuff, the points system and clothing allowance coupons all needed supplementing with whatever came to hand.

My father was a carpenter and undertaker and when Victor, who came from Cranham, and I married we first lived in Camp was Victor worked for Mr Simmonds who had a pheasant farm. Soon after war was declared we moved to the Murrays of Lodge Farm. Farming was a reserved occupation as our country needed food, but Victor joined the Home Guard unit and did his stint of duty after a heavy working day.

As the war progressed, our nights were often long, disturbed ones of anti-aircraft gunfire when raiders flew overhead towards the Midlands cities. In daytime we were aware of a possible raid as the barrage balloons, silver grey plump shapes, went up around Brockworth where the Gloster Aircraft Factory was based.

Our new baby daughter had one of those strange, cocoon-like gas masks with a Perspex window over her face, while we had the regulation black metal and rubber things with head straps and a snout-like filter on the front. When one breathed out, the used air appeared to escape where the rubber came round the face, making a rude noise!

Victor had the regulation services gas mask carried in a canvas bag as part of his equipment. The Home Guard post was sited at Bidfield.

All babies and young children had a special allowance of cod liver oil and a bottle of orange juice — the latter was later substituted by rose hip syrup. We went out collecting rose hips in the autumn. Farm workers had an extra ration of cheese. We had a young man from Kent billeted with us who also worked on the farm and he got an allowance too.

We registered for most of our rations at Brown’s, the Sheepscombe village shop. We had a big pram for the little ones which also served as our shopping trolley, for we would walk to Painswick along the lanes to obtain our meat ration from Mason’s the butcher. He would also deliver to our door. There was also a Mr Cooke who sold groceries and, at one time, fish. Mr Hopkins mended our shoes when Victor’s Woolworths-bought ‘stick-on’ rubber soles finally disintegrated. He also repaired farm boots with their hobnails.

Although remote, we were also served by other delivery people — the postman, the baker, butcher and Co-op groceries. Exotic fruits such as bananas, oranges and grapefruit were unavailable during wartime. Our fresh milk came in two lidded pails hanging from a yoke round the milkman’s shoulders, with three metal measures for half a pint, a pint and a quart. We could buy condensed milk from the shops. We could also get dried egg powder to substitute for fresh eggs in cooking. The coal merchant also delivered and we supplemented our supply with dead wood and logs from the woodlands nearby. Hobbs the oil man delivered the paraffin for our Valor Blue Flame double burner oil stove. This came with an oven that could be put over one of the burners while a saucepan or kettle boiled over the other. The paraffin was stored in a drum with a tap. We had oil lamps in those days, the best one being an ‘Aladdin’ that had a fragile glass mantle, like the gas lamps, inside the glass chimney. The wick and the glass were attended to every day to keep it clear of smoke. We had blackout curtains to prevent light escaping at night.

I recall a day when I walked with my Father over to Oakridge where we had heard a Junkers 88 enemy aircraft had crashed. It was a muddle of metal and there was a strong smell of aviation fuel. The sight made us very thoughtful as our lads were being shot down over Europe. The crash site was guarded against pilfering for souvenirs.

One memorable day we went to Gloucester on the bus, walking first from Trench Hill to the main road outside Painswick. There were no signposts up during the war. The buses stopped wherever you were allowed to get on and off. Because of a landslip at Fiddlers Elbow on the A46 (caused by the dumping of tons of earth and clay that were being dug out to build a new factory next to the Gloster Aircraft Company at Brockworth) the buses had to go via Birdlip to get onto the main road again at Brockworth Cross Hands. Walking further, a Gloucester bus ran via Upton St Leonards. All went well until we were coming home when there was an air raid at the GAC factory just as we got there. We had to get off the bus and go into the roadside air raid shelters until the all clear siren sounded. But bombs had been dropped on the factory. It was quite dangerous at home during a raid as the anti-aircraft shells burst and showers of jagged shrapnel fell around.

We had a wireless that worked off accumulator batteries which were serviced at Brown’s stores. We had two batteries, one being charged while the other was in use.

We saved EVERYTHING, even the string and paper round parcels. I mended, altered and adapted clothing, darned socks and shirts, put patches over holes and turned worn sheets ‘sides to middle’. When there was a rummage sale in Cranham Chapel, we took the pram and the children along the lanes to see what we could buy that could be useful, then we walked home again.

We supplemented our vegetables with swedes from the fields and the tender tops of cattle kale, and blackberries and hazelnuts found in the hedgerows. Sugar ration allowing, I made fruit jam or preserved fruit in kilner jars. There were local apples and fruit such as damsons and plums. At one time we could buy Spam and we even tried whale meat — but only once!

Wash day was a ritual. There were special bars of laundry soap and in the rinsing water we put ‘blue bags’ to make our whites REALLY white. We also dabbed them onto wasp stings. I had a wringer to squeeze out the water as clothing when between the rubber rollers. The ironing was done with flat irons heated in the Valor or in winter by the back-to-back fire.

We contributed to the District Nurses Fund (this was in the days before the National Health Service) in case her medical services were ever required.

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