大象传媒

In the blackout our neighbour made a contraption out of two bits of tin and electric flex. This was so that when the back door was opened it pulled a wire that broke the circuit made by the two pieces of tin, therefore the light went out and the blackout regulations were not broken.

Thinking back I suppose that it was a bit dangerous especially as the wire was cloth covered.

When the Dunkirk evacuation was on, many, many soldiers had to be billeted somewhere. Whilst still at the above address, at Addison Road, a Sergeant came one night and said that we were to billet a soldier. This was not a request but more of an order. A soldier turned up with his rifle and all his equipment he stayed about a week. Where we lived was in the vicinity of Rolls Royce who made aero engines. there was always the chance of sabotage and that was why the soldiers were billeted in that area.

My mother worked as a cleaner at Rolls Royce when it was bombed the first time. She was knocked down the stairs, not injured badly but she was shook up.
Bombs fell in nearby streets and quite a few people died nearby. I was only about 10 at the time.

My brother worked on the test bed at Rolls Royce and the second time it was bombed he heard the Dornier bomber. He rushed home to make sure we were in the shelter and I remember him pushing us into the shelter. As he was running home the Dornier machine gunned the area where he was. The proof is there still. The bullet holes were still in the pavement in the kerb in Addison Road, Derby , until some years ago.

We lived near to the smoke screen installations on Osmaston Park Road and also near to the railway. What with the smoke from the trains and the smoke from the smoke screen we were breathing in a kind of greeny yellow mist that made you cough.

There was a pill box on the corner of Addison Road and a large static water tank where two children were drowned. That was 1942.

I was at Nightingale Infants school and I remember seeing The King and the Queen on the balcony of Rolls Royce in Nightingale Road because the teacher brought us out to see them.

Just down the road from the school was the Rolls Royce canteen and at dinner time we used to sneak into the canteen and we used to listen to the concerst which included Workers Playtime, Flannigan and Allen, Ann Shelton, Nat Jackley and others.

I remember the British fighter plane that crashed on the bank near to Pear Tree Railway Station, I went up on my bike to see it.

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