大象传媒

As 12 year olds we were more or less left to our own devices during the school holidays.Due to our parents either being in
the Forces or at work.
We would quite often depart on day long expeditions,taking our lunch time sandwiches and a drink usually cold tea or water in a screw top beer bottle.These would be packed into our school satchels together with any extras we could scrounge.
This particular day we decided on a fishing trip to Penton Hook lock on the Thames at Laleham ,Middlesex.This was a considerable distance from our home in Ashford ,Middlesex,a walk ofwell over an hour.It was a favourite spot of ours as we could always rely on a catch of some sort usually Bleak or Gudgeon.
We had been there for a couple of hours when the air raid sirens sounded.We headed for the air raid shelter on the island at the lock We had no sooner settled when one of the lock keepers arrived.Imagine our suprise when he told us that this shelter was for the use of Thames Conservancy employees only and to clear off home.We protested that we had a long way to go but to no avail and we were turfed out of the shelter and sent on our way.
We started off along the towpath and had only covered a short distance when the anti aircraft guns started firing and German aircraft appeared from the direction of Staines heading along the river towards Chertsey.As we were strung along the towpath one of us shouted to dive under the hedge as we had heard about German aircraft machine gunning civilans.
We must have made a lot of noise ,as from one of the grand riverside houses a lady appeared and told us to get into her shelter.She was furious when we told her about being ejected from the shelter at the lock and said she was going to write to Thames Conservancy.When the all clear sounded she took us into her house and gave us a drink and some cake before sending us on our way.What a lovely lady.
It is only in later years that I realised what could have happened by this mans action and I only hope our lady did report him and he got his comeupperance.

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