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Interviewee : Mr Maurice Barnes Date of Birth 4.11.1927

When the war just started, when the sirens went at school we all had to run up the nearby sunken lane, the lane come down about, I don't know, about thirty, forty feet. We had to run up that - it was called Shutes Lane, in Symondsbury. But after six or seven time the headmaster'd had enough of that, so when the siren went, we thought we'd have to run up there - no lessons, see. But he wasn't having that. "No,' he said 'we'll never see the planes, the German planes'. But they used to fly over. The following six months or more you'd see 'em go over. I know once, Mother went up stairs - she'd turn the beds back when we got up, their bed, my bed that was in the little bedroom, for to air. Then she'd go up before bedtime and turn 'em - make and tidy up the beds. Well, she was up there one day, this was winter time, and there was a hell of a bang. And the house rocked and Mother came down the stairs - well, she never touched the stairs! Gor, was she frightened! I think it was (at) Broadoak. Done a fair bit of damage to a house there, in fact I don't think he was much more good after that. The bombs were just jettisoned. Wanted to get rid of them and go on home, I expect.

Well, I think it was another year when we were hedging up in the top field, and we could see Bridport, that was wintertime. Saw these 'ere planes coming in from the sea, I said to Father 'Look, look, see. He's just dropped two girt bombs’. You could see the bombs come out of the plane and start to nosedive, like that (gestures with hand) towards ... I said 'Hell, they're going to hit the Town Hall with the things. You could just see them to get the Town Hall or near enough where it was, and it was a Wednesday, market day. Just 'fore dinner, 'bout midday. Anyway, when we came on home - I think it was to dinner, I think it was, I ain't sure - to tea. One of them anyway. And I got on me bike and went in. There just below in West Street where there was a knocked down - knocked several houses down. I think it was a five hundred pounder. And it blew one poor man - he was on the pavement just outside the pub - it blew him right across to the other side of the road. He wasn't any more good, poor man. It killed him. I don't know how many more it killed there. And I thought 'Hell', supposing some more bombs come down!' So I came on home quick!

They used to come over - I know once, we were delivering milk, and Mother was talking to the person - she had her jug in her hand, and two German fighter-bombers came over very low, and Mother never stopped! She dived on in that person's house, pushed past her and left me and the woman there on the doorstep! Of course, when they'd gone - they were attacking Yeovil, the helicopter place. Westland.

Food rationing didn’t bother us. Never at all. We never needed our butter ration, and some people never needed their sugar ration, so we used to swap that for sugar, and we didn't worry too much about our meat. Father put me on the horse sweep, sweeping in the hay. I couldn't lift it very well, so I said to Mother, 'If I get a rabbit, would you cook 'en for supper'. So I used to shoot two rabbits a week, and I eat them. Cor and I could lift that sweep then! We weren't great meat eaters. We had about three, four hundred chicken here I s'pose. We were selling eggs to people. And clothing coupons, we never worried about clothing coupons. We didn't wear, only on the farm, no best clothes or anything.

We made hobnailed boots - there they are above your head. Fifty years old, the last pair I ever bought. And they'd last a couple of years or more, wearing every day.

I used to feel sorry for the town people, because they couldn't get much food, you see. Only what was in the shops. And I know one farmer said to Father, he said 'I got fair bit of cheese, would you like a bit of cheese?'
'Yes' Father said. he brought round a thirty, forty pound cheese! "How much for 'e", 'Oh' he said, 'five bob'! And another farmer said 'Bloody 'Itler's coming, I'm going to start saving money' and he said 'I've got one churn buried, full of half-crowns and two-shilling pieces, I've started to fill up another one'.

I remember Father filling out a form, 'cos he's supposed to have joined the Home Guard. And Father wrote back and said 'I work from dawn to dusk, and I cannot do any more. Every day. So they didn't press him to join the Home Guard.

We had to plough up another field. And Father said 'What am I going to feed me cows on?' And we had to make do. And I know one year we had one hay rick for all those cows, and we had a hell of a job to feed them. We used to milk about twelve to fourteen and we used to have two hay ricks. So we had to feed 'em on straw, and we'd give 'em extra straw. We also made best use of our mangolds, because that helped - with the goodness in the mangolds - for the straw, you see. So we used to give them one feed of hay a day and one feed of straw and mangolds a day.

Then they came round, and Father really didn't want to grow it, and he said 'You must grow flax'. "Twas an acre or two acres. Anyway, it didn't half give me backache, pulling it. We sowed the flax be hand. We never had no corn drill or nothing. It came up lovely. A sea of blue flowers. Anyway, we had to pull it be hand and then worst of all had to tie it in little bundles, and that was more back-aching trouble - when it dried out. Then made a rick against the road, and then the Land Army girls - the first I'd ever seen! - came here with a lorry from the hostel. And there was a lot of rats in there, and every time a rat jumped out they used to swear like mad, so I hurried past them! I didn't like swearing like that. So then after a few months, Father had the first cheque. He said 'That's very good. Good money.' And then a few months later another cheque, for exactly the same amount. So we sent en back. And they wrote back and said "We're sending back the cheque because it is due to you, and thank you very much for being so honest. The reason being we sent half to begin with, then, after it's processed and its the right quality, we send the rest of the money. We didn't need to deduct any from yours - it was good quality. Thank you very much.' So he wanted to grow some more the next year, but they wouldn't let en. We had to grow oats in one field and wheat in another. So we couldn't grow any more flax, which paid twice as much.

Chickens wasn't controlled. You could keep as many as you liked, that was fine. Eggs was rationed - we weren't supposed to sell, but we did. Milk was the same, you was supposed to let people have only half a pint of milk a day. I think 'twas. They had what they liked. Some people couldn't afford very much 'cos the husband was always drinking in pubs, they didn't have very much. But others, they'd have what they wanted. I'm sure it was half a pint a day. My father-in-law, he had his lunchtime pint regular, but no more. An' he didn't like the wartime beer, but he still drank it - there wasn't nothin' else. I remember one day he went in to the Ilchester Arms for his lunchtime pint. When the landlord gave it him he said 'Looks like rain today'. Father said "he didn't think it to be ale''

I know I had a letter come from the Ministry of Food, in Bournemouth, saying they were coming to inspect our milk books. We hadn't ever kept any milk books, records of what the people had. You know, we stayed up all night, for several nights, getting it right. To tally, you see, with how many people in the house, and what they were allowed - gor! And in the end I couldn't stay up at night. I don't know how they got on, but I couldn't stay up after midnight. But anyway, the Milk Record man came and he had a- he was a bit on the fat side - and he had a beautiful secretary, wasn't she a stunner! She said 'I want some eggs", and 'got a couple of dozen farmer?' I said 'Oh yes, we can let you have a couple of dozen'. Didn't say nothing about rationing though. And he didn't check the books too strong at all, until we straightened 'em.
'Oh' he said, 'what lovely eggs' and they was gone. Chauffeur driven and all, and what a nice car. He never came into the house. We had to take the books out to the car for en to check, and he said 'I can see you're honest' and Father said 'Yes, we don't aim to diddle people'

I was in the Army Cadet Force, based in Bridport, and the Home Guards collared me as a a messenger - I had a flag. We had manoeuvres with the Army, before the American soldiers came. I was cycling on round by the school there, and met some soldiers coming up, from Duck Street, past where Sir John lives now. I went to turn me bike round, and the blooming flag got - em was on a long - about four foot long the pole was, the flag was on. It got mixed up with the handlebars and I crashed into the blooming wall! Not very hard, but I hit the wall with a bang and couldn't escape. So they captured me, and we went on round the corner, and I thought to myself 'I can get away now', so I , they were talking, I nipped round. They shouted, but I was gone. They ran, but I dodged in where Sir John's old farm is in round there, down the side, and they was lost. The agreement was, with the sergeant - he lived just past us - that if the Germans was going to invade, we all thought they were bound to - he would call me out, and I would have to go all-round the farms, Broadoak and all around, to pick up the Home Guard, and so, walking to the village to get the truck, he said 'Im sorry you haven't got a gun' he said, 'but the first man who gets shot, you're to have his rifle. So off we went. We called out a few going on out towards Broadoak and we went to a farm out the end of Broadoak there, a dead-end road, the farm at the end of the road and there was about six Home Guards in there I suppose, and sergeant stopped and said 'One of you get out and call out Bert' and nobody moved. So with that he said 'One of you get out! And call out Bert' 'No we ain't goin'' 'Why's that then?' 'We don't want to die yet!' And I had all pins and needles down the back of me neck. Something didn't seem right. I'm sure I saw somebody, two people, creeping about, and they did as well. They thought they was Germans. So he said to me 'You, get out!' And that was the order, so I had to get out. 'You're the youngest - you get out!" So i got out and I crept in round as quiet as I could and I saw two chaps there, and then I spoke "Oh I said, that's you, Bert!' 'Yes' he said 'e thought you was bloody Germans! A good job you spoke when you did as they had the gun ready.'

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