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Submitted by The British Schools Museum, Hitchin on behalf of Bob O'Dell.
The details are remembered by the children of the O'Dell family who lived in Stevenage Road, Hitchin and attended Queen Street School, Hitchin, Herts from 1935 to 1950. They are: Iris born in 1930, Barbara born in 1934, Bill born in 1936, and Bob born in 1939. The following is compiled from their accounts by Bob (who can’t remember much of the early war years himself!)
The teachers over this period included Miss Cannon, Miss Hamilton, Miss Topham, Miss Day, Miss York, Miss Ingle, Miss Hudson, Miss Johnson, Miss Sills, The Headmistress was Miss Whitehead. The Caretaker was Mr Valentine. The Truant man was Mr Finlay The Nurse came round the classrooms regularly to check our heads for nits "Nifty Nora the flea explorer" and to examine our teeth. Those children who had any kind of problem were sent to the Clinic in Bedford Road. Doctor Macfadyen carried out occasional medical checks.
Preparations for the War
Our Gas masks were collected from St. Johns Hall in St. Johns Road and were then carried everywhere, mine was the babies’ variety which was supposed to envelope me completely when I could be stopped screaming long enough to bundle me into it. My older brother was given one of the coloured Mickey Mouse type with a flabby nose. Colourful trendy coloured cases were used by young ladies to replace the normal drab cardboard type that we all used.
At school, gas mask parades were held regularly in the playground, and ended in the classroom where the teacher would check each gas mask by holding a piece of paper to the end of the mask while the owner breathed in.
Some workmen, who I presume, were from the Town Council, delivered our air aid shelter as a pile of angle irons, corrugated sheets and wooden planks. My Dad dug up the back lawn to make a pit about 6ft. X 8 ft. x 4 ft. deep and erected the shelter in the pit. A framework was first built from angle iron and covered with corrugated sheets. Wooden planks were used to cover the floor and to build a bunk for the children to sleep in. Finally the soil from the pit was used to cover the shelter to a regulation depth and then covered with non-regulation rockery plants.
I remember going out to the toilet and seeing the sky being swept by searchlights
A communal air raid shelter was built under St Mary's' Square and probably others in the town. At school the boiler house was the official air raid shelter.
Stagnant Water Tanks - Huge stagnant water tanks were built and the junction of Queen Street and Hitchin Hill and outside the Corn Exchange for use in extinguishing fires caused by bombing. I heard of stories of young townies and servicemen either pushing one another in or diving in after the pubs closed. Massive concrete filled barrels were placed on Hitchin Hill and in other places to stop tanks getting by.
Home Guard and Home Defence organisations
Home guard soldiers paraded in the town and manoeuvred in the fields around the town, they dug trenches in the Priory Park and a riffle range was set up near the Pinnacle in Preston. We children were delighted; we played games hiding and playing in the trenches. My father spent various nights 'Fire watching' while my mother disappeared on some evenings to study first aid and other useful skills, as she was a member of the "Good Neighbour Scheme" which was based in St John's Hall. We had a special card in our front window explaining that my mother was a member of scheme in our neighbourhood. We had a blanket and various first aid items for use in case of emergencies.
During the War
When the sirens sounded the whole family moved down to the air raid shelter. The children were tucked into the bunk; my uncle and aunt would appear from next door and sit along one wall grasping their handbags containing insurance policies, life savings, ration books and identity cards.
Army convoys were often stationary the whole length of the road, both UK and Americans with armoured vehicles of all types. The ladies would scurry out with pots of tea and the children would scrounge chewing gum from the "Yanks". "Got any gum chum?" The lady next door gave out sour apples to one convoy, which ended up squashed on the ground when the convoy pulled out.
Soldiers of various types were billeted around the town. Canadians in the chapel at the corner of Standhill Road and Hitchin Hill "Mount Zion". Others in the house at the corner of Newlands Lane and Gosmore Road. Soldiers were in Priory Park looking after 2 or 3 pigeon lofts or caravans where they kept the pigeons. We children were sent to scrounge pigeon manure from the soldiers for our gardens.
Prisoners of war, Italians and Germans, were in long wooden huts at St. Ippolyts. They had various coloured circles and triangles on their backs and trousers. Some served at mass at the Carmelite convent in Newlands Lane, incongruous in their heavy boots. Wounded recovering soldiers were at Benslow hospital and wore bright blue uniforms and were often seen about Hitchin. I remember going to children's party where the wounded soldiers entertained.
We had chickens during the war years and you could trade your egg ration for a supply of chicken meal, which we boiled up with potato peelings to make an evil smelling chicken feed. To stretch rations we went gleaning for peas after they had been harvested and for ears of corn for the chickens where Priory Way is now.
Black out curtain were made and hung at all windows. The showing of lights was policed by ARP wardens. Windows were criss crossed with tapes as a safety measure. Vehicle and bike lights were extinguished or fitted with shades. Street lamps were switched out and signposts were taken down.
Salvage schemes were enforced "Waste Not Want Not" being the catch phrase. We took books to school for the soldiers and took part in a scheme, which rewarded donations with cardboard badges for "Private" "Corporal", etc. according to your generosity. Vegetable peelings were collected in big bins for pigswill at road junctions. Metal was also saved and we took kitchen utensils, tin cans, etc to school, these were stored at one end of the top playground, underneath the cover.
We collected hips, poppy petals and elderberries to take to the distillery. Hips were 4 pence and poppies were 1s 6d a pound. We took conkers to school and also acorns for pig food. We went blackberrying and crab-appling.
I remember when a huge red acetylene tanker lorry moved slowly down our street as the workmen cut down all the railings for use in the manufacture of armaments.
Homemade clothes were made resulting in some weird rig-outs not least of which were the short trousers with odd leg lengths.
There was a huge explosion when we were at school; it was a V2 rocket landing in Luton. Also a lorry load of explosives blew up on Offley Hill.
VE day night was celebrated on St Mary's Square with lights, decorations, music and dancing.
VJ day night we were staying in Luton and only watched a bonfire burning on the corner of the street.
News spread around that there was a lorry delivering bananas to the Griffins warehouse in our road. None of us had ever seen a banana before and we all crowded around the lorry and scrambled on the ground for odd bananas that had fallen off the bunches and were being thrown off of the lorry by the workmen.
When we heard that ice cream was on sale on St Mary's Square a queue formed about a mile long for our first ever taste of ice cream.

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