大象传媒

This story has been added to the website by Sue Giardina with permission from Gwen Hibbert, who understands the terms and conditions of this website.

Prior to war being declared ,my family plus a cousin had a camping holiday at Mundesley in Norfolk. It was dark as we travelled along the Kings Lynn Road towards our destination, dad was getting quite angry as Army lorries kept approaching and passing in the opposite direction without lights on. Mind you we obtained a bonus, we knocked over a startled rabbit, which dad collected and we had it for lunch the next day. It was quite some time later that we found out it was the Army gearing up for war which the general public didn't know about.

Wolverhampton
10 Leyland Avenue
War was announced I believe soon after we arrived in this part of the town, I was 8 years old. One of the first things I remember was mother stocking up the sideboard with non-perishable food. The next, obtaining an incomplete number of pieces of metal to make an Anderson Shelter. Dad with help from my younger sister and myself dug a hole to partly bury the shelter. To the side and front slabs of marble were dug in length wise up as a deflector against bomb blast. The dug out earth was heaped over the erected metal. I know we hardly used it as the temperature of the autumn and winter nights made it too cold to sleep in.
We soon used to go next door as the man there had a brick garage; underneath the concrete floor he had extended the inspection pit and made it into a safe shelter and one that was always dry. It was many months before we slept in the house and in our own beds.
I attended a school, which was quite a long walk away.Many days I think we were sent home as it started to get dark, especially during the blitz of Birmingham and Coventry. Two winters running the snow was so bad Leyland Avenue was blocked off, the snow being 2 feet deep, making it impossible for me to walk to school. Dad was a white helmeted air raid warden, so during the raids he was never with us, the only time we saw him was for meals and at weekends when he was on the allotment growing vegetables.
Dad had an aunt in Rhode Island, USA, and he tried to get us on a ship to go out there when children were being evacuated. Unfortunately as my sister was so young she needed a mature person to escort her on the ship, as no one could be found our parents would'nt allow us to be split, so we stayed in England.
I remember many things I did during the period,like attending a Xmas party at the big store in the centre of the town,I believe it was called "Beatty's", seeing Wolverhampton Wanderers going around town in an open topped bus, spending my 3d pocket money every two weeks going to the Hippodrome, sitting in the "Gods" listening to the variety acts, and seeing "Dangerous Moonlight" at the cinema. I used to goto the main road during the day to watch the troop convoys going along the road. Thinking back it is queer recalling the different types of vehicles they used at the time, like Atkinson steam lorries with a trailer on the back, but it was great fun waving and getting waves back. My favourite place to go was at the junction of Merridale Road, and the one that went to Chapel Ash.
It was around this period that dad became Assistant Manager at the Rawplug Factory in Mill Hill, London.
On our move to Mill Hill, we must have travelled down in our Morris Eight car, number plate I still remember AAC 883.Mother and my sister slepy over night at the factory managers house; dad and I slept on the floor of his office in the factory. The only school I could get into was a small private school called Highwood.
The winters were quite bad, but we used to enjoy the snow by going up to Scratch Woods with a Canadian steel runner sledge that a lady down the road lent to us.
I used to do most of the errands going to the shops opposite the Green Man Pub, we had two ration books lodged at one shop and two at another grocery shop, to get the best of any offers going on the coupons.I recall all the comments from the grown ups when bread at the "Yorkshire bakery" went up to a shilling a loaf (5p). Most Fridays we queued up at the fish & chip shop, hoping we could get something other than rock salmon.
I became a paperboy at the local Smiths paper shop; this was my rich period for getting the paper to two of my clients on my round before 8am. They gave me 6 pence (2.5p) each, so with my 3d from dad and mum I was wealthy.
Hendon Aerodrome was quite close, this is where I first saw the dakota air planes land. A good viewing place was in Mill Hill park. When not watching the Dakotas and fighter planes we watched the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) and wardens being put through a brick building that was filled with smoke so they would be proficient following a bombing raid.
Night raids were constant, dad had become manager of the factory following the death of the original one, and as soon as the siren sounded he went to the factory to be with his 'girls' who were running the night shift. That's when he bought a Morrison Tabletop Shelter to go into our dining/living room. the factory had been converted into making shells for the services. I know mother wasn't too pleased that he thought he should be with the night shift workers in case of any problems. That's when we started going to the special brick shelter in the factory to sleep at nights, when the doodlebugs started their period of flying over the area.
I had sat the common exam to go to Highgate Schoolon its return from Westward Ho.
It was my first year at that school a doodlebug came down on the playing field. "Tubby" Wilson and I went to hospital; he had a piece of metal in his wrist, myself with a lump on the head. The school was closed for the rest of the summer.
The school had a good warning system of 15 & 10 bells. When a doodlebug was 15 miles away the first bell went, when at 10 miles the second went, and you went into the cellars of the building you had your classes in. If you were playing cricket you didn't hear any bells so the system fell down.
That night my nerves were on edge dad decided the family should go up to Yorkshire for the summer. Travelling down on the train from Mill Hill station to St Pancras station we saw two flying bombs flying parallel but in the opposite direction to us. We didn't stay long in Rotherham;it was decided it would be more enjoyable to be in the quiet peaceful countryside at mothers aunts, midway between Newark & Lincoln.
Aunt had a smallholding where many years earlier my sister was born.UnfortunatelyI can't remember how we got there, but I was overjoyed. Half of the smallholding had been taken by the Air Force, the fields opposite had become Swinderby Aerodrome.
Our accomodation was a one up & one down attached to Aunts house.Lighting was by paraffin table lights, and candles when going to bed. Cooking was via a range, water we had to pump up from the well opposite Aunts door.We soon learnt to keep water in a bucket to prime the hand pump.Milk was obtained by going down the roadwith a jug to Mr Wagstaffs farm, bread you baked yourself. Other goods you got on market day in Newark by joining the bus as it came by the house.
Before very long I was spending all day down on the farm, I got there early to bring the cows in to be milked. After milking and breakfast Mr wagstaff and I would hitch up the horse to the cart and go up to the RAF kitchens to collect the swill. This would be brought back put in the boilers, cooked up to feed the pigs.
Once a week we would go to the aerodrome on a Saturday night for a film show, us kids always getting a chocolate treat.
At the beginning of the school autumn term I became a boarder in Grindal House, the big school was being handed back to the school by the Admiralty. The houses where we had been taught now were returning to their original use of boarding houses. By this time the amount of flying bombs was reducing, but the V2 was now the threat. The school warning system wasn't any use, as you didn't hear the bomb until after it had arrived. Highgate was very lucky it never was hit.
Mill Hill and Sunbury Avenue had the typical street party for the children when the final all clear was sounded.

On writing these memories one realises you could write many more pages recalling hundreds of little incidences filling many more pages. I hope these bring happy memories to other readers. If there are any people who read this and remember me, or were at school, Mill Hill, I would be pleased to hear from you.

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