大象传媒

My fatherwas in the RAF. I was born March 1940 and I think my father saw me before he was sent off to North Africa, then Italy, South Africa. I was five when he returned and did not know who he was, it must have been very difficult for him.

I was the lucky one - my child's view of the war was cossetted from what was really going on. My mother and I lived in Byker in a flat with inside bathroom and separate loo but with an Anderson shelter in the yard. My Auntie Nellie (my mother's sister) lived up on the next street in a terrace house with no indoor bathroom or loo. She had two children - my cousins Doreen who was one montholder than me and Ken who was four years older. My great Aunt Nell lived near them and helped with the three of us. It was an idyllic childhood - it was all we knew - three women tending us and Ken had five fussing around after him.
Because we were near the shipyards Newcastle was being bombed so my Dad decided that Mam and I had to go to live in the country. It was not evacuation Mam hadto find somewhere for us to live. We went to Wark near Hexham in Northumberland. At first we were living on a farm out in the wilds of the moors. I don't know how Mam managed. We had to get a bus from Newcastle, sometimes change at Hexham and wait for the Wark bus. If the bus was heavy laden, we all had to get off when it came tothe steep hills and walk up. It seemed to take ages to getthere.
We moved into Wark village to share a stone built house near the village green with an old spinster Nellie, who used to frighten some people but she was lovely with us. We had one of the front rooms with a bed in it and one bedroom upstairs. We cooked and boiled water on the range in Nellie's front room. The toilet was down the cobbled yard an old thunderbox, which was freezing and I was frightened to go there. We washed our hair in rain water and had a bath once a week. The village water pump was on the corner of the street. We got milk and eggs from thefarm round the corner of the village green.
Our family came up from Newcastle to spend time with us - it was lovely - the kids slept head to toe in one bed and the women in the other. We ran wild through the meadows down by the river hanging off the bridge, walking through the woods, picking the flowers by season and trying to fit in with the village life.
The local gentry just happened to be called Taylor (our family name) so quite often my Mam's letter from my Dad went up there. A pony and trap would arrive at our door and someone would deliver this post.

Nellie's brothers brought her food.

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