大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Frank Whiteley and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
We went to the dances at Stainborough Castle given by the Yanks to meet up with the ATS and have a pint of beer.

I was in the Home Guard but left before I got a uniform.

I worked down the pit at Wentworth Silkstone. We always had to take our gas mask with us; we had to carry them all the time.

I lived with my mum and dad and to save on rations I had my dinner at the pit. We could get cigarettes every now and again at the pit canteen. We had to queue for a 20 packet.

We used to go to Barnsley every night boozing because there were turns on in the pubs at that time. The Duke of York was my favourite. Everyone used to try to find out where beer and cigarettes could be bought. We used to jump on a bus at Gilroyd and go as far as Stocksbridge trying to get hold of some; everyone had their spies out!

There used to be one bus every hour.

The air raid shelter was big and it was in the recreation ground. 30 yards long at least there were bunks and allsorts in it.

We鈥檇 sit on the railings at the top of Gilroyd and watch the bombs coming down on Sheffield. It was just like bonfire day. The sirens used to go off here even if it was Sheffield they were bombing.

We used to work normal shifts throughout the war.

We had to eat when we got the rations. If you had a pig and killed it you lost your bacon ration for 6 months. We always kept hens and ducks, all through the war; it was a struggle to get corn. Dad used to get pigeons to eke out the rations. I never ate margarine in the war just butter. We used to swap our margarine ration for butter, which meant we got less, as the margarine ration was more that the butter rations. I never had sugar either; the rest of the family got it.

We got food parcels at the pit now and again. I think it was Yankee stuff, surplus rations.

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