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This story has been submitted to the site by Alison Tebbutt, Derby CSV Action Desk, on behalf of Mrs Joyce Mellor. The author has given her permission and understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was nine years old on the 26th September 1939, so the memories that I have are obviously short and disjointed.

I lived in Holcombe Street as a child. Our garden was too small for an Anderson shelter so we shared my friends, which to reach we had to go down our garden to the gate at the bottom of the entry. We had to take a stool and climb the wall into the bottom of their garden where the shelter was situated. There was a mound of earth over the wall (dug out for the shelter.) My father was quite a handy man. I don’t know how, but he acquired some old bus seats which he fitted around the sides for everyone to sit on.

After a period of time we were supplied with a Morrison shelter, which was in the form of a six foot by four foot metal table with angle iron frame, sprung slats across the base and metal mesh sides, like a cage. We kept a mattress rolled up at the back, which was unrolled at night for my brother and I to sleep on for quite a long time. It was great for parties, though we had to be careful not to put the plates or drinks on top of the bolts on top of the bolts that held it together.

The nearest bombs to us were the ones that hit the Baseball ground and in Shaftsbury and Columbo Streets, I seem to remember we went walking around the next mornings to see where the damage of the previous nights ‘work’ had landed.

Another memory was the Smoke Screens, these were metal ‘tubs’ twenty four inch diameter filled with oil, they had a chimney and a lid on the top. There were two together about every ten minutes yards along the edge of the pavements. A group of soldiers would come along to light them on ‘moonlight’ nights with, I think, a type of spark gun which they fired into the oil causing it to smoke out of the chimney.

There were some brick and concrete shelters which were built in some streets, half on the pavement and half on the road.

I can remember soldiers marching down Pear Tree Street. They used to sing ‘We are marching back to the Baseball Ground’ and I seem to remember a gun on a stand in the middle of the pitch.

I can remember buses parked all the way down Reeves Road, possibly on match days later during the war. They had no shutting doors and we could play ‘hide and seek’ all afternoon.

I was awarded ten extra clothing coupons because the end of my big toe went over a line on a measure on the floor.

I also remember the teacher telling us that a boy in our class, Albert Kaufman, was to be called Albert Kaye in future.

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