大象传媒

I was evacuated at the age of 11, with my brother, to Barlbourgh in Derbyshire in 1940. The couple we stayed with, had one son about the same age as we were. I don't remember ever seeing the husband, he worked as a deputy in a coalmine.

My memories of Barlborough.

I remember it as a big house, it was semi-detached. There was a large pile of coal in the front garden. A perk of the job apparently, was an allocation of free coal.

They had toilet paper in the loo, instead of the newspaper we were used to. It was Izal and had nursery rhymes on each sheet. I can remember being disappointed because there were only four different rhymes.

During the 3 months, we were there, I don't remember ever having a bath. We had only brought a small case of clothes with us, so we could have been smelly.

We got three-pence a week, for cleaning the downstairs windows. They were always coated in coal dust.

We did not attend the local school, I have no idea why. We had lessons in the village hall, all ages together.

After three months, our Dad's factory had moved it's operation from Lowestoft, to Irthlingborough, in Northamptonshire, so we went to live there for the rest of the war. We lived in rooms in Finedon.

What do I remember about those years.

When we were at school, we were particularly friendly with a family, the children being black-skinned. It never entered our minds that they were different. I don't remember taking any exams. For literature we had 'Just William.' We were threatened with 'Macbeth,' if we did not behave. We had cooking lessons at school. Because meat was rationed, we made a stew, out of carrot, potatoes and Oxo cubes. We made cakes, which turned out more like bullets. In the summer, the older boys, worked in the fields, picking up potatoes. We earned 3 shillings, (15 new pence) a week. They always picked the bigger boys first for gardening. I remember getting annoyed at this, I felt that being shorter was an advantage, we were nearer the ground.

We left school at 14 and started work, doing a 48 hour week, for about 60 new pence.

We used to swim in the river, during the summer. We made our own costumes, clothes were rationed. we never had towels to dry ourselves on.

A sugar lorry went into the ditch and spilt it's load. Because sugar was rationed, when word got round, the spill was soon cleared up.

When our bungalow in Lowestoft was badly damaged by a land-mine, all our childhood possessions, like cigarette cards, stamps and the odd toy, were looted.

I always remember the Reverent Hesketh, preaching about the perils of Drink!, one Sunday. He had two posters, one titled 'Champagne, Saturday night' and another titled, 'Real Pain, Sunday morning.'

Not far away was a quarry, with entrances to ironstone mines. One day, two American servicemen, were sitting dangling their feet over the edge of the quarry, playing guitars and singing 'The Darktown Strutters Ball.'

There were blackberries and wild roses there. We cut down the thicker briars and made bows. We used waxed thread from the dump at one of the local shoe factories, for bow-strings. We picked blackberries, during the late summer.

It was very common, for the local's to burn leather bits as fuel. A barrow-load of coke, collected from the gasworks, cost 1 shilling. The bigger the barrow, the more you got. The Gasworks was over half a mile away, quite a long way for us to push a barrow load of coke.

It used to cost 4 old pence, for a haircut. Food that was un-rationed, was kept under the counter. If people saw a queue at a shop, it was quite usual to join it, even if they did not know what was being sold.

I will never forget, walking home in the blackout one foggy evening. It was so dark, we had to feel our way along the walls of the houses.

A Junkers 88 bomber crashed not far away. We collected odd pieces of Perspex from the windscreen and made rings. Some people made lighters out of spent cannon shell cases.

We went to the local cinema, it cost 2 old pence to go in. It was nicknamed, 'The bughouse.' The only film I remember, was, 'The Lone Ranger and The Silver Bullet.'

We were given an afternoon off, to see the Queen when she visited Wellingborough. We had to walk three miles. My brother and I took a short cut, got lost and missed her.

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