大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥� War by a volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf ofDorothy Bartie,and has been added to the site with her permission.Dorothy Bartle fully understands the site.s terms and conditions

Agriculture

We used to have the markets, the farming market every Tuesday. Yes and you would see them driving down through Moor Street, driving their sheep or cows down through. Oh yes no lorries! nothing like that.

NB Some animals were delivered in trailers/lorries.

Army Camps

We had the Americans in the old camp at Bulwark, at the back of the Red & White, off Camp Road. And they used to do their marching up and down Camp Road there. My Office was on that side, they would be marching, and of course some of them were black and so on and so forth. Of course as soon as we heard the Sergeant shouting 鈥渓eft鈥� you know, we were up at the window!

We had a camp at Sudbrook. Well they were guarding the pumping stations. Because the pumping stations you see, was the pumping stations that kept the water out of the Severn Tunnel. The South Wales Borderers and The Welsh Regiment were at Sudbrook, they were at different ends of the camp site. That is where the Paper Mill is built now, on there. It was empty land, that was why they came there. The football pitch and then down the bottom, used to be the cricket pitch.

There was, there were two guns out on the riverside at Sudbrook. I think that was more a practise for the troops, you know only handling the guns, that鈥檚 right yes. Mind they didn鈥檛 just come and stay there, they were changing platoons all the time.

Then they had two sentries outside each pumping station, with rifles, and they had a little hut in the pumping station not far from where we lived. Sudbrook was, well its the worse place for winds. Always bitterly cold wasn鈥檛 it Dot? I think they were two hours on and two hours off or something. They used sleep in the hut, over at the back there. They used to be there of a night time, you鈥檇 see some of them. There was usually four down at the pumping station that was by where we lived, and then there would two on duty and two resting.

The soldiers that were at Sudbrook, they used to come to Church, at Portskewett, Portskewett Church. Yes, and there was quite a number of them used to go, and of course they used to have a Church Parade every Sunday. From Sudbrook, so many of them with a Sergeant Major would march around on a Sunday morning. They marched round to church, about twenty or thirty of them you know.

Then we had three soldiers drowned, remember they went out. Oh it was all hell let loose that day, everybody was out. They went out in a boat, from by the old dock at Sudbrook. You see there used to be a Dock Yard at Sudbrook, a Shipyard, yes and there was a Dock there. They went out in this boat from the Dock, and they got caught up on a mud bank you know out. Oh it was frightening, I can always remember Melville and I went over the Camp, and the people we were all over there, we could see them waving things, and we couldn鈥檛 do anything about it. They tried to get a boat out, a couple of the fishermen, local fishermen but it was so bad, they just couldn鈥檛 get out to them And you could see the three of them waving their clothes out on this mudbank. The boat had gone yes, it was dreadful, yes it was dreadful. I don鈥檛 think they should have gone out in the boat, I don鈥檛 think it was theirs you know, and I think there was a lot of cover up about you know. But it was, it was a very sad time.

We had was incendiary bombs in the fields behind us. It only happened the once, and they were no sooner down and the soldiers were over from the Camp(Sudbrook), and the people, all the people out from the village with water, and it was all put out in less than no time. The Germans you see were lighting up, and they were going around to come back. But by the time they came back, there was nothing there. They were absolutely fantastic. There were some of the chaps out there in their pyjamas, soldiers and local men yes, just ran straight out, yes.

Home Life

My Mum, sometimes with the soldiers, she鈥檇 wash their socks and darn them. If they wanted anything they would come over. She used to take them a drink, and if she made cake she鈥檇 take them some cakes over, 鈥榗os it was just across the road you know.

Oh yes yes it was all cookery wasn鈥檛 it with Mum? Well she would make sure she had something to give. We had our own chickens, and we had recipes whereby you didn鈥檛 really need any fat. I can鈥檛 think, but Mum always made apple tarts wasn鈥檛 it? Marge in our days ? I can鈥檛 think, because we were rationed. But mind you fair play she was a wonderful manager.

My watch came under a piece of wedding cake. My Uncle sent me a gold watch from Canada. He put it, you know the little boxes with the wedding cake in? He put it under, it wasn鈥檛 wedding cake, I think it was sort of birthday cake or something. And it was wrapped up under the wedding cake, that鈥檚 how my gold watch came to me from Canada.

Of a night time, Mum always used to look through the window to see that they were blacked out properly over at the pumping station. And if she could just see a little bit of light, and who ever was on she鈥檇 shout to the sentry 鈥楽entry I can just see a little bit of light up in that corner鈥�. So she kept the boys under control, and she wasn鈥檛 a bit of a busy body really. She was very laid back.

Oh it was frightening, we used to, when the raids were on, and all the firing, we used to go under the stairs didn鈥檛 we? Mum had deck chairs under there. She had cleared all the cupboard out under the stairs, and she put in the deck chairs in. And one time Melville was 鈥淥h I think its gone quiet now鈥� he said, 鈥淚 think they鈥檝e stopped now鈥�. Just as he got to the front door to go out to see what was going on, there was a terrific blast, and he came running back in and closed the door. He said 鈥渨e鈥檇 better stay here a bit longer鈥� It鈥檚 really, when you think of it the laughs we had at such dreadful time. Yes, for such an awful time it was the spirit was there.

Well I can remember my first evening dress, my Mum bought me for my seventeenth birthday(1935), some blue velvet, and a little old dressmaker that lived in the village, made this dress for me. And I wore that for the first um, and I鈥檓 not sure whether it was the Armistice Ball or the Hospital Ball, I wore it for the first time. My Mother thought it was awful, because I had a V down the back. But, as time went on, and I went to work at the Red & White. My friend that lived over in the cottage over there, that worked in the Red & White with me. We used to go to the dances, and of course we couldn鈥檛 afford more evening dresses because of the war. And so we both had evening dresses and every time we were going to a dance, a bit more was cut out. So in the end I hardly had any top to mine, and my Mother thought it was quite disgusting, but I couldn鈥檛 wear a bra underneath it or anything you know. My blue velvet there was there was no top hardly to it at all? So when I look at these girls today I think cor that鈥檚 nothing, did that years ago!

Well you were lucky sometimes, and sometimes you were unlucky. We used to have queue for stockings in Herbert Lewis鈥�. My Mum used to go and do the queuing, in Herbert Lewis鈥檚 to buy the stockings off Miss Eve, who was on the stocking counter. Get home from work wouldn鈥檛 we, and she鈥檇 say Oh I was lucky today, I got you both a pair, they were lisle and silk, and they were stockings, not tights, you had to wear suspender belts then.

Well I suppose really we were lucky, we got away with quite a lot. We used to have our changes, I know I did. You know, you鈥檇 get fed up buy things and get fed up with them. We had a couple of kids in the village that were always happy to give you a couple of coupons for something. We were always able to keep going like that you know, to having something new. Because they couldn鈥檛 afford to in many ways, but they could coupon wise you see. She would say if you got anything let me know, you know. She often used to say how pleased she was with the different things she had, she wouldn鈥檛 have otherwise you know. Then perhaps you would have seen something that you would like in Chepstow with so many coupons you see, so you鈥檇 get rid of your old.

I was going to say how about how when they were taking the evacuees in, how you knew the people that had this little boy in London, or young boy and then Melville came to stay with us. Melville, he was Melville Rose. Now he was from a family that Dot knew wasn鈥檛 he? Well, a friend of mine knew this family, and he came to work at Dinham, Dinham, at the RNPF. What was the name? MacAlpines. He went into digs, and he wasn鈥檛 very happy there. And so she was telling me all about it and I felt so sorry for him. So I said to Mum I said he鈥檚 ever such a nice boy. Mum had had a few operations, and she didn鈥檛 really feel that she could take young children. So Dot thought it was a good idea, and mentioned it. Oh jumped at the idea. Melville was about 19, he, it was nice to mother him. He came to live with us, and he was Jewish. He wasn鈥檛 fussy with his food, he ate what we had. And he loved Mum & Dad, didn鈥檛 he? Yes and my Mum was never happier unless she had her hands in flour. This particular day he wasn鈥檛 very well, because he was a Mummy鈥檚 boy really, and he was wandering, he had this cold, and of course he was so sorry for himself you know. Mum was busy baking, and he was behind her and every way she went, and she said, never thinking she said 鈥淥h Melville, for goodness sake you are like a wandering Jew!鈥� she said. Oh, he never forgot it, then when he went away and he sent her a photograph he put on there 鈥榝rom your adopted son鈥�, I鈥檝e got that in my album. And his parents came down to see him, and they were lovely to Mum & Dad, you know, thanked them for having him. He was like a brother to us really.

Oh he was lovely yes. I know I was in bed, what did I have? measles or something or the other. And he used to come home from work, but Mum always had to put his tea on the tray to come up and have it in the bedroom, with me. He was like the brother we had lost. He was, he was just like a brother. He used to come to the dances with us, and look after us, to bring us home in the dark, and all that sort of thing. We missed him really, I think Mum did as well.

Then he went back to London, and we heard from him for a little while, and then all of sudden the letters stopped coming. And I remember sending a card on the Christmas time to the address we had, but we had no reply from him, so we鈥檙e not sure whether they moved. You know they could have easily. One day he had been to Sudbrook and obviously found out where we lived; and of course I lived where Sue lives in those days then, in my marital home. And when I came home from work one day, my then husband said to me 鈥測ou鈥檒l never know who came here today鈥�. But he was with another man from his job, and they were going down country somewhere, he couldn鈥檛 stay. That was the only one time that we鈥檝e heard from him.

He even came back to see us after the war, when Sue was a baby in the pram. Of course he was one of the soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk. He was really dapper and handsome Emlyn? but when he came back he was very drawn and not a bit like he was before. But he was a lovely chap. He came back to see us after the war, yes and he looked dreadful when he came to visit us in Sudbrook, oh he looked dreadful. Sue was a baby in the pram and I can always remember, when he was going back to catch the train. I took Sue with me in the pram, and he pushed the pram. And when he was pushing the pram around from Portskewett, he said I never ever thought I鈥檇 come back to this, to Sudbrook, to be able to do something like this. And then he began telling me about it all. People just don鈥檛 realise, they don鈥檛 realise, no. And he told my Mum he had to come back and see her, because he enjoyed her cakes so much.

But it was when Mum used to hear the planes going over and so forth, I think that was the time when she used to get a bit agitated. Because you see they would go over, we could see the swatiskas on them as well.

Personal Events

My sister used to bring them home, dozens of them. Dozens of them, Yes! Well I did because they missed the home life you see. I did take a couple, Capt. Emlyn Jones, well he was the son from The Carlton Cafe, and he was in The South Wales Borderers. So I did have a little romance with Emlyn. And I did have a bit of romance with another Lieutenant Bob, that was the only real romances.

My cousin now from Portskewett, she married a soldier that was up at the hospital, Bob, and they live in Leeds, he was a Sergeant there, he was a Chemist.

Then there was Micky Neath, they used to live, you know when you go over the old bridge in Chepstow, there鈥檚 two cottages just there. Well Micky she used to work at the Red & White with me, she used to live in one of those cottages. She met Norman Pirie, I鈥檝e got pictures of them here, you know and they married.

I was married in September 1943 at Portskewett Church. We managed to get some coupons, yes. I had a turquoise two piece with brown accessories. The reception was at the Church Hall, Portskewett, and all my Mother鈥檚 friends gave bits of this and bits of that out of their rations. Mr Bolt got a ham or hock of ham or something? Well we had ham, but I remember he got two big catering tins of corned beef from a friend of his, you know. Ask no questions! We had corned beef sandwiches, he got these two big round tins of corned beef. And pickles, I suppose, my Mother would provide those, because she was a pickler, you know, always doing something like that. Yes it was quite a nice little reception, we ended up with a little dance, I can鈥檛 remember how the music was provided. Not like today鈥檚 into the evening and all, it was just the afternoon.

There was one Officer at Sudbrook that I was friendly with, Emlyn Jones, from the Carlton Cafe in Cardiff. He used to come to church on a Sunday evening, and he used to say to my Mother 鈥淎re we going to church on Sunday?鈥� and Mum would say 鈥淥h yes鈥� and we used to come to church, you know a real good friend he was

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