大象传媒

I can very well remember my first day at Valley Road Infants School in 1937. I was five years old. I enjoyed school and still remember some of my friends I made there. When the war started in 1939, we had to carry our gas masks all the time and we used to have air raid drills. There was lots of bombing in Sunderland especially near the shipyards. The Gasometers in Commercial Road were also a target.

Round about October 1941/42 I went to a cousin's party at Ford Estate. My Dad took me on the bus. You didn't have a car in those days unless you were a doctor or a businessman. On our way home there was a big air raid. We had already left the party and were half way home. There were no shelters nearby, so my Dad and I stood in a shop doorway in Hylton Road and we saw the bombs falling. Then we saw something floating down on a small parachute. It was a landmine. This was the landmine that hit Valley Road School. The houses opposite the school as well as the school were demolished. Many were injured. Some lost limbs and others lost their lives.

We managed to get home safely when things had settled down. After this there wasn't a school for us to attend. we were away from school for quite a long time. Parents had to go to the Education Office in John Street to collect work for us to complete at home. Then it had to go back for marking. this was regular thing. This was how I carried on with my education for a while. Some girls went to Miss Wake's house in Athol Road. She was a teacher and was able to teach a few girls in her home. There were no buildings to use as a temporary school and there was a lot of bomb damage.

Later, however, a place was found and most of the girls in my class went to Langam Towers or Bede Towers. I went to Bede Towers. It was an old building standing in it's own grounds. Then we moved again and we were educated at the Synagogue in Ryhope Road. It was at the Synangogue that I took my 11 plus examination.

There wasn't a lot of rooms available there for us to use as a school, so the hall in the building had to be divided into four and four different teachers held their classes there divided only by screens. You were trying to concentrate on what your teacher was saying but couldn't help overhearing the other teachers. Most of our teachers had come out of retirement during the war, as the younger teachers had been called up on active service. I left school in 1946 aged 14 years.

I was fortunate that I had my Mum and Dad at home during the war years. My Dad would have liked to have been in the armed forces but he was a shipyard plater and his job was more important to the war effort. he was however in the Home Guard.

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