大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Dawn Cunningham of Lutterworth Community College on behalf of Lutterworth Reminiscence Group and has been added to the site with permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

During the War a very loud noise could be heard all over Lutterworth. Nobody knew what it was and stranger still, people didn't talk about it. The following quotes are memories of the noise:

"The noise used to go all day and often through the night. We could hear it and smell it before we knew what it was. At night time the blackout increased the mystique of the noise. Nobody spoke about it; we just accepted the noise had something to do with the war. I didn鈥檛 know what it was until the war was over".
Sheila Hammond

"Nobody talked about it. Everybody could hear it, it was so loud. I knew it had something to do with the war, but I didn鈥檛 know what it was. It was more eerie when it stopped because you got so used to it. We had notices up at school to keep mum, so we did"!
Hilda Dorman

"Not a lot of people seemed to work in the place. I think it was more of a laboratory than a factory. I knew it had something to do with the Air Force. The hedge was all burnt up outside and it smelt of kerosene. From the outside it appeared to be like a wind tunnel, with a big hole in the wall. The noise went day and night and you could hear it all over Lutterworth. I suppose it was a noise that everybody just stayed silent about because they knew it was to do with the war".
Peter Knight

It wasn't untill after the war had ended did people realise that it was Frank Whittles Jet Engine being tried out and tested.

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