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I was 5 years old when war broke out. I remember going to school in Ashington in gas masks. Nearby was a railway line which transported coal from the mines (5 collieries). There was a bridge over the Wansbeck and I heard the Germans bombing it. They came night and day. The sirens went many times. We used the metal shelter as a dining room table (6’ x 10’). We got inside when we heard the sirens. I slept in there (3 children and mum). Dad was an RAP warden he went out on duty when the sirens went off. A bomb fell 200yds from the house, it didn’t explode and we spent the rest of the war playing in the crater (12’ x 4’ deep). We were scared when the bombs fell, you could hear them whistling when they came down.

I was 11 when the war ended and I was in hospital so I could not join in the street parties. We had 8oz of sugar a week, 4 oz sweets a week. We each had a jar with our ration in it. Mum had 5 ration cards. We ate fruit only in season, I still eat things in season now. During the war we were encouraged to change their gardens over to vegetables or chickens etc.

These are my wartime memories as a child.

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