I remember there were some Italian prisoners in the village, and my dad had to get them on a bus so they could help out on the farm. One day they asked my mum where she was going. She said she was going to Braintree to do some shopping. They weren’t allowed to go shopping. They asked her to buy some hair nets for them to put over their hair! That tickled me, that did. Those hair nets.
The first bus of evacuees brought the toddlers with their mums. The next day it drew up and it was full of schoolchildren. Someone saw them get off the train, and then it was around the whole village. Mum said, “Don’t you go and pick one up.” She was busy on the farm.
The under-fives went to a big country house in the village. It used to be a nunnery. Us Girl Guides had to and give them baths at night. They wore pixie hoods in different colours, and they’d be walking down the street like a line of little elves. And sometimes we tormented the school children. We’d ask them, “Is it true you’ve got a knitted vest?”
Mr and Mrs Chancellor evacuated themselves from London.
There was one mother who had five girls, but they were sent to different houses and separated. The pub landlady offered to take all five. When they went back to London after the war they didn’t like it so they came back to live in the village.
We had rations, everyone had rations. My mum knew a woman who had four children so she used to help her out, knit jumpers for them. And if you wanted extra things, extra sugar, you asked the spivs, the wide boys. If you wanted sugar, he could get it.
And nylons. If the women found out there was a shop selling nylons, they’d all queue up for hours. There was a shop in Colchester selling them. We had a packet each, three pairs in a packet, and we guarded them with our lives. It was a great day we got nylons. Once on a birthday I got some silk stockings, and I hugged them.
There used to be canteens where you could go in and get a dinner for a shilling. Anybody could go in. There were all sorts of places. Tea vans. You could always get a cup of tea. The only food that wasn’t rationed was fish and chips. It was ok for the townies but the country people couldn’t get it. We used to get agricultural pies on Thursdays. They were made of beef or pork. We ordered them the week before, then I went along to the farm to collect them. They made a meal. They were nice.
If you saw a queue you just joined it, even if you didn’t know what it was for. You might get a tin of stuff.
Mum and Dad got extra rations of tea and sugar at harvest time because they were up early and worked till late. They could work late in the summer because there was light, but in the winter it was dark and you couldn’t hang a lantern in the wheat fields because of the enemy planes.
Janet's dad on the farm.
I think the war modernised England. We took a step forward in agriculture. The Americans helped us, they built aerodromes, on the flat lands. Anywhere where there was a flat space, they built aerodromes. A lot of fields went under concrete.
It’s funny when I look back, I wasn’t frightened.
We used to listen to the radio. A lovely story you’d get on a Saturday night. And it was a marvellous day when Churchill came out and said the war had finished. There was whooping and shouting and everyone being silly. Every barn got decorated and we had teas. I don’t know where they got the decorations from! One barn for the adults, and another for the children.
Gradually things went back to normal. There used to be green mesh on the bus windows, to protect passengers from the splintering. That came off when the war was over.
-JANET
Janet as a toddler, above, and below, recreating the scene many years later.
