Wartime Stories

Janet at Glenmoor House has some more wonderful memories about life during the War. It's such an interesting period of history, and Janet really brings it alive with her wonderfully detailed and well observed stories. I hope you enjoy reading them...

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.

Stories from Glenmoor House

I've been talking to the residents of Glenmoor House Care Home in Corby, run by Avery Healthcare, to unearth some wonderful stories from the past. We started off with childhood memories, and the group had some fascinating tales to share, particularly as many of them had grown up during WW2. Here are some of their wartime experiences...

"The car headlamps were hooded. They had masks on them so they shone downwards and the bombers couldn't see them.

They were digging shelters, Anderson shelters, you dug a hole in the garden.  They were sunk in.  Morrison shelters were fitted inside the house, and there were brick ones in the back street for the community. Alarms would go off at school. We used to sing war songs and we had to sing in tune. 

My dad was a congregational minister, and my mum was a housewife. He was what you called a "conscientious objector". They arrested him and sent him to Dartmoor for a few weeks. In the end he didn’t go into the army because he was taken ill in prison."

-ALAN                                                                                                                                                                                                     -

Adolph Hitler visited my house when I was a young girl in Germany. He was very handsome, and had kind eyes.

-CLAIRE                                                                                                                                 

We queued for everything. There were queues everywhere, and you were always at the end of it.

The coupons were a headache. We had rations. 2oz butter, 1 egg a week, bread, butcher meat, bananas, extra sugar for making jam. We didn’t starve. Everybody cooked. 

We used to get eighteen clothing coupons. You used two for stockings. People were selling coupons. We were still using them after the war, for five years we used coupons. We got used to it, it was a part of life. 

The land girls got extra rations of sweets. They smuggled them and gave them to the children. Girls joined up for the land army without being conscripted.

They took all the metal to make guns. The railings were all gone. They took it all, railings, old saucepans, even the lipstick covers, the hair clips and the curlers. Women were working in the munitions factories so men could go to war.

Every field on the farms had a searchlight. Air raids happened early in the morning. You heard the machine guns and you'd try and hide. They dropped bombs on the boatyards, they were after the ships. We had ten days of bombing in Barrow.

Signs got taken down so planes couldn’t see, and the lights on cars had grids on. There were blackouts. Even if you could see a pinhole of light you’d get a knock on the door for letting out light. You got fined 10 bob, half a pound, for letting the light out. You could get a good dress or shoes for a shilling.

-KITTY

                                                                                                                               

My father made clothes, my mum was a housewife. When the sirens went off Mum hauled us out of bed and put us under the table, me and my brother. I remember playing with a car, under the table. It quietened down soon afterwards.

Everybody brought out a plate of food for the soldiers at the end of the war. They all baked for the street parties, and if it rained we went in the barns. There were no children's toys during the war. Nothing at Christmas.

-HILDA

                                                                                                                                    

During the war, when we were in Hertfordshire, we stood in the field and we could see the flames from London. We dived under the hedges. My dad told me not to be scared. It was dreadful for the Londoners though. 

One time we heard there was a bomb in the farmyard, an incendiary. We were told to go home and we spent all day at the windows. It was near the school and church. There was a note inside the bomb. Then soldiers came and set it off. We all thought it was a joke.

Everybody had a gas mask, and an identity card. My number was DFFRR. We practised at school. The siren would go off and we would jump up and put it on. The babies had mickey mouse masks, and for tiny babies there were cradles with a cover.

We lived on a dairy farm. Mum worked in the dairy too. She would get up at five. One day I looked out of the window, and saw a parachute in the field, stuck in an apple tree. Dad went on the bike to check, there was no petrol ration. Then the Home Guard came and they tracked down the German soldier in another village.

Dad worked on farm. He had a bad eye. The spark from the fire flew in it when he was three. He couldn’t go into the army, so he was in the Home Guard. He was a lovely man. He kept the village boys amused, played cricked and football with them on the field.

Mum stopped reading the paper. It was too gruesome. One day I was trying to read about Poland and she snatched it away.

Men were digging on the first Sunday it started. Making shelters. Then the Yanks took over the villages. Have you got any gum, chum? That's what us kids would say, trying to talk like the Americans. They were in charge of searchlights and aerodromes. They'd come and ask for eggs and buy them. We had two or three chickens. Every Christmas one would be killed and roasted. Mum tried to kill a chicken for grandma once, but it got up and ran away.

Then there were the war brides. Girls got married to the Yanks. But they were disheartened when they went over. They were disillusioned and broken hearted. They couldn't afford much. They ended up coming back through unions and then they were looked down on. I remember one of them who stayed there, she was happy. But otherwise it was a sad time for the war brides.

I’ll tell you something that’ll make you creep. One day they built gallows on the edge of the churchyard. They were built of wood. I was mesmerised by these gallows. We asked, "What is it?" They said if they catch any Germans in the village they’ll hang them upside down. We were petrified, we stayed a good foot away from them. It was a hideous thing to do, and in the end they had to take it down.

-JANET

It was lovely to hear the memories that the group so generously shared, and we have plenty more to come. And please, if you or anyone you know would like to share a story, please get in touch!

Inspire Artist's Residency

The Inspire Artist's Residency is a community project, led by me, Azma Dar, a writer, with the aim of exploring the stories and memories of people living in Corby. The project is funded by Made in Corby, an Arts Council supported initiative that helps local people take part in arts activities.

Over the next few weeks I'll be working with people in the local community to talk about their memories and experiences, and will be sharing them on this blog.

I've already begun working with the wonderful residents of Glenmoor House Care Home, and they've been reminiscing about everything from ration cards to the Royal Marines. It's a real privilege to listen to the lovely stories they have, and I look forward to sharing them on here. And if you live in Corby and have a story to tell- then please get in touch. Quirky, funny, scary, romantic- we want to hear about them!