Young Alan’s War
When War was declared between Great Britain and Germany, I was just four and a half years old. My Family lived in an area of London named ‘Custom House’ which was right in the middle of London’s docks which made the area vulnerable to German air raids.
It was a typical terraced house with a small front porch, no front garden and a back yard with an outside toilet. The streets were cobblestones. I can well remember the kitchen which had a cast iron fire range where all the cooking was done. It was the warmest room in the house. The scullery next door had a cold water tap over a six inch deep stone basin where my mother did all the washing.
Just outside the back door hung a galvanised Tub that was brought into the kitchen once a week for our Friday night bath in front of the fire. Because of the Blitz all children were evacuated. I didn’t really understand what was happening but I was with my big sister aged 11 and so felt quite safe. First of all we assembled at our local school, climbed into coaches and taken to a main line station to go on a train. I remember seeing open fields for the first time and seeing the cows and sheep which I had never seen live before.
Our destination was Westbury in Wiltshire which is famous for having a large white horse carved into the hillside. The family that we were to live with were lovely people named Hale who had three children of their own and older than me. We were made very welcome. Mr Hale was a big strong gentle giant of a man who was a train driver, working long hours and often not being there for the main meal. We were always reminded “Don’t forget Father has got to come” and nobody sat in his chair.
The house was quite big and built on the side of a hill. The Front of the house was at one time a Tea Room but had to be closed because of rationing. The house had two wings with a cobbled courtyard in between. I shared a bedroom with the two Hale boys in one wing but the other wing was taken over by the War Department and many soldiers were billeted there prior to going abroad. The back garden had many fruit trees and of course, Vegetables of all kinds.
On one occasion my sister said she had a present for me. I thought she said it would be a ‘puppy’. In fact it was a ‘poppy’ that the schoolchildren had made. After nine months there I was taken ill and my mother came to take me home. I went into hospital to have my tonsils removed. I remained in London but my sister stayed in Westbury until she was 14 and then went back to London to start work. Then we were able to move to a Council House in Dagenham. It was a terraced house with a front garden and it actually had a bathroom and toilet inside. The kitchen had a large copper boiler which served hot water for the bath and for the washing.
The back garden had an Anderson Shelter on one side and a chicken coop on the other that my father had built so we were never short of eggs. My father put up a huge flagpole with a big Union Jack. When the V1’s started coming over, we had one land on the houses directly behind us early one morning which destroyed 6 homes. All our windows were blown in. I was in bed at the time and I was hiding under the bedclothes. When a second V1 exploded in a field directly in front of our house. It was decided that I should be evacuated again when I was just 8 years old.
I wasn’t happy about this but I was made to go to a village called Otley which is about 10 miles from Ipswich. It seemed to be the other side of the world. I stood in a queue with other evacuees and saw this woman who unfortunately had a bad squint in one eye which made her look quite frightening and I hoped that I didn’t have to go with her but that is exactly what happened. Her name was Mrs Moss. This time it was a semi-detached tied cottage with two bedrooms as Mr Moss worked on a farm. Once again the toilet was in the back garden and the soiled buckets were removed in the early hours and replaced by clean ones. No mains sewage here. Mrs Moss had no children and seemed to begrudge us being there. We had regular chores to do and one of mine was to clean all the boots and shoes in the house and make them shine, even the farm boots and wellies.
We were made to go to Chapel 3 times on Sundays. There was a balcony area for children and I recall seeing the floor below open up to reveal a large pool of water where people were baptised.
I wrote letters home but Mrs Moss always checked them for ‘Spelling Mistakes’ which meant that she really wanted to see what I had written. I did enjoy going to school which was just two classrooms. We Londoners were called “Townies” but we all got on O K with the local children. After being there for some time we were given one hour free time each week. I used this time to write to my mother about how I felt and then posted the letters in the village Post Office before going home. Mrs Moss wasn’t too happy about this but she couldn’t do anything about it.
I loved watching the local blacksmith shoeing the lovely Shire Horses that worked on the farms. During school holidays I liked to help the milkmaid deliver milk to the village. I used to collect jugs and containers from the houses and she would fill them up from the big Churns. No Bottles Here.
One day we were all given a day off because a field was being harvested. We were all given walking sticks but they all had a large knot at one end rather cleverly carved into the shape of animal heads and we formed a ring round the field.When the combined harvesters started off from the edge of the field, they gradually got nearer to the centre, Rabbits started to try and escape. This was when we used our clubs to catch them. I think that I caught about six. Boooo !
We made a slit in a back leg and the other back leg was pushed through so that we were able to carry the Rabbits over our shoulders on the Walking Stick. The whole village ate rabbit for some time.
On another occasion all the boys were given half a day off from school and once more given the Walking Sticks (Clubs). This time we circled a hay stack that was being taken down. It was infested with Rats so once more we practiced our Golf Shots but on moving targets.
I remember one character in the village who was the Postman who also was the Rat Catcher. He had lost his left hand somehow and in it’s place he had a two-pronged hook. When Rat Catching he would carry a cage on this hook and inside were two Ferrets that he released wherever Rats were nesting.
My parents could tell that I wasn’t happy so my mother came to take me home but was prevented from doing so by Mr Hitler sending over the V2 Rockets. However a couple of months later my Father did collect me. Although the War wasn’t yet over, I was back home where I belonged with my lovely parents and sister.