Stoke and Staffordshire

memories of R.O.F. Swynnerton

Primrose and Ivy Spencer and myself started work at the R.O.F. Swynnerton at the start of the war... We had...

The Beginning

When, on September 9th 1939, Neville Chamberlain announced that we were at war with Germany, I was in an...

Life as a Gunner 1939 - 1940

We had been told the Germans would never get through the Maginot line, they came found it through Belgium....

Cookery Lessons

The boys came down, monitors grabbed first aid boxes or candles and matches, all lined up and went at the...

Married life in the Airforce

My aunt worked at Boyce Adams bakery ,so she provided the icing for the cake, Audrey had her own dress made...

Chronicles of W.B.

I was working in Birmingham in 1940 and was staying in digs with a friend... So myself and George slept in...

Caught by the Braces

My grandfather, his beautiful accent from the hills of Perthshire still true after 50 years in the...

Memories of Growing up in Wartime

Even though there was a complete Blackout with A.R.P. Wardens shouting 'Put out that torch!' we...

From Hull Evacuated to Burton-on-Trent

My brother and I were going to be evacuated to Canada to a relation there, but just before we were due to...

Never Fired a Shot in Anger: Service with the RAF

We had to travel three miles to the cookhouse - we all had a bike and the down bar was painted yellow...

The Red Teddy Bear

Mum managed to get a transfer to Burton on Trent to work as a clerk in a depot which among other things...

Evacuation to Stoke on Trent

WWII Evacuation to Stoke-on-Trent Some time around 1944 my mother, my brother and myself were evacuated...

An Evacuee in Staffordshire 1940 - 1941

After the retreat from Dunkirk and there was a possibility of an invasion, it was decided that all school...

The Day the 'Dump' Went Up: Childhood Memories

The 'Dump' was an amunition store underground in some old gypsum mine workings at Fauld about five...

Aston Birmingham Evacuee Returns

july 1942.sent back home from rugeley boys camp. now aged 14 to start work.i was apprenticed to a joiners...

At home in Chesterfield

When war broke out, I was twenty-one years old and lived at Calow near Chesterfield. He was called up into...

A Child's WW11 Memories

There was the sound of throbbing engines overhead.The women were able to tell the difference between our...

Childhood in County Durham

We had for a week, 2oz bacon, 2oz butter, half an ounce of sugar, one fresh egg each or egg powder which...

Wellies in the Anderson Shelter

We lived in Windmill Street on the corner of Old Hall Terrace. We had loads of incendiary bombs in Hanley...

Aircrews for Tea

I also remember they used to come round and ask us if we'd have airmen round for tea from the Meir...

Air Raid Shelter Reminiscences

We did have a memeory from a lady who had been at the Broadway cinema in Meir when the sirens went -...

Bomb Raids Over Hanley

They came over one night and dropped a basket of incendiary bombs on Birches Head Lane... One German plane...

Remembering World War Two

Every little piece of land was used to grow our crops, Not many luxuries for us Very little in our shops....

Tanks and Thanks

I can remember my mum Freda, who accompanied me on the one mile walk to Colton Church of England village...

An Evacuee's Memories of Wartime Leek

We were bussed to Manchester Piccadilly Station, and got the train to Leek. Nothing happened in Manchester,...

A Good Enough Reason...: Handing Out Ration Books and Service in the Land Army

A friend suggested the Land Army and I said no because I was terrified of cows; but we went in... I stuck...