The Bombing of Quarry Farm

From the beginning. I was born in Stockton on Tees and my father had a farm. I was one of four sons, on a farm called Quarry Farm, which has now been sold for housing, in December ’41, a plane from Thornaby aerodrome got into difficulties and went straight into the house and killed my mother, father and two younger brothers, also the pilot and three airmen were killed. In those days the plane was operated by petrol so it just went up in flames. My elder brother and myself jumped out and ran away, got behind some potatoes. We were rescued by a neighbouring farmer and taken to their farm, and the RAF doctor came, gave us a check over and said “Oh they’ll do.” And that was it! I was ten, my brother was eleven. We went to live with aunts and uncles, then we went to Great Ayton boarding school. We were very lucky because all of our relatives were very good people and trusted us, but your auntie is never your mother. It was a bit frightening because the airplanes kept going over. But at this school, they designated a senior girl to look after us because we didn’t have parents, like a temporary mother. Mine was Rachael Dobbing, I remember her, and after having six daughters, two of them was called Rachel. After that, when I was 20 I thought the big thing to do was to get married, so I got a small farm and I was there two or three years, so we decided to go to Australia, to a farming community. We stopped off in Kenya to have a bit of a look around, and I didn’t come back for 40 years! We got involved in the tribal fighting, so we eventually came back in 1998 and settled in Billingham. Now at 74, I’m “chilled out” as the kids say. I’ve got 8 children, I’m very happy.
People waste things nowadays, they chuck out settees, they leave food. You notice lots of silly things now.

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