91热爆

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Christine Wadsworth of Wakefield Libraries and Information Services on behalf of Cliff Hodgkinson and has been added with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When the bomb dropped in Ambler Street, other bombs were dropped in other parts of Castleford. One was dropped at Churchfields and a woman was killed. Another bomb dropped on a house called Windy Ridge and all of it鈥檚 front windows were blown out. Three were dropped on Pontefract Road School playing field where schoolboy Dennis Perry had to fill in the holes they left. A small factory at the top of Smawthorne Lane made nuts and bolts for Spitfires and it is thought that this was the target for the bomb dropped on Ambler Street. Incendiary bombs and high explosives were also dropped fifty yards from the factory, near the Magnet Hotel (which is still there). One bomb landed in a muddy stream and splashed mud all over the gable end of a nearby house. Two smaller bombs were dropped at the back of Robin Hood Street. It was the last bomb dropped that landed in Ambler Street, destroying the house.

Rationing was something we had to put up with. In January 1940, I came home from work and my Mother had looked all over Castleford, but couldn鈥檛 find anything for my dinner. Rationing really was starting to bite! My Mother said that she couldn鈥檛 get anything so I asked her if she had any bread and butter, she had, so I made a lettuce sandwich! I grew the lettuce on top of our air raid shelter which I had helped to build along with my schoolmate, Jimmy Heaton. Jimmy was a great school friend of mine, but we lost contact once we left school.

Fish and chips were never rationed during any part of the war. At night nearly every meal for supper was fish and chips, but by 1941, people were growing their own food My elder brother Alec had joined the Air Force before the war and once when he came home on leave in 1942, we had eggs and bacon. The eggs came from our own hens and the bacon from my Uncles Harold and John鈥檚 pigs, after we gave them eggs in exchange. One time, thieves stole some pigs after the person who was supposed to be on night watch fell asleep so after this, the Police and Government stepped in and said that all allotments and gardens should be kept under surveillance, day and night.

In 1944 ration books weren鈥檛 as valued as they were in 1940 as people had learnt to cope with shortages. American food was available in all pit canteens and large factories including Hicksons, Lumb鈥檚 Glassworks and Town Tailors. Some large towns had restaurants called British Restaurants where you could get dinner at a moderate price of one shilling and five pence, (nearly 7 pence).

Clothes were on ration books and were still rationed for a few years after the war. Sweets were also still on ration after the war. In 1948 I bought some sweets, but I didn鈥檛 have enough coupons even though I had the money, so the shopkeeper said that I owed him two sweet coupons from my next ration book. That shop is no longer there. I lost my ration book and never paid him back his sweet coupons!

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