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I was born in1937, so was a little over two when war was declared. We lived over the shop in Burslem and the only immediate impact I can remember were the urgent preparations for the Black Out. As we already had curtains this was not a problem but they had to be checked to make sure that there were no cracks and were light proof. Also the local Home Guard was formed and met in the bakery house.

My father was thirty-five so not eligible for immediate call up. He was a Leather Merchant and owned several boot repair shops which meant his was a reserved occupation and he was not allowed to sign up. An Army is no Army without boots and our shops worked 24 hours a day repairing Army boots which had to be collected from around the Midlands and Cheshire. This meant we had a special petrol allowance and I can remember riding in the car sat on top of the sacks full of boots as there was no seat room left. We had a large ‘Revolution’ press in the cellar of our shop and my Uncle and others came in after work on the railways to press out leather soles and heels to keep operating to supply all customers. The same cellar served as our shelter during air raids.

We moved to Alsager in 1940 to get away from the bombing, but my father had to stay several nights during the week in Burslem for work and also for the Home Guard. We made other leather goods including cases for gas masks. I vividly remember the day I got my gas mask as I cried because they had run out of the Mickey Mouse ones! At school we saved magazines and were given coloured badges, red for 50, silver for 100 and Gold for 200.
The large houses next door were requisitioned for use by the Army, Navy and American forces. On the day before the allied invasion our lane was packed with American Army lorries awaiting the signal to be off. I remember the soldiers giving us boxes of ‘candies’. The ruts in the lane made by the lorries were still to be seen up to the late 1950’s. While in Hospital with Scarlet Fever, during the raids I was made to hold a boy’s hand as the noise of the bombs frightened him (but not me!)

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