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During the war I lived on High Deepdale Farm, Oliver’s Mount, Nr Scarborough and attended St. Martin’s School in Royal Avenue, Scarborough.

My most abiding memories are of being carried out to an air raid shelter by my father, wrapped in an eiderdown, with incendiary bombs falling all around us. I remember seeing a red glow in the sky which was the Hull Blitz, quite frightening.

Later, part of my father’s land was commandeered by the Army, for tank assault training. Every day hundreds of soldiers were brought up in lorries and there was a sense of great urgency. There was barbed wire everywhere and we had a sentry posted at the farm gate during this time.

My mother ran a NAAFFI for them out of the dairy window. Some food was brought up each day but she got up at 5.30 each morning to make 6 dozen scones to sell. They were very popular.

There was also an enormous amount of steel girders that we loved to play on — we later found them to be part of the Mulberry Harbour, made in Scarborough by Brogden and Wilson.

We also witnessed the daylight raid on Plaxtons, the 2 aircraft being brought down over Staxton. 2 Large bombs fell on our land and blew all our windows in.

All the training activity came to an abrupt halt and the piles of girders disappeared. We shortly heard of the Normandy landings and the eventual end of Wartime. I hope some of this recollection will be of interest.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who remembers training up at High Deepdale Farm.

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