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We all had a ration book during the war. This included 2oz of sugar, butter, 1 egg, tea, 2oz sweets. Meat was rationed too. Fruit was difficult to get hold of. Bananas came back after the war, but only my little brother was allowed to have one. Anyway we all had a taste of this unknown fruit, and we thought it was wonderful!

We also had a gas mask each. Little ones had a Mickey Mouse one. We had to take them to school in case of raids. We had a shelter at the bottom of the playground. At home we mostly went under the stairs when there was a raid.

My sister and I used to run errands for an old lady, granny Dobson up the street on Saturday mornings and she used to give us 6p and a wonderful jam tart from Whittoffs in West St. We had our sweet ration on Sundays after morning school.

Mum used to go to Turners the grocers (opposite our church) for her shopping which was delivered by a boy on a bike. (My brothers did this job for a while too!). The week’s groceries for us all would come to about 30 shillings. The butter and cheese came in a huge pat/block and the amount you wanted was cut off. There must have been margarine too. We had a Stork margarine cook book at home! Old Mr Turner used to call us girls Polly for some reason. “Now Polly, what do you want today?..” You could get a nice lot of broken biscuits in there for about 6p (I would enjoy a few on the way home!)

There was quite a large market at Crewe; I think it was Friday, Saturday and Monday. Mum used to go there a lot to buy materials for making clothes; she was so good at that. Also the meat and fruit and vegetables were cheaper.

Mum used to get some good bargains at time. The market is still there going strong now, with stalls inside and out.

As sweets were on ration, if we had any spare pennies to be spent on the way to school we would buy a thick slice of malt bread for a penny (no butter), sherbet or something called stickalice (this looked like a bit of wood, and was chewed to get the flavour out) or maybe a bun from the cake shop.

If there was no school, or it was weekend or school holidays we did jobs and were then sent out to play until dinner time. We played with our friends in the street quite a lot too, whip and tops, ball games, skipping, hide and seek etc. We also had clay pipes which we used to make bubbles with a jar of soapy water. We didn’t play in each others’ houses in those days. Nor we were allowed to play in our bedrooms.

At the back of our house we used to play cricket and rounder with the boys and girls from around. We improvised a bat out of a piece of wood. We played in the area we called the square, because it backed onto houses from three streets making a square shape. It was ideal for playing games especially cricket, except when the ball went in someone’s garden. We all became quite good at it, bowling and catching the ball and fielding.

Grandma’s house was by the square in Steel St. If we got too cold and couldn’t go home, we went round to see Grandma. She was quite deaf, which was just as well when we were plonking tunelessly on her piano! She had a job remembering all our names. We also went to play at Valley Brook Park next to the swimming baths.

We used to go to the Odeon Club on a Saturday morning. When it was our birthday we used to get a card and two free tickets. We sometimes went to the Grand picture house in West St. People still ask for the Grand today on the bus, though it has long been demolished.

We had wireless set, which worked by a big battery called an accumulator. It was full of acid and quite heavy. When it needed recharging we would be sent to have it recharged at someone’s house which cost sixpence. It always seemed to run out when we were listening to something interesting!

When we were teenagers we used to rush home for about 9pm to listen to Dick Barton Special Agent which was on for 15 minutes each evening. I remember one series was called “The case of the Sinister Sister!” We didn’t have a television of course. We did have a gramophone playing 78 records, but the needles had to be replaced after listening to two records. Our older brothers used to buy the records mostly.

At Christmas we had a pillow case with nuts, sweets an orange and a few toys. Mum was good at sewing and made rag dolls and pram covers etc. We also had a Rupert Bear annual each year which was shared between the five of us.

One memorable Christmas a chap down the road made a dolls house for us girls. It had a bit of furniture in and we made some more from matchboxes etc. It even had a little toilet which I thought was very novel! My brother made a light for it from a battery and a bulb which we thought was just great! My sister had a “Make Do and Mend” book one Christmas. She loved it, and made a lot of clever things out of it.

All we children saved up our pocket money until we had enough to buy a monopoly set (It cost 15 shillings.) We spent hours playing it, great entertainment!

The sort of main dinners Mum cooked were things like sausages, roly-poly with meat in, meat pie made with tinned meat, fresh fish on Fridays, cottage pie, scrag end and dumplings, stewed rabbit (when meat was scarce!). The tinned meat was pork sausage meat donated by America. The fat around the outside was used to make pastry - delicious! We children queued for ages in the cold for a black market rabbit at 1/6d. If mum had enough money left she might buy us fish and chips. Puddings included sultana or syrup roly poly and custard, lovely big bread puddings with custard, rice puddings, semolina.

We used to go to Sunday school at West Street Baptist church in both the morning and afternoon. Mum used to go to church in the evening and sometimes took us again then!

The family always ate meals together. On Sundays we always had a roast dinner at midday. The joint for the seven of us would cost about 11-12 shillings (with some leftovers for Monday). We had a pudding too. Sometimes we would have a big bottle of pop with our Sunday dinner, either tizer or dandelion and burdock (Big treat!). Sometimes we would buy a large stone bottle of ginger beer from a little shop in Licoln St. Although it was wartime, Mum always made an effort with Sunday tea too. It would be a bit different to other days maybe sandwiches or bread and jam, prunes and custard, and cake.

We had two new books each year from Sunday School as a prize for good attendance. We were only allowed to look at these on Sundays. Sadly only one of these has survived – Tom Sawyer, which I still have (and a bible).

The Sunday school treat every year was quite a highlight for us. Usually we went on a coach trip to a farm or Beeston Castle. We would have a new outfit especially for the Church Anniversary. One year Mum had made me a new cotton floral dress with a collar. However at some point during the day I managed to sit down in a cowpat! Mum was not too pleased about that!

We also joined activities for young people such as the Christian Endeavour when teenagers, until I left Crewe.

The kitchen had a huge sink with cold water, and a copper boiler which was only lit on washing day which was usually Monday. We had a few cupboards in the kitchen and shelves for the pans etc. We had a gas cooker which got very dirty at times with all the cooking. Mum had to burn off the bits to get it clean again. We also bought tins of soft soap.

We had a large walk in larder (or pantry) where all the food was kept. It had a cold slab for keeping butter, meats etc cool. I remember a good supply of hard bars of washing soap in there. Mum used to give these to her brother Sam, to take back to army camp, when they were in short supply. Floors were scrubbed with a soft green soap.

On washday Mum would have to get up early and light the boiler, then she would be busy all day washing. Some of the clothes would be filthy dirty as my Dad and later my brothers worked at the Crewe railway works. Mum had a dolly tub and a ponche and green soap tablets to scrub all the dirt off the clothes. Then the wet washing was mangled through the mangle which was kept covered up in the back yard then hung to dry in the garden. Mum often caught her fingers in the mangle. When it was raining, she hung the clothes round the fire in the living room. We also had a rack in the kitchen which went right up to the ceiling with a roped pulley which was used to dry or air clothes.

When we came home from school for lunch, we would have potato hash, made with the leftovers from Sunday (which we hated!) Sometimes my granny, who lived just round the corner, would come on washday and help mum with the washday chores. By the time we got home from school, Mum would be using the last of the soapy suds to wash the floor. She was always tired and weary after wash day.

On Tuesday’s she would have lots of ironing to do. We didn’t have an ironing board but she used to iron things on the board over the bath. The flat irons would be heated on the fireplace or cooker and needed changing every time they went cold.

We usually went away for a week every year, either to Blackpool, Rhyl or Towyn. We went by train (with free passes because Dad worked on the railways). We would stay in an apartment or chalet.

One year at Browns camp in Towyn our youngest brother developed pneumonia after a night in an air raid shelter before we left Crewe.

As rationing was on, we had to take all our own food for the week which was then given to the lady to cook up for us. Just fancy carrying all that food and clothes for the week!

For the rest of our school holiday we mainly had to amuse ourselves, though sometimes Mum would take us to Queens Park, Crewe (with jam sandwiches and water to drink).

I went to St Adelaide St Primary School and Junior School and came home to lunch every day. I remember that we had to lie down on a straw mats after lunch every day, little oval mats. Also our names were printed out onto little cards (pink for girls, blue for boys) and we had keep copying them into exercise books until we could write our names.

One year one of the junior school teachers Mr Raymond Gilbert was getting married and I suggested we could make a collection and buy him a present, which we did. I was then asked to present it to him, and told to dress up nicely, so I wore my Sunday school anniversary dress and shoes. I felt quite honoured. A few weeks later I was amazed when a small present arrived in the post, addressed to me (unheard of!). It turned out to be a printed card from Mr Gilbert and a tiny piece of wedding cake. I was so thrilled! He lived at a place called Winterly Pool

After Adelaide St I went to Ludford Street Secondary Modern School where we had a different teacher for every subject, all of them were quite strict. We had to wear navy gymslips with three broad pleats, front and back, white blouses and navy cardigans. We had to do PE wearing navy knickers with elasticated legs – very flattering!

In the first year at Ludford St we were lucky enough to attend swimming classes at the Swimming baths. During the few months there, I managed to get my swimming certificate. Miss Price was the teacher.

As my birthday was August, I had to wait until Christmas the year I was 15, to leave school.

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