MEMORIES OF WARTIME CASTLEFORD
During the 1939/45 war all Britons had to carry identity cards presumably in case enemy agents infiltrated the country. Our family members had the identity number KPHG 175/ followed by a number representing our position in the family, in my case 7. This later became the national health number.
On all lorries and vans the address and town were painted out and they were allowed to display only the name and trade of the firm, which owned them. Road signs showed only road numbers not place names, no doubt to confuse enemy paratroopers. Petrol rationing was applied and commercial vehicles ran on petrol coloured red (called pool petrol). Woe betide any private motorist caught with red petrol in his tank. My father had a pre-war Canadian Buick straight 8, 30 h.p. car and by disconnecting four of the cylinders he was able to go much further on his petrol coupons.
Public buildings such as schools and Town Halls had white tape applied to the windows in criss-cross fashion to reduce blast damage and many had walls of sandbags around them. A.R.P. (Air raid precautions) wardens, often old soldiers, were on duty fire-watching. We had them at night in a top room in our building in Bank Street watching for incendiary bombs landing on the roofs around. There was sometimes confusion due to my father having the initials ARP.
There were often military parades when soldiers from the nearest camp paraded through the streets. Volunteer firemen manned “green goddess” fire engines and were known as the A.F.S. (Auxiliary Fire Service). Many local motor garages were producing aircraft parts in their workshops.
Throughout the British Isles iron railings were removed for melting down to build ships, tanks and guns. In fact they were stockpiled and never used. In the streets there were public information posters with messages such as: - CARELESS TALK COSTS LIVES. IS YOUR JOURNEY REALLY NECESSARY? . DIG FOR VICTORY. HOLIDAY AT HOME. In all buses was the notice: - COUGHS AND SNEEZES SPREAD DISEASES TRAP THE GERMS IN YOUR HANDKERCHIEF.
In Barnsdale Road at Castleford there was a large flat field and the authorities erected large stakes every fifty yards or so to prevent enemy aircraft landing.
At night all houses were in darkness, our house had wooden shutters on the front bay window which I hadthe job of fitting each night when old enough. Air Raid Wardens patrolled the streets calling out “PUT THAT LIGHT OUT’’. All road vehicles had slatted hoods fitted over the headlights to deflect the little light allowed down at the road, not up to the sky. An essential aid to all the drivers were the “cats eyes “ in the centre of the road which were invented by a Yorkshire man Percy Shaw in 1934, these proved to be a boon and remain so. All street lamps were turned off throughout the war and church bells were not sounded until they were rung to signal the end of hostilities. School children had small luminous discs on their lapels and wore identity bracelets and carried gas masks in round metal canisters. Most people carried a torch, as the streets were pitch black.
Most houses had their own air raid shelter nearby known as Anderson shelters, named after the designer, Sir John Anderson. Our own shelter was buried in the ground about 80 feet from the back wall of the house. It had a brick enclosure at the surface and then a gas curtain followed by steps down to the actual galvanised shelter which had a steel door. Inside were 2 ft wide shelves at low and high level for us to sleep on. We often retired to the shelter at night when we heard the “air-raid warning” which was a wailing sound emitted by sirens throughout the town. We wore one-piece garments called siren suits over our pyjamas; these were designed for and recommended by Winston Churchill who was regularly seen wearing one. We could hear the sound of bombers flying over and of bombs screaming down. The bombers aimed at the coke ovens in Glass Houghton and the power station at Ferrybridge.
Quite a few bombs fell in our vicinity causing a number of deaths. Bombs landed in the avenues directly behind us in a straight line and the last one, which should have hit our house, was missing. We had men searching the garden for it. In Hill Road directly behind us a bomb landed in the front garden of a semi belonging to the Colley family. It was a time bomb, which exploded the following morning at about 8.30 am destroying the house and leaving a huge crater in their front garden. A lot of debris landed in our back lawn (tennis court) including part of a mother-of pearl toilet seat. A piece of shrapnel was embedded in the back wall of our house near the kitchen window. At the end of the air raid the “all clear” siren sounded and we could leave the shelter. For part of the war we had double summer time when the daylight lasted until about 11.0 p.m. to allow workers to reach home before the bombing commenced.
At school we had fire drills at regular intervals. The school bell was sounded and all the school assembled in the playground for roll call. There were large underground shelters available. During the war some Grammar School students were on fire watching duty during the night armed with stirrup pumps, and buckets of sand ready to deal with incendiary bombs on the roof. I seem to recall a bomb dropping in the sports field during the school holidays.
Everybody had a ration book, which was obtained from the Food Office in Ferrybridge Road 100 yards up from the Town Hall. The amount of food and clothing was strictly regulated by means of coupons (known as points) from the ration book, which were handed to shopkeepers when making a purchase. Many people believe that the wartime diet was much healthier than today’s. The housewives were forced by the circumstances to use their ingenuity in preparing meals, using such ingredients as dried milk, dried eggs (which I liked), spam etc. All householders were encouraged to dig up their gardens and grow vegetables. Allotments appeared on all pieces of ground and huge storage tanks, called static water tanks, were installed all over town to assist in fire-fighting.
In Carlton Street in the outside market a building appeared, known as “The British Restaurant”, where it was possible to purchase very nourishing meals for a few shillings. This restaurant remained for several years after the war and I often had lunch there.
During the war years, milk was delivered by horse and trap and the milkman brought the milk to the door in an oval covered metal pail and dispensed it with gill and pint measures into the customer’s own jug. Coal was delivered by horse and cart and tipped at the gate. In our area most of the coal deliveries were for the families of miners who received as part of their wages and it was understood that, if the coal heap had newspaper on it, it was for sale. This was most illegal.
At home we had our family tennis club in the summer and football club in the winter on the back lawn. The pavilion was the old tram, which used to run past the door until about 1925. We sometimes held “concerts” in the garage, staged by my sisters Margaret and Joan and myself. We held one for the Spitfire fund selling 1d tickets at the gate to passers-by and, on one occasion raised the princely sum of 2/7d.
In wartime the public parks were very popular and brass band concerts were held in the bandstand in our local Queen’s park every Sunday evening. The tennis courts were in great demand. Wakes weeks holidays were widespread when factories and coalmines closed down for the workers to have a holiday (usually at home).
At the end of the war rationing continued for a further 7 to 8 years. I remember Walls ice cream coming into the local corner shops every week and a queue of about 50 yards usually formed outside on the pavement, in front. These are my personal recollections which have slowly come back during this exercise.
Ralph Parkin