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I was manageress of "Walter Wilson's" all during the war - I was only 20 - the youngest manageress on the firm (the men were called up of course, which was why the women had to take over). We had to count the food coupons and it used to take me hours on the weekend, and they had to be sent up to the food office in Sedgefield. Every fortnight all the managers of the Ferry Hill stores (and there were a lot of them) had to meet at the Masonic Hall to witness demonstrations of gas attack procedures (possible contamination of the food). We wore a Civil Defence armlet and ARP (air raid precaution)badge. People did all sorts to try to eke out the rations - my mum used to boil rice and make it into little patties, then batter it and add salt and vinegar - to pass as fish- it tasted ok as well! They did lots of things like that - where I worked they starting getting rabbits in & I was shown how to skin them, leaving the heads on, least someone should try and pass a cat as rabbit meat!

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