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I was born in 1931 and was eight years old at the outbreak of war. I lived with my parents and younger brother in Glenfrome Road Eastville Bristol (Map Ref. ST 609 754).
These are notes of my experiences:-

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR AND AIR RAID SHELTERS
My earliest memory was in late 1938 or early 1939 going to the village hall in Stapleton, with the family, to be issued with gas masks.
Just before war was declared, Anderson shelter components were delivered to houses locally. It was intended that Council workmen would install them but on the day when war began, people in houses nearby were rapidly digging the 3 ft. deep pits that were required and then going on to build them up themselves. Interestingly I believe that only households below a certain income level were provided with them free (although I am not absolutely sure about this).
Certainly several houses nearby did not get them and I know one family bought their own concrete block version. Later bunk beds were provided for the shelters. Some shelters flooded and had to be concreted internally. Also later brick shelters were built in many gardens.

RATIONING
It was strictly applied, in town there seemed to be little chance of any extras.
I remember occasional weeks when there was no fresh meat, “only corned beef this week madam”.
There was no shortage of vegetables, potatoes etc. Imported fruit was just not available. When I was older, I started jotting things in a diary and I have a note on
10 Jan. 1946 “had first banana since 1939”.
Butter and cooking fat was in very short supply. I remember queuing with my mother for a couple of hours to get about 1lb. of the fat produced when tripe was boiled.
We had some relations in Canada and very occasionally they would send a “food parcel”. The most eagerly awaited item was a tin of butter (I believe about 7lbs.) which had to be opened and the contents distributed among various relatives.

SCHOOL AND AIR RAIDS
Until 1942 I was at primary school in Coombe Road Eastville. There were some shelters underneath the playground but they could not accommodate the whole school, so pupils attended on a part time basis. Evacuation was offered but my mother decided to keep the family together. I was at home at the time of the second major daylight attack on 27th Sept. 1940 on the aircraft works (now known to have been intended for the Parnell works at Yate). I saw the flights of German aircraft approaching, they were then attacked by the Hurricane fighters which had been deployed to Filton after the previous raid on the 25th. Dogfights were virtually overhead and I remember hearing the spent cartridge cases “pinging” on the roofs of houses.
Soon after this, when some children had been evacuated, I returned to school full time as there was then sufficient shelter capacity. At all times we had to take our gas masks to school, if we forgot, then we were sent home to get them.
The first major night attack on Bristol was on 24 Nov. 1940. The evening was spent in the shelter. After the all clear the sky towards the city centre had a vivid red glow. Next morning the notable thing was the smell of burning and a lot of burnt paper drifting down
By this time the family were only using the downstairs rooms at night. All four of us had beds together in one room.
The night raids on Bristol continued until the spring of 1941, some thoughts on this period:-
A large delayed action bomb fell in a back garden in Heyford Avenue near Kirtlington Road (Map ref. ST608 755). It took a week to dig it out from an enormous hole and defuse it. I went to see it after the job was complete. During the week we had to keep our windows wide open (in mid winter) to minimise possible blast damage.
There were long nights in the shelter when the bombers were going to northern towns.
All clear was not given until they passed over back heading southwards.
The tremendous noise of the anti aircraft guns on Purdown (Map ref. ST610 765 approx.) and the “tinkle” of shrapnel falling on roofs, sometimes breaking tiles. This was a significant danger if one was outside without a helmet.
One day a barrage balloon from a site near the old Bristol Rovers football ground (Map ref. ST 609 752 approx.) came down across houses in Woburn Road during a sudden gale.
A sudden thunderstorm occurred when the balloons were up. Several were struck by lightning and came down in flames
A delayed action bomb fell just inside the Eastville gas works wall at a point where the railway line from Fishponds to Montpellier crossed Glenfrome Road (Map ref.
ST 606 752). No one knew it was there and after several days it exploded. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it blew down a length of the wall and part of the railway bridge. For several years there was only a single line operating over the bridge. Eventually it was rebuilt, but in the 1970’s it was demolished when the line closed.

GOING TO GRAMMAR SCHOOL
In September 1942, at the age of eleven I went to Cotham Grammar School in Bristol. By this time things were considered safe, despite the serious incident when buses in Broadweir Bristol were hit in daylight in late April 1942. Somehow my father had managed to get me a bicycle (they were in very short supply) for my birthday and I was allowed to cycle to school every day across the town. I cannot imagine a child being allowed to do that today.
At the school there were several elderly teachers who had come back to work to replace those who had been called up. There were also several women teachers, apparently they were unheard of pre war in a boy’s school.
The senior boys had a rota to do fire watching duties with the staff at night.
From time to time at morning assembly, the headmaster would read out names of old boys who had been reported killed or missing. During the morning of 6 June 1944 hearing at school that the D day landings were happening and wondering what the outcome would be.

FAMILY SITUATION
In 1939, my father, a woodworking machinist worked in a joinery works called “Williams and Voisey” located in Glenfrome Rd. which was part owned by my grandfather. They made parts for wooden huts for the military and I remember lots of Carley floats stacked up in the yard (these were emergency life rafts for use on ships). In 1941 he went to work at The Bristol Aeroplane Co. at Filton as a woodworker making aircraft parts and jigs for aircraft assembly. He was working very long hours including nightshifts and fire watching duties. At some point he had a medical and was found unfit for service and he stayed at Filton until his death in 1968.
With two young sons my mother was not directed into any war work. With no spare accommodation we did not have to take in as lodgers any workers who had come to Bristol from other parts of the country.

OTHER RECOLLECTIONS
After the Dunkirk evacuation, Eastville Park was covered with tents accommodating troops brought back from there.
Seeing an enormous hole made by a bomb in open country where the Lockleaze estate
was built later.
There was only surface mail to places like Canada. In those days it only took about two weeks (quicker than today), all items were opened for inspection by the censor and I don’t think a single item to or from my relations there was lost at sea.
I remember the increasing numbers of U.S. troops and their equipment around in early 1944. Spare areas of ground and side roads were full of vehicles, which all disappeared in June 1944.
At the U.S. hospital (which became Frenchay Hospital) in the autumn of 1944 seeing the “walking wounded” sitting on the grass or walking around in purple dressing gowns.
On V.E. day I remember going into central Bristol with my parents. The whole area was crowded with civilians and military personnel
At some time after V.E. day I queued for about two hours to walk through a German
U. boat on display in the city docks

CONCLUSION
My family was fortunate in surviving intact, despite the heavy bombing locally.

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