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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Pauline Ward [daughter] on behalf of Alf Daines [the author] and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The first weekend war broke out most of the village people, men, women and children decided to dig an Air Raid Shelter. (We called it a Dug Out).

It was built in Palmers Meadow, from the road near the Wash, as it was called, up the side of Vicarage. Charlie Basham a 1914 soldier was headman, foreman whatever. He stepped it out, it was not going to be straight but shaped like a worm so if a bomb landed near one end the blast would hit the sides and not go right through from one end to the other.

It was to be built large enough to hold 300 as we expected quite a lot of evacuees.

On the Saturday it was dug to about 4 or 5 ft. deep. The earth that was dug out was put in bags and put on the sides of the trench. On the Sunday 3 horse keepers went to Lynns and Flax Farms. Strutt Parker got three wagon loads of sleepers and laid them on top and the earth that was left was put on the top and all the sleepers covered.

The Dug Out was all done and finished the first weekend of the war.

We used to go down there in the dark in the middle of the night when the siren sounded. Very often the warning did not go until the bombs had been dropped and the planes gone back.

Most people had an attache`case with important papers, such as Insurance, Birth certificates and life savings of about £10.

Sometime later on quite a few people built small Air Raid shelters in their own garden because they said, "if all the village people were in the big shelter and it had a direct hit, all the villagers would be wiped out". We did have a few evacuees come but not many as was expected as we were near the airdromes, which could be a target for the German planes.

East Anglia was suppsed to have a drome every six miles as the crow flies. We did have a few evacuees come down from London. Mrs. Dennis of Poslingford Hall had the job of finding them somewhere to live. She had a big house but she did not have any herself. She brought them down to her farm cottages. She came to us with a boy my age. His mother and sister were up the road about % doors away. He came to us mid-afternoon and stayed until bedtime. He would not go to bed at ours- He went to his mother and sister and never came to us again.

I had a count the other night and I named 62 farm labourers working on farms in this village and 51 heavy horses tilling the land. Every farm then had hens running about everywhere. There were 7 milking herds- not big herds then. Two used to do a milk round in the village - one done a round in Clare. One farmer used to take his milk in a pony and trap to Birdbrook station. People fetched their own milk from Poslingford Hall. A pint of new milk cost 3d. We had a pub. We did not always have beer as it was a job to get. It only opened for about 1 hour each night per week. They had some nice pork pies 4d each, which sold very well until someone cut one in half, and a big black beetle came out (they did not sell very well after that).

Also had post office, shop, and a blacksmiths shop. There was a service in Church every Sunday. Two services in mission hut - children in the afternoon, grown-ups after tea. Had watch mender. Also had Codlings Oils made which was taken all over Suffolk. Whatever you had wrong with you.... it cured it. A baby pulled a kettle of boiling water over it`s head. Its mother poured a half a bottle of Codlings Oil over it and not one hair came off.

We had 4 Chapel parsons (Lay Preachers) living in the village. The Church parson lived at Stansfield. He did the 2 Church's. He was known as "Parson Paine". He was a school manager. He came and called the register once or twice a year. When he came in the school we had to salute him. Also if we were in the road and he drove past in his car. We had to salute all the school managers. The others were: Mrs Dennis & Cnllr. Dairly. Mrs. Dennis used to come down just before Xmas holiday and bring us apples and a penny. We used to go in front of class to collect our Xmas box. About the last year of the war she came down with her basket of apples and she was giving out silver pieces. I said to the boy next to me "hell we are lucky this year she's given us half-crowns". When we got ours we were disappointed. It was an old penny wrapped up in silver paper.

There were 3 butchers, 3 bakers who brought their goods to the village and 2 vans that brought poulty food. Most people had a few hens in the back yard. The village also had a pig club. We used to get about 8 week old pigs from the farm for about £6-00 keeping them until weight about 10 score then have them killed in the back yard. It was very handy to get that amount of pork and hams. Hands were done in brown sugar and treacle etc. so had bacon later.

We had no running water. It was a big job to get a bath. We had to fetch 8 buckets of water to fill the outside copper, lay the copper fire, cut and saw wood to heat the water then get it boiling. Fetch tin bath in house get the water out the copper fill the bath. If there were 2 or 3 children the youngest ones used the bath first. (Think what a lot to do to get a bath). No electricity only oil lamps. The toilet was at the bottom of the yard. 2 or 3 families used same toilets. Anyone on the toilet hearing someone coming down the yard used to kick the seat so they did not come in. No locks on the doors. They used to take it in turns to empty the bucket. If you went in the toilet in the day about 20 flies came out as you went in and if you went in after dark 2 or 3 rats used to come scrambling out. While in there you could hear the rats fighting and gnawing old bones etc. in the chicken run.

When the war started there were 2 school teachers. Miss Rodgers in the small room with the youngest children. The room was known as the classroom. The big room had the older children in. Mrs Dunn was the teacher. During the war Miss Rodgers left and Mrs Dunn had all the children in the large room. You think what a bad job to try and learn 30 children in one room, some aged 5 up to 14. She started the young ones off then the next class and so on until she got to the older ones. That's why we could not learn a lot as everyone was taking notice what the other ones was doing.

We had 2 or 3 large whist drives per year in the school at a cost of 2s/6d- a half crown to play. A lot of good prizes, and nice ham sandwiches at half time. Had 18 to 24 tables in play. Could get 18 tables in the big room, the rest, would be in the girls porch. The classroom would be for tea and ham sandwiches. Bert Nichols would bring a busload of people from Clare. Mrs Burton of Edmunds Farm had a concert party, known as the merry 8 (all village people) also held in school. They gave concerts at Clare town hall and Hundon.

Mrs Burton was well known in the village doing her milk round and old people that were ill she would bring them apples, nice soup she made for them (very good woman she was). Anyone remember Princess Elizabeth coming on (wireless) children's hour and telling the nation about children being evacuated abroad? She wrote to the Queen a long poem about 12 verses. I can only remember 2... so here goes. "They sailed the shores of England, to safety o'er the sea. The children of Great Britain, the land so brave and free. Twas Sunday night the children hour wireless now we set to listen to our sweetest flower Princess Elizabeth". The Queen wrote her a very nice letter thanking her for the poem. Mrs Burton was very pleased with her letter.

We also had a roadman (known as a length man), school cleaner gravediggers and church cleaners which were paid 1s/3d per week (paid 15 shillings per quarter).

The Clare road to Stansfield was blocked 3 times during the war. Once when the high bank slipped in the road from the large field (Clare Ley). Halfway to Clare the left handside it had been dry and the bank had large cracks in it. Then alot of rain and the bank slipped in the road. Three Poslingford Hall men and three carts tumbles were sent to clear it up. The road surveyor, Mr Shipley, and road foreman, Mr Brooks, who lived at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Farm, Chilton came to see how they were getting on. Said "morning men you are doing a fine job here. How are you getting on for tips? The men said we haven't seen any yet. He said, "we mean where are you tipping the earth".

The postman, Bert Martin used to pushbike from Clare twice a day to Poslingford and also to Stansfield. He used to swear about going to Perton Green. It had a very bad track up there. We did not have letterboxes on the doors then. He put the letters under the door as the doorstop was made of wood and worn down in the middle so could post the letters in there.

Mr Bloom from Cavendish drove railway van bringing stuff that came by rail. I remember him bringing my first bike when I was aged 11. It cost £1.19s 11d. Come straight from the makers in Birmingham.

All the school windows had a strip of tape stuck onto it to stop glass splintering if a bomb fell near. The boy's porch windows were covered with thick cardboard. We were supposed to go in there if any bombs fell near.(The boy's porch was between the big room and the schoolhouse). We used to go in there for gas masks drill.

Two lots of evacuees lived in the schoolhouse. Some upstairs and some down. When we got to the age of 11 the boys went to Clare school half day per week for woodwork. The girls used to go for cookery. We were paid 4 old pennies per week for bike wear and tear. Woodwork was stopped after a few months, as they could not get the timber. If you hadn't got a bike you had to walk. Still in them days all children walked. Them on the outskirts of the village used to walk by the fields and so had about 2 miles each way. Miss Rodgers biked from Hundon all weathers.I never knew her to be late or not turn up.

Three hundred of the best trees were felled in Grovel Ditch or Hollow Ditch. Mr Piesie and his mate felled the lot. They only had an axe, crosscut saw, ladder and a rope. It was very hard work and not very much to eat with everything rationed.

Us boys played football on the hill in front of the Shepherd and Dog. There were not many cars about then. The cottages in front of the pub would have the milk money on the doorsteps and sometimes the ball would knock the money over. We picked it up and put it back. We never thought about keeping it (everyone in the village trusted everyone.) Weekends we went ratting. We went around ponds, banks, hedges with a dog and put a bucket of water in the rat hole on top of the bank and the rat was soon out the bottom hole. We did not get many but we had the sport seeing the rat shoot out of the bottom. Also spinning tops and bowling hoops. The second time the road was completely blocked, each farmer had his men digging with shovels. Also soldiers from Poslingford House were sent to dig. The road was blocked for a long time. As soon as the road was cleared the wind would blow all the snow back on the roads. Hardly any snow on the fields. The roads and ditches were full up to 6 feet deep. The soldiers were very helpful. Lots of people tried to walk by the fields. Two sisters from Clare used to deliver bread. They tried to walk by the fields and fell in the ditch. The soldiers also managed to fall in on top of them. Nearly everyone had 1 strip of allotment- 20 rod each strip. The 7 acre field was all taken. Sometimes there would be 20 to 30 working on there some evenings and if you had a weed going to seed they soon let you know. They would always say, "if you let that seed, it will blow all over Suffolk". The older men grew the veggies and they always collected their own seed. They did not buy seed like we do today. They always had new potatoes the 2nd Sunday in June. If they were ready before, a lot of them would not take them up before the 2nd Sunday.

The rent for the ground was always collected the Friday before Guy Fawkes night at the Shepherd and Dog. Also run a slate club paid 4 shillings per week and if you were ill and on the club were paid 16 shillings per week and you had to be indoors before sunset. If you were seen outdoors after sunset you got no money. They told me "if you are well enough to be out in the dark you are well enough to work"

As the war went on, the farm labourers were being called up for the forces and women started helping out with work then. Chop hoeing and potato picking, sugar beeting, thrashing etc.

There were 3 air-raid wardens about at dark and if you were showing a small light they soon knocked on the door.

We used to go to Cavendish pictures on our pushbikes Saturday nights. Had a very small light. It would just show on the front wheel. When we came home one night the policeman stopped us and said " one of us had not got a light". We said we had so he struck a match to see if we had. The Americans Super Fortress at Ridgewell used to go bombing at daytimes. We counted them going off and coming back. The ones that had been hit used to land first. Some had pieces missing from the wings: some had one or two engines not working. Some men in the farm next to here were in the field one morning and saw something falling from one of the planes so he run to find out what it was. We think he wished he hadn't. It was a box of sh*t. We think they were going to drop that over Germany but think that they could not stand the smell.

There was three Mustang flying around the village, it was a bit foggy at the time, 1 hit a tree in the park at Poslingford House and crashed in a field nearby. The pilot was lying near the plane. He was dead. On his belt was Pilot Officer or Flying Officer Weston.

We also had a Liberator Crash near the football pitch. It had taken off at Alpheton or Lavenham Drome. (It was the same Drome but known by both names). The plane had 2 men on board when really it should have had a crew of seven. Some of the airmen from Alpheton walked from Poslingford back to the drome to see if any of the crew had jumped out over the fields on the way here as they had trouble gaining height. It hit an oak tree on the right hand side of Poslingford Hill. A piece of wing fell on the allotments, the rest of it came down about 400 yards further on just beyond the football ground. Both men were killed. The watch on the wrist of one of them had stopped at 4.40pm. We were told later by airmen that guarded the wreckage that because it was the weekend that they had taken the plane for a joy ride. Unfortunately it ended up in tragedy. They were actually ground staff and could not fly. (I was told sometime after that it had been repaired and the mechanics were trying it out). So not sure which story was right.

One airman guarded the wreckage until all of it had been cleared away. It was 6-hour shift with only a small tent to shelter in if it rained and to spend the night in. (A young teenage girl from London was here at the time). She kept them company. She said she enjoyed being with them. I can tell you they really enjoyed her there. They told us it was the best job on base, every young man back home would like a job like this. (cont..)