Wartime Memories
Home Guard Tom Moore on right
Photograph: The Joe Moore Collection
The Sunday School block of the Free Church after the bombing of 1940
Over the last 16 years many memories of wartime have been recorded by Kirby Muxloe History Group. Often meeting people in the village and sometimes by travelling to visit interested people in their homes, some miles away. Many of these memories are from people who have now sadly passed away, however, they were all very happy to share their recollections of this event as it has never truly disappeared from their memory.
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Below we share the stories of some of the people who were interviewed; they were often small children or at most teenagers at the time. We now have few people left who remember this harrowing time, but those that are still alive today have very strong memories, never to be forgotten.
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The memories of Peter and Pam Cooper
The Sunday School block of the Free church after the bombing of 1950
Peter Cooper - in his own words:
In November 1940, I was living with my parents, brother Bill, and sister Kathleen, in a house on Main Street, built for us by Newman's the builder.
On the night of the bombing, mum, my sister Kathleen and I went down tho the shelter when the sirens went off. Early on in the war four neighbours, including my family and the Rowe family, got together to build an air raid shelter. They cut into the bank a the bottom of the gardens and built one out of concrete. It had electricity and bunk beds. Every time the siren sounded Mr and Mrs Rowe plugged in the lights and we went down a few steps into the shelter. We sat around a paraffin heater and brought flasks so that we could have a hot drink. The blankets were always damp and the whole place smelt of paraffin, but we felt reasonably safe. After the bombing of 19th November we went down to the shelter every night until the end of the war.
On the night of the bombing, mum, my sister and I went down to the shelter when the sirens went off; my brother Bill was working in the pit at Desford so dad stayed behind to get his tea. Suddenly there was a massive crash, dad and Bill came straight down to the shelter telling us that the conservatory roof had been blown off! We stayed in the shelter until next morning.
On the morning of the 20th, the day after the bombing we were still expected to go to school as usual. We had to catch a bus to Gateway School in Leicester. As we walked up to the bus stop we saw mud, debris, glass and tiles everywhere. A gas main had burst near to the Free Church. That morning it was chaos, the bus couldn't get along the road, but we knew we had to get to school somehow; we had to take a letter to school explaining why we were late!
The corner house on Church Road belonged to Mr and Mrs Worker - they were the local fishmongers, going around the streets, ringing their bell to alert customers who wanted to buy fish. They had a lot of soverigns, which they kept under the bed, they were everywhere! Luckily the A.R.P. Warden collected them up putting them into a tin bath.
Although the war went on for a number of years, we always thought we were going to win. It never occured to us that we would not be o.k. in the end.
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Pam Cooper - in her own words
In 1940 I was living with my family at 72, Desford Road. My father was in the A.F.S. (Auxilliary Fire Service); my aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs Worth had a drapery shop, which had been built for them, next to the school on Barwell Road. On the evennig of 19th November 1940, my father and uncle were out travelling (they visited several villages with their drapery business), I was at dancing classes at St Bart's Sunday School, Miss Swain was our teacher. When we heard the siren go off, Miss Swain said "we'd better get you home". We started walking along Main Street towards Station Road and then stopped in front of the Free Church, (just 10 minutes later the bomb dropped on the Free Church). Miss Swain's father came along in his lorry and said he must get us home as quickly as possible, so we jumped into his lorry and drove down Hedgerow Lane and around the corner to Desford road where my mother was waiting for me. We could hear the distinctive sound of the German planes in the sky above. My aunt Dorrie, who owned the drapery shop had given me some ribbons, they were on the dressing table so I ran upstairs to get them. The dressing table was in an almost straight line from the Free Church - I heard a dreadful explosion and saw the Free Church go up! I remember the force knocked me back onto the bed, the tiles had come off the roof and all the windows had been blown in. I ran downstairs still holding the ribbons, the house was rocking! My mother said "the swines", the worst words she had ever spoken. During that evening, admist all the noise and confusion, my two cats Whiskey and Tim stayed asleep curled up on my bed.