The Home Front in Chingford 1939 – 1945 Gary Heales

Home , Chingford, Chingford Mount, King George V Reservoir, South Chingford, Vestry House Museum

Everyday life on the Second World War ‘Home Front’ in

Chingford during the Second World War is vividly depicted in this publication by author Gary Heales (with companion The Home Front volumes for Walthamstow and Leyton), drawing on the unique in Chingford photographic and object collections at Vestry House Museum, 1939 – 1945

London Borough of Waltham Forest, together with personal

reminiscences and other written sources. Gary Heales

Chingford Historical Society Vestry House Museum, www.chingfordhistory.org.uk London Borough of Waltham Forest

The Home Front

in Chingford

1939 – 1945

Gary Heales

The Home Front in Chingford 1939 – 1945 by Gary Heales

index by David Boote

Published in 2018 by Chingford Historical Society in association with Vestry House Museum, London Borough of Waltham Forest

Chingford Historical Society

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.chingfordhistory.org.uk

Telephone: 020 8559 3592

Front cover photographs:

Upper left: Women’s Voluntary Society, Mobile Feeding Centre provide tea and sandwiches for bombed out residents and ARP Rescuers working in Kings Head Hill.

Upper Right: Incendiary bomb training.

Lower left: Chingford Civil Defence post Warden’s Post, B1 Eglington Road, Chingford. ‘Nobby’s ‘Ole’.

Lower right: Local Home Guard members.

The coat of arms at the top of this page is that of the Borough of Chingford.

This publication is modelled on ‘The Home Front in Walthamstow 1939 – 1945’ by Gary Heales, published by Walthamstow Historical Society and Vestry House Museum, 2016. The Home Front in Chingford 1939 – 1945

Neville Chamberlain ‘I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room of From May 1937 to May 1940 the British Prime Minister 10 Downing Street. This morning the British was Neville Chamberlain. Unfortunately history will Ambassador in Berlin handed the German always remember him for his appeasement foreign government a final note, stating that unless we policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich heard from them - by 11 o'clock - that they were Agreement in 1938. On arrival back in Britain from his prepared at once to withdraw their troops from meeting with Adolf Hitler he gave his now famous Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I ‘Peace in Our Time’ speech, giving false hope for last have to tell you now that no such undertaking has ing peace between Britain and Germany. However on been received and that, consequently, this country 1st September 1939, Adolf Hitler went back on his is at war with Germany”. word and launched the invasion of Poland. Declaration of war announced by Prime Minister Chamberlain was forced to broadcast to the nation, Neville Chamberlain.on BBC radio that once again Britain was at war with Germany.

The King to His People

"The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead . . . But we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God. If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, then, with God's help, we shall prevail."

On Britain’s first day of war. “Stand calm, united – we shall prevail”: The King’s radio broadcast.

Neville Chamberlain led Britain through the first “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, eight months of War, but was forced to resign on we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight 10th May 1940, after the Allies were forced retreat with growing confidence and growing strength in the from Norway. A vote of no confidence was passed air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost in Parliament and Chamberlain had no option but may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall to offer his resignation. He was succeeded as fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the Prime Minister of the coalition wartime government fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; by Winston Churchill, who at the outbreak of War we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part June 1940 Churchill delivered one of his most of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire famous speeches of the war. It was only his beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British second speech to the House of Commons as Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's Prime Minister but it set out clearly that Britain good time, the New World, with all its intended to fight on. power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the li beration of the old.” Winston Churchill, 1940

Player’s cigarette card, showing the Hawker Hurricane fighter, which bore the brunt of the fighting during the Battle of Britain.

1 Preparation for War Although Chingford was not originally considered an area that would be included in the evacuation scheme, after representations to government it was included along with Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone, and local schools were told to make necessary preparations. The area held few industrial targets for German bombers, but the Chingford The banshee drone of reservoirs were a specified target for the Luftwaffe. the air raid siren would become a The Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Headquarters (HQ) were regular feature during situated at 2 The Green Walk, Chingford, and various depots 1940. and warden’s posts were constructed at strategic points around the Borough. As in other London Boroughs the provision of adequate air-raid shelters, against the possibility of air-attack by enemy bombers, was seen as a priority. In July 1939, a Public Information Leaflet No 2 (A.R.P. training literature) had warned of the necessity of ensuring an effective blackout in the event of war. The new regulations were to be enforced by the police and ARP.

An Identity card issued to under 16 year olds. Everybody was issued with an Identity Card and told to carry it with them at all times, failure to do so could mean being arrested.

The interior of a public surface shelter at The Green, Chingford with six bunk beds. From the outset these shelters were unpleasant, cold, damp places with no amenities. The realisation of the fact that air- raids would go on for more than an hour or so prompted a re-think and further measures such as heating and electric lighting were gradually put in place to try to make them more comfortable.

Anderson and Morrison Shelters

The British government implemented an air-raid shelter policy allowing for the provision of public surface shelters to be built at strategic locations in the London Boroughs. However provision was also needed in order to provide individual households with some sort of shelter accommodation. This was provided initially by the Anderson shelter, which was dug into the garden and covered by a thick layer of earth. Later the Morrison shelter, which was intended to be used inside the house, became available. These were both provided by the Government through local authorities, free of charge to householders on low incomes, and for a charge of around £7 to others.

Once an Anderson shelter had been supplied it was not possible to exchange it for the more comfortable indoor ‘table’ shelter, unless on health grounds. The Anderson shelter although strong and capable of withstanding blast and debris, was cold and prone to flooding. Many people tried to make them as comfortable as possible with bunk-beds rugs and blankets, but they were always damp and claustrophobic. The Morrison shelter was made of a steel frame with a strong solid top and mesh Another view of the cramped interior of a trench sides. Being inside the house it was not subject to rainwater shelter constructed at The Green, Chingford. and damp, but would have been cramped for any more than two people. The safest place to sleep for those without a shelter was under the stairs as these were frequently seen intact after a house had collapsed.

Upon hearing the air-raid warning a family would have to gather together and make their way, often in darkness, to the relative safety of the garden shelter. They would take with them important documents such as identity cards, ration books and insurance policies also any money and valuables as thieves would take full advantage of unoccupied houses and lack of police during a ‘raid’. The family would also probably try to take a flask of hot tea and something to eat if they had made provision in advance. It was also prudent to take your gas mask (respirator) and a warm blanket or eiderdown, as any bedding left in the shelter would quickly get damp. After a number of nights spent in the shelter perhaps the family might also think to take a book or two, a pack of cards or chess-set and maybe even a wireless set, if it could somehow be made to work. A few enterprising people even installed an electric light bulb, by running a cable into the house. Construction notes for an Anderson Shelter. As the raids went on for 57 consecutive nights during HMSO leaflet. the ‘London Blitz’, many people became so tired that they decided to sleep in the house rather than face another night in the Anderson Shelter, despite the dangers.

The above image appeared in notes for the construction of the Morrison or table shelter. This type of shelter was introduced in March 1941, for people without gardens. It From 21st September 1940 the London was designed by John Baker but named after the Minister Underground officially began to be used as an air of Home Security, Herbert Morrison. It was strongly raid shelter. It was estimated that, on one of the constructed and could withstand considerable damage from busiest nights during the Blitz, 177,000 people collapsing floors and ceilings above. During the day it could were sleeping on the platforms, and between the be covered with a cloth and used as a table. A major rails after the electricity had been turned off. Some disadvantage though, and one that the Anderson shelter started to arrive late in the afternoon in order to was never tested for, was fire. claim a good space. Many people bought their own

blankets, pillows, sandwiches and vacuum flasks of tea with them. As the war progressed the London Underground provided special trains equipped with hot drinks and buns to those who had not brought their own food.

The advantages of the Morrison Table Shelter can clearly be seen here at Hurst Road Walthamstow.

Booklet published by the Home Office, with advice on The Protection of Your Home Against Air Raids.

People were advised to practice wearing their gas mask. Unfortunately some people tested their masks with domestic gas from the cooker.

Masks for adults were supplied in three sizes large, medium and small. Each one came in a box, with printed instructions, which doubled as a carrying case

by means of a piece of string. Children were given a bright red mask, which became known as the ‘Micky

Mouse’. The idea of a bright colour was that it might The children’s respirator (gas mask) not seem as frightening as the adults black rubber and box. Designed in bright colours to mask. The Wardens were responsible for ensuring the be less frightening, it was known as the population received the correct size and were able to ‘Micky Mouse’ mask. put the mask on quickly and correctly. There was a special protective windowed hood for young babies, which effectively covered their head and upper body. Air had to be pumped by hand to the baby while it remained inside.

The Home Guard were told that they were only allowed to wear their

‘Service Respirator’ while in uniform and at any other time should wear their civilian mask! Within a short space of time numerous private purchase respirator cases began to be offered for sale. These varied from coloured boxes and tins to fashionable ladies handbags. The slogan ‘Hitler will send no warning. So always carry your gas mask’ appeared on posters and it was suggested that people should wear their masks for an hour or two in order to get used to them, an idea that was taken up by schools and offices. Anti-dim compound was supplied to stop the eyepieces clouding over. Coupon to be exchanged for a

respirator, if and when issued.

Public Information leaflet N°2, Civil Defence, ‘Your Gas Mask, How to keep it and how to use it’ and ‘Masking Your Windows’.

The Civilian Respirator and how to adjust it. W.D & H.O Wills’ ARP cigarette card

Wardens and Poison Gas

Air Raid Wardens received a more robust type of respirator, while members of the Home Guard received a ‘Service Respirator’ which was carried in a haversack on the chest. The ‘Service Respirator’ also differed from those made for civilians in that it had a completely separate air filter attached by a short green hosepipe. The Government set up anti-gas training schools and de-contamination and cleansing centres around the country. The public were to be warned of the presence of poison gas by means of Wardens equipped with a wooden rattle. The all-clear, threat passed, signal was to be given by a hand bell.

Chingford ARP Wardens equipped with two types of General Service Respirators (Gas Masks) in the practice Gas Chamber at the sewage works in May Road.

Civilian Respirators or Gas Masks

There was a great fear that in the event of war Germany would,

without warning, use poison gas. It was generally thought that the gas would be deployed by German bombers. To counter this threat the Government made plans to provide the general

public with anti-gas respirators and to set up decontamination and cleansing centres. Wardens were sent on special anti-gas

training courses, where they were shown how to deal with the Various tins associated with anti-gas and the various types of gas which were expected. respirator. As a result of this thinking it was decided that gas masks, as the public insisted on calling them, would be supplied to every person in Britain, a huge undertaking. The first item to be sent out was a card which could be exchanged for a respirator should war be declared. Then once it had become necessary, the task of supplying and fitting the masks (and afterwards their care) fell to the Wardens.

An ARP gas warning rattle.

The General Service respirator (above) featured a hose connected to the filter and provided more facial coverage. It was of a more robust design than the Civilian equivalent and offered greater protection. W.D & H.O Wills, ARP Cigarette card: The Civilian Duty Anti-gas clothing, gloves and rubber boots were issued to those Respirator. personnel required to work in contaminated areas.

Rest Centres

Set up at strategic locations in each of the London boroughs, Rest Centres were the first place that civilians, who had been bombed-out could be sent to. They were “In the summer of 1940 I was an 18 year old equipped to provide emergency basic overnight working as a clerk for the London County Council accommodation, support and information on what to do in Bethnal Green, East London, and the only next. It was also necessary to find emergency prospect I could see was waiting for my age accommodation for people made homeless by unexploded group to be called up for military service. Our bombs. The scheme also had to provide for people from office was on stand-by for manning Rest Centres outside Chingford who had been bombed-out. at a nearby school, which was equipped to

receive bombed-out refugees if air raids on London started. “Eventually on 20th October I was called to Rest Centre duty as bombed-out East Enders started arriving: For two months I worked 24 hours on and 24 hours off at Globe Road School in Stepney. “The school, and many others had been stocked many months before with tea in chests, sugar in sacks, tinned food, blankets, mattresses etc. I remember the cheerfulness of the Cockneys, who quickly settled in and were soon even singing. Every morning we phoned J Lyons caterers with the numbers of people and at lunchtime the desired number of hot meals arrived in an insulated van. The organisation and forethought was impressive and helped to alleviate the suffering of the refugees.” Extract from Mr William Reeks of Chingford from WW2 People’s War. BBC Article ID: A2725959. WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime Poster advising the public to go to memories contributed by members of the public and their nearest Rest Centre if they gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at were bombed out. bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar

The Red Cross

As may be imagined many demands were made upon Precaution Schools. Having completed the course the Red Cross during the war. The Red Cross and St. these officers became qualified as ARP instructors. John’s volunteers worked in hospitals, nurseries, care- They in turn helped to train other members of the homes, rest stations, as well as driving ambulances. public in air-raid precautions. Throughout the whole of The Red Cross also diligently arranged for parcels, Britain 104,697 anti-gas certificates were awarded. educational books and medical supplies to be sent to Ten additional schools of training were set up by the British prisoners of war. Home Office throughout the country for training Early on many Red Cross officers were sent on anti- existing Civil Anti Gas School (CAGS) instructors. gas training courses at the Government’s Air Raid

Wardens and Civil Defence

The Chingford Wardens service was formed in 1938 with many volunteers enrolling in response to an appeal made by the Government. Basic training was arranged in First Aid, anti-gas and general air raid precautions. Warden’s Posts were approved in 1939 and began to be constructed at strategic points around the Borough. It was decided that the Office of the Chief Warden would be at

Chingford Head Quarters, 2 The Green Walk. Light Rescue vehicles parked at the St Egbert’s, Civil Defence Each Warden was responsible for his own Depot. (The vehicles are Ford Utility vans). streets and would know who lived in which houses. They were therefore best equipped to offer advice and reassurance to their neighbours.

CHINGFORD WARDEN’S POSTS

A1 Drysdale Avenue A2 Kings Head Hill A3 Lawrence Hill A4 Mansfield Hill A5 Sewardstone Road South A6 Priory Avenue B1 Eglington Road B2 Rangers Road

B3 The Green Chingford ARP Warden’s Post C4, taken in 1940. Note the B4 Whitehall Road three men sitting in the centre are wearing white helmets B5 Forest Side denoting their Chief Warden status. B6 Friday Hill B7 Hatch Lane C1 Organ Lane C2 Larkshall Road C3 Albert Crescent C4 Larkswood Pool C5 Larkshall Road D1 Hall Lane D2 Memorial Ground D3 Lynton Road D4 Burnham Road D5 Westward Road D6 Rolls Park Avenue ‘A’ District HQ A4 Warden’s Post Mansfield Hill 8

The sand-bagged warden’s post C3 and shelters at Chingford Mount. The air raid siren can be seen mounted on top of the pole. The Odeon Cinema can be seen in the distance.

“My father who fought in the Great War, and was too old for active service in 1939, joined the ARP (Civil Defence). He was attached to Warden’s Post C3 on what I remember as ‘trolley-bus island’, opposite the ‘Prince Albert’ (Chingford Mount). My brother, who was two years older than me, recalls pushing a wheelbarrow up and down Hurst Avenue where we lived, with some of his pals, delivering two sandbags to every house. My father often recalled an event when he was patrolling up Hurst Avenue. An incendiary had landed in a garden and was still burning. The elderly lady who lived in the house was calmly running in an out with a jug filled Warden’s Post D2 at the Memorial Ground, with water which she poured, not threw, on to the Chingford Mount Road fire. Dad said that it typified the spirit of the (from ‘Chingford at War’) Londoners.”

‘B3’ Warden’s post and District Warden’s HQ, at The Green. Note the clock face which indicated the time for blackout for each day.

Civil Defence cloth armband. Later versions tended to be printed. Chief Warden’s (and Deputy’s) helmet, white with double black stripe. Also used by Medical Officers of Health, with MO replacing the letter W.

One of the Wardens early jobs was to enforce the Government’s blackout regulations. Along with the police they were responsible for the implementation of the policy which allowed no lights to be seen after a given time each evening.

All windows in houses had to be covered in material or boards which could be removed in daylight. Any chinks of light invited the response The Silver ARP men’s A Chingford Warden’s of ‘put that light out!’ from the local Warden. badge had a lapel fitting, shoulder flash, CD (Civil Persistent offenders could be fined or even while the women’s badge Defence) badge worn on the imprisoned. All motor vehicles and buses had to had a pin fixing. left chest pocket, and arched cover their head-lamps with special slatted metal area location badge’ covers which severely restricted the light. Even bicycle lights had to be dimmed down to give only a glimmer of light. No street lighting was allowed, so curbs, trees and lamp-posts were all painted with black and white stripes in an effort to make them more visible. The result of these measures was a dramatic increase in the number of road accidents and fatalities.

cloth I O (Incident Officer) badge

A cartoon depicting the hazards of the blackout, from the local ARP magazine ‘Tin Hat’ (artist unknown)

The Office of the Chief Warden at Chingford Head Quarters, 2 The Green Walk, E4. (Note the baby’s respirator on the table) (Chingford at War).

A large group of Chingford ARP volunteers, undated.

In addition to the wardens many normal duties, which brought the number of personnel in Chingford up to included the control of public shelters, reporting of air raid around 7,000 people. Chingford was also the first incidents, giving first aid to casualties on the spot and the authority in group 7 of the London Region, to have general control of bomb incidents. The Service was also their Fire Guard scheme approved by the London responsible for the inspection and replacement of all civilian Civil Defence Region. respirators. This included regular visits to the local schools The Fire Guards were responsible for all business to check on the children’s and teacher’s respirators. Other premises and factories in the Borough. duties included the training of the Fire Guard organization. Which with the compulsory enrolment of Fire Guards,

Civil Defence Control Room at St. Egbert's College Depot. The Control Centre was responsible for contacting and directing the nearest First Aid Post members and medical practitioners to an incident. They were also able to call on additional support. if the situation demanded it. (Chingford at War).

The Plotting Room in the Report and Control Centre at St. Egbert’s College. Every incident was carefully plotted on maps and updated with damage and situation reports.

ARP Stores

The well stocked Chingford ARP General Stores at Larkswood. Part of Larkswood Swimming Pool was requisitioned as a depot for the Mobile Services.The Café was used as a canteen for any personnel who were stationed there. (Chingford at War).

The Gas Clothing Store, ARP

Stores Larkswood. (Chingford at War).

First Aid Posts

First Aid Post N°1 in the Church Hall, The Ridgeway. (Chingford at War).

First Aid Post N°1 in the Church Hall, The Ridgeway (Chingford at War)

Chingford C4 Wardens, one of whom was the Mr Cannon who received the letter of commendation from the Mayor of Chingford reproduced below

Letter of thanks from the Mayor of Chingford & Chief Warden W E Gillham JP, commending C4 Post Warden Cannon for his quick action at the Normanshire Drive incident in 1940.

Mobile First Aid

In September 1941, a Heavy Mobile First Aid Post allocated to Chingford was first located in the Civil Defence Depot at Larkswood, but later moved to St Egbert’s College Depot. Later the unit was replaced by two Light Mobile First Aid Units and personnel. These units were on call to attend all the most serious incidents in the borough. They were especially necessary during the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket attacks, which caused many injuries and deaths. During the course of the war these three First Aid Posts dealt with 350 casualties. They were also responsible for organizing many social functions to raise money for charity.

A member of the Chingford Civil Defence, Ambulance driver.

Note the illuminated ‘A’ sign on the left and the masked headlight Claire Goemans’ badges and on the right of the vehicle. One can only imagine the difficulties of shoulder titles. driving at night in the Black- out with such masked headlights.

Certificate awarded to Claire Goemans of Chingford by the St John’s Ambulance Brigade having passed a course in First Aid to the Injured.

Members of the Chingford Civil Defence Light Rescue. Ford Utility vans fitted with ladders can be seen in the in the background. (The doors of the vehicles have ‘Light Rescue Party R7CF’ painted on them.)

14 Blood Transfusions started during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, by Frederic Durán-Jordà. In 1938, working with Blood transfusions had been widely used in the Dr Janet Vaughan in London, he helped create a First World War, but these were direct transfusions system of national blood banks. In 1941 the Red from the donor to the patient. The discovery of an Cross had agreed to organize a civilian blood donor anti-coagulation agent and the use of refrigerators service to collect Blood Plasma for the War Effort. A for storage were not available until much later. national advertising campaign was also set up. Due to the vast numbers of casualties sustained Posters reading “If He Should Fall Is Your Blood during the Second World War, by both civilian and There to Save Him? The Emergency Blood service personnel, there was an ever increasing Transfusion Survive needs Blood Donors”, were put demand for blood supplies. The technique of up in prominent places. By 1944, there were around storing donated blood for transfusion was still quite 900 transfusion centres in England. a new idea, the first Blood Bank having been

The Civil Defence certificate awarded to Mr W A Beaney of Chingford, having completed a course of instruction for Incident Officers (I O.s). Newly qualified he was able to Air Raid Precautions School certificate dated give training to other local people in incident control. 1942 showing that Mr W A Beaney had Incident Officers were responsible for managing the qualified as a fist class instructor in air raid rescue services at air raid incidents. Incidents were often precautions. marked by a blue and white checkered flag.

A group of Chingford Civil Defence ambulance drivers. Far right is an Incident Officer (IO).

Members of Chingford’s Civil Defence Ambulance Drivers pose in front of two ambulances. Note the shielded head lamps and white painted bumpers and running boards.

Cloth armband belonging to the District First Aid Superintendent.

‘All work and no play’, the ARP Wardens enjoying a break. (Chingford at War). There was a Chingford Warden’s Cricket Club and an inter post darts competition which competed for the Gillham Cup. (W F Gillham was Chief Warden between 1939 and 1941). During Christmas 1939 the question was asked whether intoxicating liquor could be taken to Warden’s Posts, but it was ruled such liquor was banned from ARP property at all times!

ARP Summer Fete held on the grounds of the rugby club playing fields on Sewardstone Road, and organized by members of Chingford Air Raid precautions.

‘C’ District Victory Festival held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Chingford in October 1945.

Chingford Civil Defence, photographed outside what appears to be a Warden’s Post, Harold Clark seated front row centre.

Members of Chingford Civil Defence photographed at the end of the war in 1945.

Enamel sign from an

unknown location, but most likely the ARP Head

Quarters. Fire Guard’s printed armband.

17 Letter from Joan Johnstone, a member of the Walthamstow Civil Defence Players, living in Chingford

42 Ainslie Wood Gardens

South Chingford

Wednesday, September 1940.

Dear Daisy & Ray,

Many thanks for your letter this morning. So glad to hear that you are now settled and comfortable, and that Ray is enjoying his work. Your little cottage sounds most attractive and I do appreciate your offering to have us up there if necessary. We are carrying on at present, and I will write frequently, but if I wrote every bad night, I’m afraid it would mean every night as there is now little to choose between them. We have had bombs even closer, in Bourne Gardens (you can imagine how that shook the shelter), in Normanshire Drive and New Road. Unfortunately they have started using the searchlight again, which makes it rather a target, and the other night it was machine-gunned. One afternoon last week a plane suddenly swooped down out of the clouds and machine-gunned right along the back of Hoe Street, behind the Rose & Crown, then down the High Street, where a man in a car was hit. One bullet came through our cutting –room window, ricocheted off the wall, and struck one of the girls a glancing blow on the head, fortunately without doing any damage. Then we heard a bomb fall, and then the sirens went. We had a two-hour warning this morning, and though we now work through, with spotters on the roof, we had the ‘Danger Imminent’ warning twice, and seemed to keep popping up and down to the shelter. The worst things are these land-mines; they really are the devil, laying all property flat for a radius of hundreds of yards, and effecting windows and doors up to nearly half a mile There have been reports of at least three in Woodford, so I don’t know how your windows are, there simply isn’t time to go and look, however your tenants would let us know if anything was wrong. Poor old Walthamstow suffered badly, Church Hill, Shernhall Street and Raglan Road are simply a shambles they have had two land-mines there. The amazing thing is the low number of casualties. The Lord Raglan was raised to the ground, but the landlord, who was asleep in his bedroom, escaped with cuts and bruises. His wife who was in the cellar was more seriously hurt More than 50% of the girls here are now effected, but the factory is untouched so far, though bombs fell in Westbury Road (Westbury Road was Gillard’s meat pie and sausage factory) about 300 yards away, two nights in succession, knocking down two houses in one nighty and the two next door the following night. If our house goes, I shall insist upon mum packing up, and if the firm goes I shall probably arrive in Chorley with her, but unless or until that happens, shall just have to make the best of it.

St Egbert’s College

St Egbert’s College was evacuated to Stanstead (to the north east of Sudbury in Suffolk), The College building was converted for use by the Civil Defence in case of a gas attack. The ground floor windows and doors of the College were all sandbagged for protection against bomb blast. The playground was used as a car and lorry park for Civil Defence vehicles and ambulances. When Stainsby Hall in Derbyshire opened the College moved to there, together with pupils from St Aloysius College, Highgate. Accommodation was found at a large house in Crescent Road,

Chingford for those not going to Stainsby Hall. St. Egbert’s College was taken over, by agreement with the owner, to form a combined depot for the rescue services and the stretcher parties. Later it also provided accommodation for the Ambulance Service and Mobile First Aid Post.

In January 1945 a V-2 flying bomb fell at the junction of Pole Hill Road and Kings Head Hill and part of the rocket motor came through the roof of St Egbert’s lecture hall, situated behind the ‘Chantry’ (left).

The hall was badly damaged, but there were no casualties. Not long afterwards the evacuees from Stainsby Hall and Crescent Road returned to the College.

Emergency Feeding Units

Two mobile Emergency Feeding Units were provided for the Borough of Chingford. Both were kept at St Egbert’s Civil Defence Depot. From there they were used on a number of occasions, particularly the V-2 Rocket incidents. Emergency Feeding Centres could also have been located at certain schools in the Borough.

Heavy Rescue lorries parked at the St Egberts Depot. The local authority took over the Larkshall Garage in Larkshall Road as a Civil Defence maintenance and repair facility. The garage also provided petrol and oil for the various vehicles throughout the war.

With the approval of the Ministry of Health Chingford local authority took over two local halls which were to be used in an emergency as temporary mortuaries. Fortunately St Mary’s Hall, The Green, north Chingford, and St Edmund’s Hall, Chingford Mount Road, south Chingford, were never used.

Advert for the “Plasfort” plastic helmet “The A number of helmets were produced for best alternative to the steel helmet”. purchase by the public.

Extracts from letters written by Joan Johnstone to her mother, sister and brother-in-law:

“On Monday 30th August 1940. Spent six hours in “The Big Bertha mobile navy gun was firing at the air-raid shelter. On Monday Tuesday and the end of the road [Ainslie Wood Gardens]. The Wednesday there was the droning of planes roads were littered with shrapnel in the overhead the whole time. The problem is our road mornings.” is just outside the balloon barrage area. The

Jerries tend to jettison bombs as soon as they are caught by searchlights. A policeman passing the “Appalling damage round our house. There was Prince Albert Public House was blown off his a dreadful crash and it seemed like the end of bicycle by an explosion. People who go to the the world. I flung my arms round Mum and dirt ofpic tthurese pr ooftgrammeen have or to stay leave until ea r4ly or a n5d o’clock miss so inm thee rushsimpelyd rainin; heed wasdown ter asrif itedhe ashnde ltersho sohko foork. theA b oy morning. There was a terrific air battle over rest of the night”. Chingford.”

Shelters in the playground at Chingford Church of England School (photographed just prior to The interior of the Chingford Church of England School shelter (just prior to demolition in 2001). demolition in 2001). Even when first constructed it was cold, damp and extremely uncomfortable for long periods. It would have been fitted with

electric lighting. British Restaurants

From 1940 British Restaurants were set up to offer the general public meals without using ration books. They provided a hot meal and dessert plus a cup of tea for a very reasonable price They were particularly intended for people who had been bombed out of their homes, or had run out of ration coupons, but everyone was welcome. The food was bland and there was little choice, however the meals were hot and filling, and, even more important, off-ration.

By 1943, 2,160 British Restaurants had been established around the country. It is said they served around 600,000 meals a day. There were two British Restaurants located in Chingford. One may have been at Mornington School. British

Restaurants were disbanded after the war and the last closed in 1947. A tired Warden stops work for a cup of tea.

Chingford Parish Hall was used as a Canteen.

Evacuation

Evacuation plans had been prepared well before the outbreak of the Second World War, and an evacuation policy was soon established by the government.

evacuation poster

Public information leaflet and letter explaining how evacuation would work.

In July 1939 every house in the country received a copy of a leaflet ‘Evacuation - Why and How?’ This contained a list of evacuation areas which included the London County Council area, the boroughs of West Ham, East Ham, Walthamstow, Leyton, Ilford and Barking in Essex, and the boroughs of Tottenham, Hornsey, Willesden, Acton and Edmonton in Middlesex. Chingford was not included.

Evacuation began in September 1939. Children were evacuated from large cities and industrial areas across Britain. Parents had already been sent a list specifying what their children should take with them, when they were evacuated. Some of the items included were shirts vests and underclothes, Weekly contribution card for pyjamas or nightdress, plimsolls, spare socks or stockings, toothbrush, comb, evacuated children. People who towel, soap, face cloth, handkerchiefs and a warm coat. If they have no looked after an evacuee were paid suitcase a bag could be made from a pillow case. They were also reminded to 10s 6d each week towards their bring their gas masks with them. Once at their destination they were given keep, and 8s 6d for each postcards to send home, informing anxious mothers and fathers of their safe additional child. arrival and their billeting address. By the end of the year, when the widely expected bombing raids on cities had failed to materialise, many parents Some of the cards from a humorous decided to bring their home-sick children back to the cities. Almost half of the children’s game called “Vacuee”. The evacuees had returned home by January 1940. A second evacuation object of the game is to complete occurred in the summer and autumn of 1940, following the German invasion evacuation by getting rid of every of France in May - June and the beginning of the ‘Blitz’ in September. card in the hand. The Mayor of Chingford made an appeal for gifts of clothing, for those children who were evacuated.

Left: John Gilder was evacuated to Epping where he learnt to drive a tractor and helped feed the chickens. However not all evacuees were as fortunate.

Many Chingford schools were initially evacuated to villages in Essex. Later when there was a threat of invasion they were moved to Wolverton and Stoney Stratford (Milton Keynes) in Buckinghamshire and later moved again to the West Country.

A Chingford schoolchild’s evacuation Return Party label.

A class at Chingford Church of England School, King’s Road, undated, probably in the 1930s.

“The very next day, on a Sunday, mum, Doreen and I were evacuated to Colchester, a very strange choice because Colchester was a garrison town. We had to go to school where we boarded double-decker buses. It was a very hot day and I can remember stopping somewhere for lemonade. This was made from lemonade powder in large white enamel pails. “The journey was long and took most of the day. We stayed in a cottage with the toilet at the bottom of the garden. We stayed with . . . I have no recollection of the people. Dad was at home on his own; he didn’t like this very much, so after two weeks he came looking for us. He managed to find us and we were taken back home. When entering the house, it was all in darkness. He had stuck brown paper all over the windows for the blackout. “Mum’s first task was to buy blackout material and make curtains to go over all the normal curtains. I think they had fun getting all the sticky tape off the glass.” Recollection from Eileen Lugmaver.

“My young brother was nearly 9 and I was sent off with a coach load of kids to a small creek- side village near Southend-on-Sea in Essex. I remember sitting in the local hall being looked at up and down by local villagers. My instructions on being parted from my mum was not to be parted from my brother Reg. Now few people could or would want to accommodate a girl of 14 and a boy of 8. I felt a bit like an animal in an Agricultural Show. Would anyone take us please? However we settled on a compromise. My brother would stay at one end of a group of terraced cottages with Ma and Pa Mumford, and their two daughters. I would move in with their son Malcolm and his wife and small son, at the other end of Harris Row. They all showed us great kindness, but not all my memories were pleasant. By November I was so home sick and together with my dad’s philosophy “If we are going to die let’s all go together”. Not a good idea really, but we came home in November.” Recollection from Betty Brown

23 Describing her journey from Highams Park Station, The problem of providing three meals a day for Janet Gibbs remembered it as a fun time. evacuated children, on the Government allowance of 10s. 6d. a week proved difficult. The children needed “The atmosphere was electric; anyone would have balanced meals with a good proportion of fresh thought we were going on holiday. Dad kissed us vegetables and fruit. The children’s ration books were both goodbye and mum was very tearful, but put given to their host and it was up to her how she spent on a brave face. Piling onto the train with our the money and provided for her evacuees. A number mums we kids must have looked a heart-rendering of reports from ex-evacuees complained that the sight – name tags on our coats, gas marks host’s children ate much better than they did. One hanging from a string from our necks and cases person recalled that they were sent out of the dining firmly gripped with grubby little fingers.” room when the host’s children were given their meals. Recollection from Janet Gibbs. Ron Ashbey (evacuated to Askam-in-Furness) recalled

However, two weeks in the countryside was too much that part of his domestic duties was to collect a bucket for Mrs Gibbs who had now gone deaf in one ear. She and shovel from the garden shed and dig for cockles, could not get to grips with “communal life” and her and which would eventually become the evening meal. Janet returned to London – and the Blitz. However, her home had changed and the streets of Waltham Forest were dark and quiet. “The road signs, railway station names, any form of identification of places had been removed. Identity cards were carried in case any Germans managed to ‘drop in’” she remembered. “Blocks of cement were placed at different points in the road to act as defence against enemy tanks. . . Our local sweet shop began to make ice cubes – a cube of ice with a drop of lemon which we sucked until the lemon disappeared. We called them ice creams because Evacuation of South Chingford Junior we thought they were.” Girl’s School

Extract taken from an interview with Janet Gibbs by Pupils and teachers from South Chingford Junior Girl’s Waltham Forest Guardian Reporter Zoie O'Brien, School arrived early on Sunday 3rd September and th published on the 27 May 2015 reproduced by kind waited to be evacuated. A number of double decker permission of the East London Guardian series of newspapers buses were parked in New Road ready for the children

Billeting the Evacuees to board. At around 10 am the buses left driving north towards High Ongar and then on to Chelmsford. The Billeting the evacuated children was difficult as many people of Chelmsford were very helpful, giving cups of families either refused to take in children or made life tea to the teachers and water for the children. At 11.15 as problematic as possible in the hope that they would they were informed that war had been declared. leave. Stories were rife that children from the East End Driving on, via Braintree and Marks Tey, the buses were dirty, have fleas and bad habits. However finally drew into Colchester where they were dispersed numerous children were quite shocked by their rural to nearby villages. Then began the difficult job of host’s living accommodation, with a lack of running billeting the children and finding rooms for the water, no electricity and outside toilets. Anyone who teachers that had accompanied them. The children took in an evacuee was paid 10s. 6d a week towards were eventually found places in three villages: their keep, and for each additional child 8s. 6d. It was Bradfield, located about 5 kilometres (3 miles) east of decided that those families who could afford it, would Manningtree. Great Bentley, located 11 kilometres (7 be asked to contribute towards the cost of their miles) east of Colchester and Frating, located 8 children’s keep. Special contribution cards were kilometres (5 miles) east of Colchester. Eventually the issued, with payments being made in the form of teachers were able to share some schools with village stamps. As far as possible school lessons continued children, with the evacuees perhaps using the for the evacuated children, often sharing the host buildings in the mornings and the locals in the village school premises and sometimes even having afternoons. lessons out of doors.

24 “We are having a very happy time here with “Chingford Girls in Essex Villages. All well and pleasant walks through country lanes and across Happy!” fields to school. The school isn’t very big but big “The girls are in three Essex villages: enough. 5 days a week 9.30 to lunch break. We’ve 1 Bradfield – a pretty spot near Manningtree. been to Colchester to see what we learnt in our

It is on a tidal [sho]re and children have enjoyed history lessons – visit to the sea, blackberry beach trips with teachers. The children are to picking and rabbit shooting.” share a delightful school with village children. From a South Chingford Junior Girls School pupil, 2 Great Bentley has all the delight of the billeted in Frating. countryside including flocks of geese. Country rambles were organized before school commences next week.

3 Frating a very quiet rural spot.

All the children look well and happy and most seem to have developed a country hobby and have acquired a pet of some description.”

Mrs O M Sortwell Head Mistress, of South Chingford Junior Girls School, writing to the local Guardian on Friday 22nd September 1939, reproduced by kind permission of The East London Guardian series of newspapers

“Nearly 100 parents of South Chingford Social

Club travelled by coaches to spend Xmas with evacuated children at Buckingham. Local Mayor of Warden’s Post, B1 Eglington Road, Chingford. The sign Chingford sent money and PM wrote to them a reads: Government Evacuation Scheme. Second letter of approval and recognition of their Registration New Road School, Chase Lane School, initiative.” King’s Road C of E School, Yardley Lane School, Report in the Walthamstow Guardian Newspaper Wellington Avenue School, St Mary’s R.C. School. dated Friday 10th January 1941, reproduced by kind permission of The East London Guardian series of newspapers

Return

During the quieter periods of 1942 to 1943 when the threat of invasion had passed, many Chingford evacuees returned home, against the advice of the Government. When the enemy started the V-1 campaign in June 1944 and later the V-2 rocket attacks 3,150 mothers and young children were again evacuated from Chingford. With the end of the war many mothers and children made their own way back to Chingford. Arrangements were made to return evacuees remaining in the reception areas. The parties were brought back to London by special trains

and given a meal before continuing their journey. The Rest Advert for Bisto Gravy in the Walthamstow Centre at the Methodist Hall, New Road, South Chingford Guardian newspaper. was used as the final dispersal point for local residents.

25 The blackout All street lighting was banned which caused many accidents. Black and white stripes were painted on Blackout regulations were introduced on 1st September lamp-posts, trees and road signs and the front 1939 (before the declaration of war), making it an bumper and wheel arches of cars and lorries were offence to allow any lights to be shown after dark. also given a coat of white paint. Essential lights such Families had to make blackout curtains using special as traffic lights and vehicle headlights were fitted with material or cover the house windows with removable slotted masks to deflect their beams downwards to wooden shutters. the ground. Anyone venturing out after dark was advised to wear something white or to carry a Owners of shops factories and offices were required to newspaper or a white handkerchief to make them do the same. People with a spare room were advised more visible. A variety of pin-on florescent broaches, to remove the light bulb in case it was accidentally soon became available in the shops. switched on. It was the job of the local Air Raid Precautions (ARP) wardens to visit houses in their streets and check on the effectiveness of the blackout. The Police and Wardens could report a culprit to the local authorities if any light was seen after blackout time. This could lead to an appearance in court, and in some cases a hefty fine. It was known that glass from windows, blown-in by bomb blast, could cause extensive damage and people applied gummed strips of brown paper in criss-cross patterns to windows in order to lessen the effects of flying glass. The actual time in the evening that the blackout came Rolls of Air Raid Precautions Glass Reinforcing Paper into force varied with the seasonal length of daylight, and Blackout Paper. In addition strips of gummed and indicators in the form of clocks with moveable brown paper tape were criss-crossed over glass hands, could often be seen on Warden’s Posts. windows to provide some resilience to blast.

Information was also printed in daily newspapers.

“The streets themselves were pitch-dark, as we had never known them. We blundered about, feeling for Advert for Lidstones’ the curbs and trying to avoid lamp-posts and trees. range of blackout Motor vehicles had to mask their lights in the same materials in the way I did my bike-lamp – black paint or paper with a Walthamstow tiny aperture in the centre. Buses and trains were Guardian unlit inside (later they had minimal lights). The father Newspaper of one of my friends was a trolleybus conductor; he said he was punching penny tickets in the dark for all fares and pocketing the difference. Even a cigarette in the streets at night was taboo; know-alls said that a marauding pilot could see the little red glow from 20,000 feet up and make it a target.” Recollection from: Robert Barltrop (quoted in a publication of Waltham Forest Council)

A small paraffin lamp provided light in the air raid shelter.

Motor Cars

Under the blackout regulations all private cars and lorries had to have masked head lights and white painted mud-guards. Curbs, trees and lampposts all had painted black and white stripes to make them more visible and pedestrians were warned to wear something white at night. As a result of these measures the number of people killed or injured in road accidents increased dramatically. Petrol was severely rationed and many people decided to put their vehicle into a garage for the duration. Some cars and lorries were requisitioned or donated for use by the ARP until specially designed transport became available.

: A 1940s Austin with a slotted headlight mask fitted.

Close-up of a metal headlight mask.

Warnings to motorists to immobilise their vehicle (see Above: Poster warning motorists above left): It was an offence not to do so. The to put their car out of action, in suggested method was either to remove the order to prevent the enemy from distributor cap, or to lock the steering wheel and gear seizing and using it. levers. The car doors were also to be kept locked. Many private cars were locked away in garages throught the war, anyway, due to the severe petrol shortage.

‘Look Out in the blackout’, warning poster. Advert for C&W Motors Ltd from Kelly’s Directory, 1939.

Public Transport

Throughout 1940 and 1941 the Luftwaffe’s bombing of London caused the destruction of hundreds of London buses, causing a desperate shortage of transport for Londoners. The construction of new buses was not permitted, as it was not considered vital for the war effort. It was therefore decided to borrow buses from the provinces. As the war situation worsened the government was forced to allow a small number of buses to be constructed. These ‘stop-gap’ buses were known as ‘Utility Buses’, and were built to very strict austerity N° 35 bus at the Rising Sun public house. The N° 35 ran standards. They were basic, but functional, with from Clapham Common to Chingford Hatch via Lea wooden slatted seating, rather than comfortable Bridge Road, Leyton. Nearside front is a ‘John Bull upholstered seats. They were built by such companies Competitions Wartime Hobby’ poster. as Bristol, Daimler and Guy, and they helped to keep

London moving during the latter part of the war. The G351 Guy Arab Mk1 (1945) is the sole survivor of this fleet of 800 war-time “utility” buses.

Leaving Chingford, O-6-O No.2715 9.55am excursion train to Southend-on-Sea, running in the summer prior to the war.

Many London buses were operated in non-standard livery as a result of the lack of red paint available. Trains and railway stations were also obliged to This photograph shows an N° 102 Chingford bus, comply with blackout regulations. As a result of the painted in brown with no trace of cream relief. invasion scare stations had also been required to paint However it does not have masked headlights, out any name boards which could have been helpful to suggesting it could have been photographed after the enemy, the station name being announced by 1945. platform staff or the station master. A number of accidents occurred when passengers alighted on the wrong side of a coach in the darkness. People were

encouraged not to use the railways as they were primarily required for factory workers,coal, and troop Maurice Brewer and munitions movement. A government poster bearing the phrase ‘Is Your Journey Really Maurice Brewer of Royston Avenue was a trolleybus Necessary?’ started to appear everywhere, which conductor during the Blitz. He remembered during one quickly caught on with comedians. air-raid having to abandon his bus and quickly shepherd his passengers into a shelter. On another occasion he and his wife were bombed out, twice on the same night.

Food Rationing

As much of Britain’s food was imported from abroad the German government made a co-ordinated effort to blockade Britain from receiving merchant shipping. Using ‘U Boat’ submarines this was nearly achieved and food supplies were threatened. The British Government had issued everyone with a ration book as early as the end of 1939, but it was not until the 8th January 1940 that rationing actually came into force. From then on people were required to register with their local shopkeeper. You could only buy food if you had enough coupons in your ration book and Ration books were Adult’s Ration book RB1 then only a certain amount of food per week was coloured pink for very (Adult) for July 1940. allowed. Every time you bought food which was ‘on young children, blue for ration’, the shopkeeper would cut out or cross out the children and buff for coupons form your ration book. It was a fair system adults. which ensured rich and poor would receive equal

Points were cut out each time a purchase was made.

Notes printed on the back of the book read: “You can use these coupons at any retailers you choose. You

must always have your book with you when you use them and the retailer will cut them out. You must not cut them out yourself.”

Child’s Ration Book, RB2 (Child), dated July 1940.

Bread was not rationed as it was thought to be bad for morale; however it was put on ration after the war. The "national loaf" of wholemeal bread was introduced

replacing the ordinary white variety. It was slightly grey in colour and not liked by most people, who found it

tasteless. Fish were not rationed, but the price increased as the war progressed This was partly because it was recognized that fishermen were

vulnerable to enemy attack while at sea and therefore should be able to charge a premium for their catch.

Despite the higher prices long queues of people Ministry of Food poster formed at fish and chip shops and fishmongers as it warning that meat rationing was a quick and simple meal. However people begins on Monday. maintained that wartime fish and chips were not as good as that enjoyed pre-war. This may have been

true and the cause could have been the use of the low- Reasons for Rationing quality fat available. Whale meat became available, published by the Ministry but the public hated it, as it had to be soaked overnight of Food. and then boiled for hours, it was tough to eat with a distinctly unpleasant fishy flavour.

29 Advert for Milk from James Above: tin of Pure Dried Whole Eggs. Soper of Low Hall Farm, Supplies of both tinned milk and eggs Chingford. were imported from the United States of America and Canada.

An Economy Cake Advert placed by Brooke Bond in the competition. Walthamstow, Guardian Newspaper

Fish and chips

were never rationed. Accordingly, fish and chips, which had been seen as just a working-class food before the war, became something that all classes ate. The fish shop could also sell un-rationed meat pies, though exactly what the meat was remained a mystery. How people managed in 1947, when potatoes were at last included in the ration, is also a matter of speculation. From January 1945 South African fish called Snoek became widely available. Even though it was off-ration it was far from popular, owing to it being very oily, exceptionally bony, and having a peculiar taste. In 1940, fish frying licences were issued to Star Fish Saloon, 9 Chingford Mount Road, Abinett, 293 Hall Lane, Hargreaves, 7 Hatch Lane and Lewzey, 64 Sewardstone Road.

Advert for Chasney, The Station Stores, 126 Station Road, Chingford. From Kelly’s Directory 1939. The householder could select the grocery store with which they wished to register. The shopkeeper would then remove points from the ration book as food was purchased. Shortages and limited stocks of even rationed food meant that ‘special’ customers sometimes received something from ‘under the counter’ (but as far as is known this never happened at Chasney’s!).

and a contrast :

The Black Market & Spivs Time

As a result of rationing and price controls, The Summertime Act of 1916 established two clock Britain’s underground economy thrived during changes each year. During the second year of the the 1940s and early 1950s. While illegal, the Second World War, double British summer time was black market became widespread and for those invented as an energy-saving device, to give the greatest who could afford the prices they were able to number of working hours in daylight. It also had the effect obtain ‘a little bit extra’ ‘on the side’, ‘from under of bringing the country in line with mainland Europe (This the counter’, or ‘off the back of a lorry’. was Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) plus 2 hours in the Professional criminals and ‘Spivs’ (a slang term summer and GMT+1 in the winter.) for a type of petty criminal in the 1940s) saw the From 1941 to 1945 during the summer months Britain black market as an easy way to make money. was two hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time (BDST). To achieve this, clocks were not put back by an hour at the end of summer in 1940 and in the following years clocks continued to be put forward by one hour each spring, and put back by an hour each autumn. Clocks were brought back in line with GMT after the war had ended.

Left: Albert Crescent at Chingford Mount shopping centre, with its prominent clock tower

Clothes Rationing

The war caused a noticeable shortage of clothes and those that could be found in the shops commanded high prices. British clothing manufacturers had to produce uniforms, parachutes and other garments for the war effort. It was also no longer possible to import supplies of clothing and shoes from abroad. All types 1942-43 Clothing Book. of soap were rationed, making washing clothing and dishes very difficult. Hair shampoo was almost impossible to obtain as well. Clothes rationing was introduced in May 1941. This Clothing Book made sure that everyone had a fair share of what little belonging to a was available. Everybody was given a ration book with Chingford resident 66 clothing coupons that had to last for a year. Each CB2/10 for 1947-48.. item of clothing that was rationed was worth a certain Despite the war number of coupons, for example one dress was worth ending in 1945 eleven coupons. People still had to pay for clothes, rationing in Britain but they had to hand over the right number of coupons continued. each time they bought something. For workers Bib & Brace Overalls were available and very importantly they did not require clothing coupons. A one-piece garment known as the Siren Suit soon became available. It was originally designed to be used on the way to and in air-raid shelters. The suit was warm and loose fitting and could be put on quickly over nightclothes, when the air raid siren was sounded. The siren suit was made even more popular when Winston

Churchill was seen to wear one. Supplementary Clothing Coupon Sheet Sc5c

Women’s Friend & Ladies Bib and Brace overalls costing 13 Companion magazine, dated shillings and nine pence, no Coupons 1942 with special offer Required! ‘Charming Summer Frock to cut (advert in Walthamstow, Leyton and out and sew’. Chingford Guardian Newspapers)

The 'Make Do and Mend' campaign

The 'Make Do and Mend' campaign was introduced by the government to encourage people to get as much wear as possible out of the clothes they already had. Posters and information leaflets gave people advice and ideas about how to do this. Evening classes were set up to teach people how to make new clothes out of Poster for”Make Do bits of worn out old ones, rather than throw the and Mend” material away. Adults clothing was cut-down and altered to fit children. Old woollen jumpers were unpicked and re-knitted using the many knitting patterns available. Many items such as ‘balaclavas’ (a knitted cap for the head and neck), scarves, gloves and socks were then posted to the troops and RNLI volunteers.

A pair of ladies’ shoes, stamped with the CC41 mark on the leather sole. (author’s collection).

Furniture Rationing & Utility

Furniture was also put on ration using a points system. From 1941 onwards the CC41 Utility logo known as the ‘double cheese’, began to appear on all new footwear, Utility furniture, textiles and utility clothing. It was a British Board of Trade requirement that all items were clearly labelled or marked. (This also allowed the public to know if an item was tax- free or not). CC41 meant "Controlled Commodity” and was specially designated to met the

government's austerity regulations. In 1942 Utility

Excellent home-made pyjamas, made while at furniture began to be sold. Cupboards, wardrobes, school by a local lady. tables and chairs were made for 'utility' or 'use', from limited wartime materials. They were well made and designed by leading designers of the day.

The Chingford Fire Brigade

Chingford’s first ‘Dennis’ fire engine, with full complement of firemen, 1930s.

Chingford Fire Brigade pose for the camera while receiving a visit from the London Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence, Admiral Sir Edward Evans, centre, Chief Fire Officer Harknett standing to the left of him, and Mrs E E Stuteley, JP, the Mayor of Chingford (1940 – 1941) standing to the right. The members of the Chingford Fire Brigade did sterling work throughout the war both in the Borough and assisting at fires in London when called upon.

Chingford Fire Station 1940. Chief Fire Officer Harknett (left) and his deputy stand in front of the fire engines at The Ridgeway Fire Station.

The National Fire Service (NFS) was created in 1941 by the amalgamation of local authority fire brigades and the wartime Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS). Both male and female officers were employed, the majority being full-time but supplemented by part-time officers. As can be seen in the photograph to the right, the uniform was a standard dark blue double-breasted tunic and trousers, with a peaked cap. Prior to this they had adopted a sailors-style cap, which had been worn by many other pre-war fire brigades. The peaked cap was retained by fire services after the war. The women officers wore uniform jacket and trousers with a slightly Members of Chingford Fire Brigade pose with trophies in about different peaked cap, edged with red. 1945. (Note the white painted mud-guards).

Incendiary bombs

In 1940 Supplementary Fire Parties were organised by local fire brigades to assist with the outbreak of fires during air-raids. They wore a dark blue cotton armband with red SFP letters and a steel helmet with black letters. From August 1940 the armbands were issued to the Street Fire Parties that were organised by the Wardens service. Street Fire Party (SFP) The commonest type of bomb dropped was the incendiary or fire bomb. Containing cloth armband. magnesium phosphate, they burnt at a very high temperature and produced very bright white light. Undetected, particularly when lodged in rafters or floorboards, they would cause tremendous damage and even the complete destruction of a house. The Wardens service organized local SFP (Street Fire Party) groups in order to deal with fires started by incendiary bombs. The prescribed methods of dealing with and incendiary bombs were either to spray water from a safe distance using a stirrup-pump, or to throw a wet sandbag onto them. The tail fins of the incendiaries were collected and often the prized possessions of children who scavenged bomb sites and burnt-out buildings, collecting shrapnel.

Below: private purchase steel helmet marked SFP (Street Fire Party) and an incendiary bomb.

Left: How to safely extinguish a burning Incendiary bomb, using

35 water from a stirrup pump and hose.

London in the Blitz

“We had a very quiet week-end. I went to Town on Saturday morning, the first time since the last blitz, and for the first time it really frightened me. The bus went down Gresham Street, and there isn’t a building left. When you come out of Aldersgate Street, and turn round into Cheapside, there is just a vast open space, with a few scattered walls and girders, and the very badly battered hulk of St Paul’s Cathedral in the middle of the devastation. At the corner of Holborn there is part of a vast empty shell that was Wallis’s huge building and the view from the viaduct is worse than the pictures of Ypres at the end of the last war. Large areas have been totally cleared, but in other places where they haven’t got St Paul’s Cathedral was to be protected at all around to cleaning up, there are enormous costs by direct order of Winston Churchill. blocks of masonry, iron girders, brass- (This photo shows the Cathedral illuminated studded doors, etc., just flung about in for VE Day) every direction, as if some colossal monster had run berserk. Where there are any of those little narrow alleys and courts left they are mostly closed, with large red notices ‘Dangerous Buildings’ or ‘Unexploded Bombs’, barring the way.”

Extract from a letter from Joan Johnstone in Chingford, to her mother, dated 27th May 1941

The half-buried but still intact remains of an Anderson shelter can be seen in the rear garden at Forest Side.

Bomb damage to Forest Side in April 1941.

On the night of 8th March 1941 eight bombs which appeared to be of varying sizes, probably from 100 kilos to 500 kilos, fell across Station Road in a line from Connaught Avenue to Cambridge Road and a number of serious incidents were recorded. There was one fatality and a number of minor injuries.

Another view of the devastation at N°66 Station Road, one of the houses bombed. The building was later demolished as it was considered beyond repair.

Locations hit by bombs, plotted on a map

“I found pieces from the land mine that dropped on Westcott’s Laundry, our garden at 37 Frances Road was covered, what a terrible night that was we had to dig ourselves out of the garden air raid shelter as the sand bags had burst, we had no doors on, no windows in and no roof. Shrapnel in the wardrobe. Bill had to be home all day putting a new roof on, blacking out the holes where the windows were and going round finding doors to put back in there again to live. A lot of people had nowhere to go and the council commandeered all the empty flats, bodged them up and got people back in them. Bill was on Home Guard duty all night, at the swimming pool. He just An unexploded Parachute Mine (or land mine) fell on the got home, changed his clothes and was off to pavement in Rolls Park Avenue in February 1941 (see work blacking out factories at Ferry Lane. What a above). The blast from Parachute Mines extended over a night that was. Luckily Billy [her son] was large area as they did not penetrate deeply into the evacuated at that time. Billy had just started ground as HE bombs tended to do. After the parachute school at Selwyn Avenue when war started, we opened, the mine would descend at around 40 miles per decided he should be evacuated with the other hour (65 km/h). When it hit the ground or a building, a children.” clockwork mechanism would detonate the mine Recollection from Mrs Tennant, Frances Road, approximately 25 seconds after impact. Chingford.

Land mines in Russell Road and Marmion Avenue

“There was a land mine in Russell Road one night “Shortly after my friend Shirley was killed, Mum and people were killed and injured. Russell Road and Dad decided to have me evacuated again. This is only a short distance from 130 Marmion Avenue, time I was sent on my own and I went to stay with just to the right; you can see it from the front door. Auntie Clara in Alhampton, Somerset. Auntie Clara st Then, on the night of September 30th - October 1 was the wife of Mum’s brother, William, and as he 1940, another landmine (large bombs dropped by still worked in London, he went to live with Mum parachute) fell to the left of us at number and Dad, so it was an exchange. Doreen my sister 87 Marmion Avenue. This was a direct hit on the stayed at home as she was only two years old. Anderson shelter of the family of 87. My friend Although I had two cousins there, Rosie and Shirley Horton was in that shelter. She was nine Sidney, it was quite an upheaval for me, but I years old and died together with her parents and settled down fairly quickly and stayed there for seven year old brother Clifford, her four-month-old about nine months.” baby sister Brenda and her Grandmother. Thirteen “I’m not quite sure of the date but it was before I houses in Marmion Avenue were destroyed or was thirteen, the bomb site in our road where later demolished. A number of houses in Hall Lane Shirley was killed was completely cleared and a were also destroyed. The gardens in the two roads camp was made for Italian prisoners of war. They backed on to each other. The gardens were quite used to go on lorries every day to work in the long but as the shelter was at the bottom of their nursery greenhouses, growing tomatoes and garden, it was a central position and caused the cucumbers. These nurseries were numerous along destruction of so many houses. Miraculously, no Sewardstone Road to Waltham Abbey, Nazeing one else was killed but I think there may have been and Cheshunt.” some injuries. On the same night another land mine caught on an electric pylon in Russell Road. Recollection from Betty Brown, Chingford It did not explode and had to be made safe.”

39 Land mine on Westcott’s Laundry “The most fearsome of all the bombs was the land mines dropped on parachutes. They did tremendous damage because they exploded above ground, when they touched the roofs of buildings as the wind carried them. I had just left the Town Hall one night when I saw one of them floating down some way ahead of me. Searchlights were clustered on it, following its slow descent. As I got near the Crooked Billet, it went out of sight; there was a great flash and bang. I realised it could not be far from my home. The mine had exploded on Westcott’s laundry behind the shops in Chingford Mount Road: rising above them all its tall chimney was in view from Westward Road, When I reached the area fire and rescue vehicles and ambulances were there and people flocking this way and that, some in nightclothes. The main damage was in Royston Avenue, to one side of the laundry. Blacking-out was abandoned; the lights were on in houses whose windows were shattered, while the rescue men had floodlights on the wreckage. Near the corner of the road a fireman passed me carrying a little girl. Our house was undamaged. My mother was subdued and frightened. Front doors were opened; careless of the blackout, neighbours went to and fro to speak to one another and pass on information. My father went up the road in search of news – several of the Royston Arms crowd had lived where the mine had fallen. He was away a long time, and came back with a family we knew. They were a couple about my parents’ age, with two daughters in their teens. They stayed with us for two weeks, sleeping in the front Pieces from the land mine that room, until they found another home. A possession of theirs, a small dropped on Westcott’s Laundry, and bed-side lamp in the shape of an owl, was left behind and stayed in Salisbury Hall Gardens. our house a few years. Whenever I looked at it I thought of the bombed-out family sitting with us on the night of the land-mine.”

Recollection from: Robert Barltrop, author of ‘Bright Summer Dark Autumn’ published by the London Borough of Waltham Forest

Westcott’s delivery van (undated) Westcott’s Ltd’s laundry was demolished in 1987.

War Work in Chingford

The Cork Manufacturing Co. Ltd

The Cork Manufacturing Co. Ltd. located In Hall Lane was one of three Chingford factories which were heavily involved with war work. It produced a wide range of cork products, mostly for military vehicles. The London Rubber Company, Hall Lane, Chingford (undated).

The Flexo Plywood Company Ltd The London Rubber Company

Also situated in Hall Lane was Flexo Plywood In 1932 the London Rubber Company set up its first Industries, Ltd which worked on aircraft bodies, factory at Shore Road in Hackney. It named its new producing 2280 Oxford aircraft, 3100 Horsa gliders product ‘Durex’ contraceptives. Elarco Limited was and numerous Mosquito fighter/bombers. A total of 32 formed in 1934 as a private company to acquire the million square feet of aircraft plywood was produced business of the London Rubber Company. In 1937 it during the war, working seven days a week 24 hours a moved to a new factory, situated on the North Circular day. The company helped build 425 Fairmile motor Road in Chingford. After the war the company started and torpedo boats, as well as pontoons and landing to diversify and began manufacturing rubber gloves, craft. In addition to plywood it produced coolers and the centres for golf balls, children’s balloons and radiators for bombers, in its metal shop. Post war the fountain pen sacs. company made utility furniture and developed veneer work. “In August 1944, just after my 14th birthday, I left school and started work at The Flexo Plywood Company, where Mother was still employed. I was put in the metal work shop where many items were made for the aircraft industry such as fuel tanks, seats and exhaust pipes. As an unskilled worker, I was given the most boring of jobs such as filing rivet heads on the fuel tanks so that they could be coated with tin to prevent rusting. For this I received £1 and 5 shillings per week. Later I was transferred to the sheet metal cutting department which was better.” Recollection by Derek Wetenhall for WW2 People’s War, BBC Article ID: A2151019. WW2.

People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar Two World War 2 notices from the Vestry House Museum collection.

See Appendix 1 for the Halex factory in Highams Park

40 Conscription (compulsory enlistment of Women's Royal Naval Service people) Some women were drawn to the smart uniform of the

In April 1939 the Secretary of State for War, Leslie Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS ), more Hore-Belisha, convinced the government to introduce popularly known as the Wrens. The service was first a limited form of conscription, as a direct result of the formed in 1917 under the command of Dame deteriorating international situation and fear of war Katharine Furse, the first Director. It was disbanded in with Nazi Germany. The National Service (Armed 1919, but at the beginning of the Second World War it Forces) Act 1939 followed, calling for all able bodied was reformed under the leadership of Dame Vera men between the ages of 18 and 41 to join up. It was Laughton Mathews. It remained active until it was decided that single men would be called up before integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNS’s married men. By the end of 1939 more than 1.5 duties, or ‘trades’ as they were known, became more million men had been conscripted to join the British varied as time went on, and included cooks, clerks, armed forces. The majority, some 1.1 million men, meteorologists, wireless telegraph operators, radar went into the British Army and the rest were split plotters, electricians and air mechanics. A small between the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. For number were classed as ‘Boat’s Crew’ and operated those men who were either too old for military service harbour launches. At their peak there were 74,000 or had not yet reached the age of eighteen, the WRNS. officers and ratings. chance to ‘Do their Bit’ came with the setting up of the Local Defence Volunteers or Home Guard as it The Auxiliary Territorial Service became later.

The Auxiliary Territorial Service was the women's branch of the British Army. It was formed on the The National Service Act extends to 9th September 1938, originally as a women's voluntary include unmarried women service, and existed until 1st February 1949, when it

In December 1941, Parliament passed the National was merged into the Women's Royal Army Corps. The Service Act, which called up all unmarried women small number of ‘trades’ on offer to the new recruit between 20 and 30 years of age, to join one of the gradually increased over time and encompassed auxiliary services. However women with babies or clerical, catering, lorry driving and work on anti-aircraft young children were exempt. Women were given the gun-sites. HRH the Princess Elizabeth was an option of joining the Army, Air Force, or Navy. honorary Auxiliary Territorial Service Second Subaltern and trained to drive and repair motor lorries. Women on the Home Front After completing her course at No. 1 Mechanical Training Centre of the ATS she passed as a fully Women were encouraged to join one of the services, qualified driver. either the Auxiliary Territorial Army (ATS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) or the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). There was also the option of working in factories or volunteering for the Women’s Land Army (WLA) where they would work in farming or in forestry.

ATS cap with plastic badge. Both badges

and buttons were made of plastic due to the Brass Auxiliary Territorial shortage of metals as the war progressed. Service cap badge.

The WAAF came under the administration of the RAF and members did not serve in individual female units as did the ATS. Many young women joined the WAAF from both Britain and overseas. The director of the WAAF was Katherine Trefusis-Forbes, a veteran of the Women's Volunteer Reserve of the First World War. She was given the rank off Senior Controller and later that of Air Commandant. Members of the WAAF were initially recruited only as clerks, cooks, kitchen orderlies and drivers, but later more trades became available for women. These continued to get more and more varied and went on to include plotters in operation rooms, codes and cipher interceptors, meteorologists and the interpretation of aerial photographs. The latter became vitally important, when trying to locate V-2 launching sites. Many worked as parachute packers or provided A group of off-duty WAAFs, including local women, crews for barrage balloon sites (a job initially thought to Joan Wilson 2nd from left. be too demanding for women).

Finally WAAFs became qualified electricians, Police & Fire armourers and mechanics. However WAAFs did not Some women joined the Police Force and helped to deal serve as aircrew and were not allowed in the air. Some with evacuees, refugees, first aid, and even enemy women did learn to fly and joined the Air Transport aliens. The criminal element welcomed the blackout and Auxiliary (ATA), which was civilian organization which theft was widespread. They also took their turn on duty ferried aeroplanes from the factories to RAF Stations during air raids. Women were also recruited into the around the country. At first RAF ground crew were National Fire Service (NFS) who had taken control on 18 shocked when a single young ATA landed a four August 1941, when all the auxiliary fire services were engine, heavy bomber at their airfield and were not reorganised to form a new national service. By 1943 over convinced that she had flown it, until a search of the 70,000 women had enrolled in the NFS. plane proved there was no other pilot on board. Tea Important War-work In 1941 the Chingford WVS members were given a Mobile If none of the options appealed to the women they Tea Car, to be used at air-raid incidents. The sign on the were directed to work in the factories and munitions. door refers to Gamma Phi Beta Sorority which donated The Emergency Powers Act of 1940 had given the the vehicle. It was one of the oldest women's government the power to conscript workers into organizations in the USA and the first to be called a essential industries, but it was not immediately "sorority". It was founded in 1874 at Syracuse University, evoked. It was hoped that women would volunteer to New York. work in factories drawn by the prospect of better pay. In March 1941 labour shortage became so severe that the Essential Works Order introduced conscription. Women between 20 and 30 became liable for conscription into war work. Any women with children under 14 were exempt, but many wanted to help with the war effort and volunteered anyway.

Young mothers were encouraged by the availability of new, local day care nurseries. A recruitment drive with posters and the 1943 British propaganda film

‘Millions Like Us’, starring Patricia Roc, helped encourage women into factory work, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory and emphasising how important such work was. photo Chingford at War

Women’s Voluntary Service, Woman’s Institute, and Navy Army and Air Force Institute

Older women who were equally keen to ‘do their bit’ had several options in the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS), the Woman’s Institute (WI), and the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute which is better known simply as the NAAFI. The NAAFI was created by the government in 1921 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces. It provided a shop where servicemen and woman could buy snacks, drinks, cigarettes and a limited range of essentials.

WVS Housewives Service.

Above: Woman’s Voluntary Service, Civil Defence, lapel badge.

Women’s Voluntary Society (WVS) Headquarters on The Green, Chingford (photo Chingford at War).

WVS Workroom at Green Farm, The Green: volunteers making what appear to be pyjamas. An army of women, including the WVS and WI, knitted woollen jumpers, scarves, balaclavas and gloves for the troops. The RNLI was also supported in the same way. (Photo Chingford at War).

43 The Women’s Land Army

Gladys Hayward lived in Walthamstow and joined the Women’s Land Army in the 1940s. Posted up to Daventry in Northamptonshire, she was photographed with friends during haymaking.

“The van we go in, outside the front porch” The ‘forelady’ is in the driving seat.

As a teenage woman Gwenda Young of Chingford joined the Women’s Land Army and was sent to Braintree in Essex.

Although she had never worked with a horse before, she was put on the ‘milk round’, collecting the milk from local farms and distributing it to people by horse and cart. Generally the cottages she passed had their own jug, which she would fill from the milk churn. She eventually left the Women’s Land

Army in order to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), as she was keen to learn to drive. After initial training in the ATS “A few of the girls at the back of she was able to drive and maintain motor lorries and other the house where we were billeted”. vehicles. After the war ended she was stationed in France and Germany, where she frequently drove high ranking allied officers around in her jeep. (Thanks to David Young of Chingford Historical Society.)

44 War time Christmas Winston Churchill’s Christmas Message of 1941 (extracts)

Despite the difficulties enforced by ‘the Blitz’ (blackout “Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. regulations, rationing and general uncertainty) the Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let general feeling was that Christmas should be us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted celebrated in the best possible fashion. Many small pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and local groups put on pantomimes such as ‘Puss in the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, Boots’, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, ‘Aladdin’ and by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall ‘Cinderella’, with any proceeds going toward the war not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right effort. It was a case of improvisation and a desire to to live in a free and decent world.” “And so, in God's make the best of it. Christmas parties were put on for mercy, a Happy Christmas to you all.” evacuated children and dances were held for the adults. Carol singing and concerts were given in From 1940 onwards, in order to have a good churches and church halls across the country. Christmas people would begin stocking up with However church bells could not be rung, as they were whatever they could get from the shops, often waiting reserved for an invasion warning. in long queues, not being sure what was on offer until

they reached the counter. As rationing became more acute ration book ‘points’ might be saved up, magazines scanned for tips, and numerous wartime cook books consulted for recipes. Even then it would prove difficult to achieve anything resembling a pre- war Christmas meal of roast chicken or turkey followed by pudding and cream. Christmas cards were encouraged as it was thought they would help keep up morale both for Service men and women and the civilians at home. The house could be decorated for free if you could get your hands on some holly and ivy; if not, home-made paper chains could be made from newspaper or strips of coloured paper, glued together into interconnected chains.

War Savings poster issued by the National Savings Committee to encourage people to save and not to spend money on non- essentials. It was suggested that it was everybody’s patriotic duty to invest in the war effort.

The Post Office faced a severe problem finding enough postmen to deal with all the extra letters and parcels at Christmas time. There was also far less space available to carry mail on the overstretched railways, which were heavily engaged in transporting food, raw materials, troops and munitions. Many Christmas parcels and letters were A wartime Christmas card. The government was delivered to POWs by the Red Cross and the keen to promote the sending of Christmas cards YMCA. Prisoner’s cards and letters were also as it was thought it would help keep up moral, collected to be sent back to wives and family in both of the men posted overseas and those Britain. waiting at home.

The YMCA set up War Prisoners Aid to help and support prisoners of war by providing, reading material, musical instruments, painting and drawing supplies, gramophones and 78 rpm records, sports equipment and other items. They were also involved in war work with displaced persons and refugees.

From 1942 onwards the Wardens Service organised an annual Christmas Party for the children of members of Civil Defence Services in Chingford. Each year a pantomime was put on at Wellington Avenue School. In 1942 it was The local ARP members did a lot of work organizing dances, “Aladdin”, in 1943 “Dick Whittington” and 1944 fetes and sports events in order to raise money for the war “Puss in Boots”. A special performance of Dick effort. Here the cast of ‘Puss in Boots’ pose for a photograph Whittington raised the sum of £50 for Connaught during a performance given by South Chingford Wardens’ Hospital. Post, for Christmas 1944.

Christmas Dinner could be eaten cold straight from the tin or dipped in batter and fried in oil with chips in a frying pan. In an effort to provide a Christmas menu the Ministry of Food produced numerous recipes, gave talks and From July 1942 onwards America also provided demonstrations, and sent out leaflets. But by 1942 the tinned dried egg. One packet of the powdered, dried sugar ration was down to eight ounces per person per egg was the equivalent of a dozen eggs. It was good week and icing sugar was unavailable and even if you for cooking cakes, and when mixed with a little milk could purchase some it was against the law to ice cakes and fried it became scrambled egg. As the war anyway. A concoction known as ‘Wartime Trifle’ which progressed into 1942 the threat of bombing had was made with rum essence and synthetic cream, begun to recede, but rationing had become even provided some sense of occasion, but no doubt tasted tighter. Rice and dried fruit, condensed milk, horrible. Tinned meat called ‘Spam’ was imported from breakfast cereals, tinned tomatoes, tinned peas and America, and was used in a variety of different ways. It soap were added to the ration list. Next came sweets and chocolate, biscuits and even oats.

Christmas luxuries were especially hard to come by at a time when even basic foods were scarce.

Right: Christmas Card sent home by a local soldier

What to cook for Christmas ‘serving overseas’ to family dinner was a big problem.

‘Gert and Daisy’ were popular

‘Cockney’ radio performers, especially during the 1940s. Hand-made Their Christmas cookery tips decorations in issued during rationing in the the form of 1940s included cooking a piece parrots. of mutton with sage and onion stuffing and calling it ‘Murkey’, and an austerity Christmas Pudding recipe using McDougall’s flour, no sugar and with minimal fruit.

Christmas presents and toys

Magazines and books offered ideas for homemade gifts made from pipe cleaners, scraps of material and wool. A toy train could, with some ingenuity, be made out of empty cocoa tins, with lids forming the wheels. Many manufactured toys were made from paper or card. As well as playing cards there were special wartime editions of old favourites such as ‘Happy Families’ and ‘Snap’. A variety of special boxed games were produced, including compendiums with ‘Ludo’, ‘Snakes & Ladders’ and draughts. The game of ‘Battleships’ was very popular, as were mini chess sets, which could be played in the air raid shelter. The game of ‘Monopoly’, which was first marketed by Parker Brothers in 1935, probably the most famous game worldwide, was available during wartime; the houses and hotels were made of painted wood. There was even an ARP board game, based on Civil Defence, produced in the 1940s. Britain’s Ltd, wartime toys.

“I’m buying a dressing gown for Mum for Christmas before

Purchase Tax goes on; thought I’d let you know in case you had the same idea, but don’t tell her, will you?” An old favourite, the Anon. game of ‘Snap’, from the 1940s.

Advert placed by Lidstones in the Walthamstow Guardian newspaper

Hitler Dart Board. Cardboard marionette of Hitler

47 A children’s favourite, Meccano’s familiar red and green often had quite crude packaging. The name ‘Bayko’ was paint, disappeared during the war, when only plain sets derived from Bakelite, one of the world's first commercial were available. The manufacturers of the construction plastics. By the end of 1941 the factory had switched set ‘Bayko’, Plimpton Engineering, were forced to use production entirely to the war effort, producing goods aluminium and tinplate instead of steel for the rods and that included parts for Wellington bombers. brackets. Kits were also less consistent in colour and

Children

For many children the war was a time of great upheaval and fear. Over a million were evacuated from towns and cities and had to cope with the “I remember numerous trips to the shelters in Chase separation from family and friends. For those who Lane School and singing songs as well as having stayed at home there were the nightly bombing raids spelling bees and similar activities there, sometimes and hours spent in the shelters. Some were injured, for quite lengthy stays. My brother and I became made homeless or lost loved ones. The young had to quite expert at assessing which of the docks were deal with food and clothing rationing, most knew of no on fire during the previous air-raids. We were lucky other way of life. There were also the effects of the in that our house was never hit, or even damaged, disruption with their education and school life to take although an incendiary bomb fell in the loft of the into account. The disruption and food shortages adjoining house and my father had to extinguish it.” continued long after the war; in fact sweets were still Recollection by Miss P.M. Jackson. on ration in 1953. Post-war Britain saw changes such as the National Health Service that would have a lasting impact on all children's lives.

Scouts and Guides

The local Scout and Girl Guide troops, although stamp out the flames outside the house. This action considerably reduced in numbers due to the evacuation no doubt saved further damage to property, and set a of children and the enlistment of older members, still fine example.” managed to contribute to the war effort. They Patrol Leader Ralf William Mullins later received an undertook many different jobs including helping with award for gallantry and resourcefulness, from the Boy the collection of salvage, first-aid and even the th Scouts Association. construction of Anderson air-raid shelters. The 15 Epping Forest Scouts agreed to make weekly collections of salvaged paper in North Chingford area while the 5th Troop agreed to collect in South Chingford. All waste paper was recycled where possible and nothing wasted. Some scouts acted as messengers for the ARP Wardens, a difficult and sometimes dangerous job that could entail riding a bicycle between Warden’s Posts during an air-raid.

The following extract from A6 Post Warden’s notes was written into the Log Book on the night of 27th / 28th September, 1940:

“I wish to place on record my appreciation of the manner in which Messenger Mullins carried out his duties in the Wellington Avenue Incident. In addition to the smart and efficient manner in which he Scouts parade at the Leyton Football Ground during carried all his messages, he was seen to run into a ‘War Weapons Week’ in 1942. house and return with an armful of clothing and

48 Local author Robert Barltrop recalled his time in the Scouts: “We had meetings in the blacked-out hall, ran by whichever seniors happened to be there. The ‘rough games’ we had always played became more boisterous, partly because there were no younger boys to consider but also as a release from the pent-up feeling which wartime life was bringing. And we talked about the war, because it dominated everything now; but there was a special reason. Some of the young men of military age intended to be conscientious objectors.” Robert Barltrop ‘Bright Summer Dark Autumn’.

The ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign Due to the likely shortages of food, people were encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Seed clubs were formed and helpful gardening hints were published in newspapers and magazines. There were also a number of books published to advise the novice gardener. Children were also encouraged to have a piece of land where they could cultivate a few vegetables. Many local parks and gardens were also dug up and turned into allotments. The Essex Agricultural Committee suggested that approved volunteers be allowed to dig and plant allotments and gardens where the active male members of the properties were away in the armed forces. Owners of any unoccupied houses were also contacted and asked if they were prepared to let their gardens be included in the scheme. Negotiations were made with the owner of land adjacent to the Odeon Cinema, to be made available to members, to be turned into allotments. Food shortages worsened at the end of the war. The very dry weather of 1945 was responsible for a poor harvest, which affected the availability of potatoes and bread, both being rationed for the first time. Government ‘Dig for Plenty’ poster

Potato Pete and Doctor Carrot were two characters created to promote eating vegetables. The public were encouraged to experiment with new and unusual foods. Tuna proved popular. However whale meat was not a success.

Entertainment: The BBC

The BBC began transmitting regular television programs from the basement of Broadcasting House in London on the 22nd August 1932. Over Dances the next seven years programmes improved Dancing was extremely popular with civilians and significantly, and outside broadcasting of the members of the armed forces and many church and school Coronation and sporting events such as the FA halls were used as well as the more usual dance halls. Cup Final, boxing and cricket matches were ‘Doing the Lambeth Walk’ (a song from the 1937 musical starting to be shown regularly. The announcement ‘Me and My Girl’) and the ‘Paul Jones’ (a dance where of war with Germany had the immediate effect of couples join hands in a big circle) were good ways of stopping all television broadcasting, and TV sets meeting people quickly, when free time was at a premium remained silent from 1st September 1939 at about and leave was short. 12.15pm, when the service came to an unannounced halt, until after the war. No reason was given at the time, and for those people who had spent a considerable amount of money on a new 12 inch TV it must have seemed extremely The Pub disappointing. One reason for the closure was that In wartime the local pub was a good place to socialize and it was feared that the transmitter at Alexandra catch up on the war news. Often there would be a wireless Palace might have served as a direction-finder for in the bar, which was switched on for the BBC news and approaching enemy bombers. important announcements. For many people the local pub BBC radio broadcasts remained, although the was almost a home-from-home, even though beer was number of stations was reduced to one, renamed often in short supply, had dubious ingredients, and may as the Home Service. For most people the have been watered down. From 1941 the ‘No Beer’ sign ‘wireless’ (radio) was the main source of both was often to be seen hanging on the pump handle, and entertainment and information. Whole families even regulars were sometimes rationed to one pint. The would gather around the wireless set waiting for cost, too, increased as a pre-war pint might have cost such programs as ‘ITMA’ (‘It’s That Man Again’) around 6d (old pence, equating to 2.5p) and it almost starring Tommy Handley, and numerous ITMA doubled to around a shilling (5p) a pint. Landlords were catch phrases such as “Can I do you now, Sir?” also restricted in their sale of spirits. Even home produced quickly caught on. Another show called ‘Workers' whisky was rationed and in short supply, as much of what Playtime’ began in 1941 as a touring show, with was made was produced only for export, particularly to the the Ministry of Labour choosing which factory it USA. By 1942 a bottle of Scotch whisky cost around £1 would visit. It was broadcast three times a week, and 3 shillings (£1.15p), if it were available. live from a factory canteen "somewhere in Britain". It proved a very popular morale-booster. The programme included a comedy double act called Gert and Daisy, two fictional characters who would talk about anything and everything, but especially their wayward husbands, Bert and Wally. Played by Florence Elsie Waters and Doris Ethel Waters, Gert and Daisy were household names during the 1940s and both sisters received OBEs in 1946.

One of the most popular programs and one that still endures today was ‘Desert Island Discs’ devised by Roy Plomley, who presented the first The Royal Oak Pub on King’s Head Hill, Chingford edition on 29th January 1942. celebrates VE Day in 1945. Note the black and white painted curb, a reminder of the blackout.

50 “During the war we had an air raid shelter in the things, you know dances and what have you. But I garden and slept there most nights. My small son can remember there was a soldier, he was dancing slept well in the bottom bunk. How we all slept I on a Jeep and all the sparks were coming up from don’t know! Later we had a Morrison [table shelter] the engine. He was dancing on the bonnet!” in the kitchen. It was right over the cellar, can you After the war believe that? We all got in it, you know. It was amazing. Awful weren’t they. Of course we used it “Soldiers I think, that must have been after the war. as a kitchen table. They were stationed at High Beech, and they used to be marched past the pub. A friendly officer or We didn’t seem to have a lot of trouble in the pub. Sergeant fell out here for a quick drink all round. We didn’t really. No I mean you’d have the odd That was after the war. Christmas 1946 [there were] occasion with things going a bit wrong. Like the prisoners of war, on a camp on the Plain. We were time the soldier came in and asked me for a pint of allowed to employ one. He used to use the wash beer and I gave it to him. He just turned round to house that was in the yard. Light a solid fuel the chap who was playing cards and threw it copper and boil all the glass cloths from the bars. straight in his face, because he had been naughty He was a lovely singer, singing all the time” with his wife.

Of course there were shortages. Beer became difficult to get in, pubs resorted to opening on Recollections from: Kath Evans, who ran the Royal certain days only.” Oak public house on King’s Head Hill, Chingford in the 1940s; extracts taken from an interview of Kath Evans VE Day WFOHW 321/2/3 reproduced by kind permission of Waltham Forest Oral History Workshop, publisher of “It was really mad. We did sell out of drink and the online ‘Behind the Bar’. when we closed the pub, we all went to the Ching Garage. I don’t think it’s there now. They used to have a room upstairs, where they had do’s and

A pub named the Dun Cow was at the corner of The Manor Hotel was renamed in 1975 as the Horseless Hatch Lane and Friday Hill from at least 1851. Carriage, when the ‘Brighton Belle’ Pullman car ‘Gwen’ was It was demolished, rebuilt, and opened with the positioned outside, by crane. The name was changed for the name The Manor Hotel in 1929. Note the petrol fourth time in 1981, to the Wheelwrights. A block of flats now pump in the forecourt. fills the site.

51 52

Another photo of the Manor Hotel, this one with a handcart stopped outside.

A view of Hatch Lane with the sign for the Prince of Wales pub

The Prince of Wales at 71 Hatch Lane, Chingford in 1938. Opened in 1895 and closed in 2009.

53 The Cinema

Many people visited the cinema at least once a week, sometimes more, during the 1940s. Apart from the main feature the local cinema was an important place to get the war news. There were also public information films and cartoons to watch. Stars such as Arthur Askey (‘Back-Room Boy’, 1942) and George Formby (‘Get Cracking’, 1943) made several films with war-time themes, where the enemy was always thwarted in the last reel. Chingford Pavilion Cinema underwent a name change The Doric Cinema at 127 Station Road had when it was changed to The Doric Cinema on seating for around 600 people. 30th May 1941, after most directional signs were removed so as to confuse the enemy! The word Chingford was taken down and certain letters reused until the name of Doric came up and seemed appropriate.

The Odeon Cinema, designed by Andrew Mather, opened in 1935 with an impressive seating capacity of 1,400. The first movie to be shown at the Odeon starred Shirley Temple in ‘Bright Eyes’ and Monty Banks’ ‘So You Won’t Talk’. Situated in Cherrydown Avenue, the Odeon, having survived the war, was demolished in 1972.

Advert from January 1941 ‘Inspector Hornleigh On Holiday’ in the Walthamstow Guardian newspaper.

The Odeon Cinema at 6-8 Cherrydown Avenue, about 1940.

During National Service Week, 20th May to 27th May 1939, special displays were put on stage at the Odeon Cinema, Chingford. Later 750 people attended the Odeon to volunteer for ARP duties.

Chingford’s War Weapons Week

Chingford’s ‘War Weapons Week’ poster from 1940.

Fund raising in Chingford by the Civil Defence, with the help of a model Spitfire and a ‘cowboy’.

Chingford Civil Defence Post Warden Harold Clark sitting on top of the barrel organ.

On a cold February morning with collection tins at the ‘ready’.

The “Beast”.

An Unexploded Bomb on the Walthamstow edge of Epping Forest

“About a fortnight after we moved in I was sitting in the flat alone viewing our handiwork when there was a sharp rat-tat on the door. I went downstairs to open it and saw a uniformed Army Officer standing there. “I’ve come about bomb,” he said. The following day the Bomb Disposal Squad arrived and commenced taking down the 10 foot wall separating the garden from the forest. Having tested the area again with their instruments they decided it was outside in the forest. So they re-built the wall. Digging commenced in the forest, but once again they drew a blank and the sad conclusion was arrived at that the bomb must be where they thought in the first place, so down came the wall again. The whole business had begun to assume the air of a Mack Sennett comedy. This time the work began in earnest. A shaft had to be built as the bomb was thought to be a long way down and a “tonner”. From the room adjacent to the forest which we were using as a studio a long cable was attached to a light fitting, to be lowered down the shaft as work progressed. It was a long hot summer and for the most part the men worked stripped to the waist, cheerfully and patiently and with the abandon of men who are always close to danger. Day by day they dug and consolidated, slowly penetrating the bowels of the earth, always watchful for the first sign. Our hitherto peaceful spot became a centre of tourist attraction and weekends in particular there was always an enthusiastic audience wondering if they were going to be in at the “kill”. Kindly neighbours would bring the men trays of tea, plates of chips etc., and as the days grew warmer, cool, thirst quenching drinks. Then the big day came! The “thing” was showing. All eyes were focussed on the solid edge peeping through the earth. Very carefully one of the men loosened the surrounding earth, filling the empty buckets which were hauled up to the surface. When it was completely uncovered it was the size of a man, certainly the “tonner” they had anticipated. Plans were immediately made to defuse the monster and bring it to the surface. Shortly afterwards my husband and a policeman were talking to one of the men and he asked if they would like to go down the shaft and see the bomb. They agreed with mixed feelings, not wishing to appear chicken. By now they had reached a depth of 40 feet and the atmosphere down the shaft was cold and clammy, being lit by a single electric light bulb from our studio window. Foot by foot the three men lowered themselves gingerly down, the soldier nimble from constant practice, my husband moving with caution, and the policeman in his uniform lumbering down after them. When they reached the bottom there was a sudden whirring noise and the earth seemed to tremble. The policeman who was about 20 stone, and my husband both sprang instantaneously into action. My husband swears to this day he doesn’t know who started up the ladder first, but they both went helter-skelter, scrambling over one another in their frenzy to reach the top. When they flung themselves out they realized what had happened. One of the men on the surface had started an electric drill, and all but the victims themselves thought it was a great joke. Next day the area was cordoned off and a small crane erected. With the utmost care the bomb was de-fused and brought up and once more we resumed our normal existence of just living with the war.”

Recollection from Rose Lewis of St Peter’s Avenue, Walthamstow

The army bomb disposal personnel removing the unexploded bomb from the garden of the end house in St Peter’s Avenue, Walthamstow, on 24th September 1940 (see previous page).

A Memory of South Chingford Local Defence Volunteers and Home Guard “I was born in 1939 in the Chingford Mount Hospital. My late father Sam Shapiro (later With the threat of invasion the main topic of Shepherd) owned the business ‘Chingford Mount speculation, many people were wondering what they Radio’ near the corner of Chingford Mount and could do to protect themselves and their families. On Larkswood Road* next door to one of the the evening of 14th May 1940 the Secretary of State wartime British Restaurants established in a for War, Anthony Eden, made a wireless (radio) community or church hall at the corner of broadcast calling for men between the ages of 17 and Larkswood Road*. He used to drive around in a 65 to enrol in a new force, the Local Defence small cream coloured van with the ad "Your Volunteers (LDV). The announcement was met with a Murphy Dealer" on the side. My father used to great deal of enthusiasm by the British people, with talk about the day he retreated to a bomb shelter 250,000 volunteers attempting to sign up in the first in the back yard of the shop and there was a week. huge explosion when a German bomb made a By July, nearly 1.5 million men had enrolled and the direct hit on the shop. He emerged to find a lot of name of this ‘people's army’ was changed on the rubble and bits of radios, valves, cords, plugs etc insistence of Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the scattered all over the road. Our family migrated ‘Home Guard’. At first they were without any sort of to Australia in 1948. I have been back several equipment or uniform other than perhaps an LDV times since but it’s a lonely experience unless armband. The letters quickly gave rise to the “Look, you can find people to talk to who can Duck and Vanish” joke, but over the course of the next remember.” few years the Home Guard became involved in all Ron Shapiro (A memory from The Francis Frith manner of defensive roles, from the construction of Collection website copyright www.francisfrith.com and road-blocks to anti-aircraft batteries and coastal used with permission) defence. * a mistake: Larkswood Road does not go to Chingford Mount; possibly New Road is meant

The enamelled ‘Home

Guard’ lapel badge was worn by off duty th members. 54 Battalion Essex Home Guard

Air Raid pamphlet N°3 ‘Advising the Public in the cloth shoulder titles, battalion areas Event of Invasion’, dated 1941. After the fall of and numbers France the nation expected Britain to be invaded at any time.

King George VI inspecting the LDV (Home Guard) at the White House, Gilwell Park in July 1940. The whole estate was requisitioned by the War Ministry in 1940 for use as a training and ordnance centre. It has been suggested that a bomb crater within the park was later enlarged to form a swimming and canoe training pool.

The Home Guard prepared to use church bells as an invasion alarm and call-to-arms. This led to numerous rules and regulations as to who should have access to the church keys and bell towers. However all church bells were forbidden to be rung unless an invasion was imminent. This rule was overruled by th chWinstonurch b eChllsu thrrchillou gwhenhout theon 16countNroyv embshoulder 1b9e42 ru nheg orderedto celebrate that victory in the African Campaign.

Even after the threat of invasion had passed the Home Guard remained in existence, manning guard posts, checking identity cards, manning anti-aircraft guns and carrying out other duties. This work allowed regular troops to be posted for duty overseas. The pinnacle of the Home Guard’s existence and official recognition came when they were requested to form the guard at Buckingham Palace. Both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Mother) came out to speak to some of the members of the Home Guard, providing the Buckingham Palace guard.

King George VI inspecting the LDV, later to be known as the Home Guard.

Members of the Home Guard Band, Civil Defence and

the public marching at a Thanksgiving for Victory in The V-1 Flying bomb or ‘Doodlebug’ Europe Service held in the Ridgeway Park on Sunday

13t h May, 1945. These noisy pilot-less aircraft had a range of around two hundred miles at a speed of 400mph and carried a warhead of 1 ton of high explosive. Many were shot down by the RAF or anti-aircraft guns rapidly redeployed to the south coast, and some hit barrage balloons, but a large number got through causing considerable damage. The first V-1 fell on the King George V Reservoir, throwing up a considerable column of water but causing no casualties. The Banbury Reservoir was the next to be hit on Sunday 25th June, again with no casualties. The third incident was on the same evening when a V-1 crashed in the back garden of 30 Mornington Road and caused the first fatal casualties in

Chingford.

58 The V-2, Long Range Rocket attacks on Chingford

In September 1944 V-2 rockets, the world's first long-range ballistic missiles, began to be targeted on London. As the V-2 arrived without warning (the V-2 rocket travelled so fast that no warning could be given and the first indication was the blast) the government tried to conceal their existence by blaming the explosions on faulty gas mains. The first V-2 in Chingford fell just north of the Royal Forest Hotel. Butler’s Retreat received some damage as did the Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge.

The explosion caused some damage to Butlers Retreat and created a deep pit nearby, which over the years became a pond.

The remains of a V-2. Chingford’s first V-2 fell in the forest just north of Butler’s Retreat. Part of the rocket motor being inspected by ARP Wardens.

nd “At twelve o’clock midday on Friday 22 October The second V-2 incident in Chingford was on th 1944, the first long range rocket fell on the 27 November 1944 on a Monday evening, but it Borough. Fortunately it fell on forest land, caused no deaths as it fell on the aqueduct, which ran approximately 150 yards east of the Royal Forest down the side of the King George V Reservoir. Hotel and thirty yards north of Rangers Road. However considerable damage was caused to Although it was a fine morning, there was property in nearby Sewardstone Road. Over the next apparently no one about at the time apart from months the V-2s caused an enormous amount of two minor casualties caused by flying glass; the damage and many deaths. The problem of the V-2 Civil Defence Services were not required. Butler’s rocket was not solved until well after ‘D’ Day, when Retreat was probably the worst affected, although finally the army began overrunning the launch sites. much minor damage was caused to the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge and the Forest Keeper’s Lodge off Rangers Road, damage was also caused to the Royal Forest Hotel and one or two buses standing outside the Hotel at the time suffered a little damage to windows.”

Record of the incident from ‘Chingford at War’.

59 Kings Head Hill, 15th January 1945

The extensive damage caused by the V-2 Rocket which fell on King’s Head, Hill, Chingford.

Civil defence members at the V-2 Rocket Incident on King’s Head Hill in Chingford, on the 15th January 1945. (Chingford at War).

“On Monday morning, January 15th, 1945, at eight minutes past nine, the third incident occurred in the Borough. A long range rocket fell in the roadway at the junction of Pole Hill Road and King’s Head Hill, and the first deaths and serious casualties in the Borough from this form of attack occurred on that morning.” Chingford at War

King’s Head Hill (Chingford at War)

Kings Head Hill. The devastation caused by the V-2 spread over a wide area. (Chingford at War).

Bomb damage at King’s Head Hill.

King’s Head Hill at the junction with Pole Hill.

King’s Head Hill V-2 bomb damage.

Two members of the public survey the Kings Head Hill: Women’s Voluntary Society Mobile Feeding devastation while WVS members serve tea and Centre providing tinned ‘thick’ vegetable stew, tea and hot soup. sandwiches to bombed out residents and ARP Rescuers. (Chingford at War).

Whitehall Gardens 1st February 1945

“February 1st, 1945, will be remembered as one of the worst days so far as Chingford is concerned, in connection with this form of attack. At twelve minutes to eight on the morning of Thursday 1st February a long range rocket fell in Whitehall Road at the junction of Friday Hill. A very large crater was caused, some forty feet across and twenty feet deep, which blocked Whitehall Road to traffic, and five houses, Nos, 1 – 5, Whitehall Gardens were partially demolished, whilst a further two houses, Nos,6 and 7 had to be demolished later”.

Whitehall Gardens V-2, Thursday 1st February 1945 07.48 hours.

York Road, 1st February 1945

The V-2 incident at York Road, Chingford.

Mobile Canteens were provided and an Emergency Feeding Unit was set up in York Road during the course of the afternoon and remained in operation for 48 hours. Much good work was done by members of the public and by the Civil Defence Services and the National Fire Service and the Police, and the commendable conduct of a local resident, Lieutenant A Wright of the Royal Corps of Signals, who, V-2 on York Road, 1st February 1945 14.06 hours. although handicapped by the loss of both his hands whilst serving in “This incident was the third in the borough within seven hours, and Italy, was brought to the notice of although the casualties occurred at only two of them, eight people the Regional Commissioners. The were killed or eventually died in hospital. Fifty-four people were following is an extract from the letter conveyed to hospital and seventy-five were treated at First Aid Posts received by the Civil Defence during the day, approximately 1,650 properties were damaged in the Committee of the Council, from the three incidents. In many respects this particular day was the worst Chief Administrative Officer, London twenty-four hour period during the whole course of the war.” Civil Defence Region:

Extract form Chingford at War.

th “Thank you for your letter dated 18 March, with “I remember the exact time. It was seven minutes which you forwarded the papers about the young past two and we heard the bomb land in York Army Officer, who had lost his hands and worked so Road. The force blew a few of the school windows st hard at the incident on the 1 February at Chingford. in and we all rushed outside to see what had The Commissioners were very much impressed by happened. The devastation caused was amazing the story and have written to the Commanding and it was unbelievable that only four people were Officer, London District, to ask him to let Lieutenant, killed during the attack.” Wright know how much his energy and pluck was Recollection by: Brian Elton printed in the admired and that it was brought to the notice of the Walthamstow Guardian, 13.1.05, reproduced by kind Regional Commissioners”. permission of The East London Guardian series of Lieutenant A Wright was subsequently invited to join the newspapers ARP.

Endlebury Road. 5th February 1945

The Long Range Rocket Incident (V-2) Endlebury Road Monday 5th February 1945 02.00 hours.

The Long Range Rocket Incident (V-2) Endlebury Road Monday 5th February 1945 02.00 hours. The site beginning to be cleared, an ARP vehicle, rescue workers with crane and WVS women can be seen. Chingford at War).

Wellington Avenue and The Avenue. 18th February 1945

Rear of houses at Wellington Avenue and The Avenue, after a Long Range Rocket (V-2) fell on Sunday 18th February 1945 at 00.55 hours. (Chingford at War).

Examining the huge crater left by the exploding V-2 at Wellington Avenue.

V-2 (Unexploded) at Palace View Yard, crater in the verge. At the time it was planted with Chingford bushes, but now it's grassed. I don't know the date,

“I was told by my parents that one night a V-2 but I think it may have resulted in my parents landed in the 'verge' or 'nature strip' at this sending me (aged 2) away to an 'Auntie' who lived junction, outside No. 2 Palace View Road. It did not at Bacup (a town in the South Pennines close to explode (or I wouldn't be here 70 years later) or Lancashire's boundary with West Yorkshire) in Lancashire.” wake us up, but the next morning there was a large Recollection from David Hume

The end of the war

In 1945 came Victory in Europe (VE0 Day, and later that year Victory in Japan (VJ) Day. Both events were celebrated with street parties and wild celebrations which went on until late in the night. The highlight at Buckingham Palace was when the King and Queen, accompanied by other members of the Royal Family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, appeared on the balcony to wave to the crowd. Another huge crowd of people crammed into Trafalgar Square and many climbed into the fountain or danced in the square. Blackouts Children, with a variety of improvised but highly came down and street lights which had not been seen since imaginative fancy dress costumes, formed part of 1939 were turned on again. the VE Day celebrations and street party in Westward Road, Chingford.

One of the many ‘Victory’ parties, this one in Albert Avenue, Chingford, June 1945. Despite the war being over, food rationing was not. Some items were still rationed years later.

Photos of VE parties at Burnham Road and College Gardens, Chingford printed in the Walthamstow Guardian newspaper 1945, reproduced by kind permission of The East London Guardian series of newspapers

VE Day party in Cherrydown Avenue, Chingford. Note the stage made from flags in the background

Manor Farm Drive party. Photos of College Gardens and Sunset Avenue street parties in the Walthamstow Guardian Newspaper 1945, reproduced by kind permission of The East London Guardian series of newspapers

Chingford residents with horse and cart celebrating the end of the war.

Another photograph of the horse and cart decorated to celebrate the end of the war.

Thanksgiving Service held at The th Ridgeway Park 13 May 1945.

Chingford Town Hall with flags waving on VE night. Built in 1929 to the designs of architects Frederick Nash and H.T. Bonner, the Town Hall survived the war. It is now incorporated into a residential development.

Left: the Chingford War Memorial at the junction of Kings Head Hill with The Ridgeway

Right: the more recent Chingford War Memorial at the junction of Old Church Road with Hall Lane

The newer Memorial gives exceptional detail on those who died. This panel lists Residents Killed by Enemy Action in Chingford 1940. The youngest, Brenda Horton, who was killed along with four other members of the family, was just 4 months old.

Residents Killed by Enemy Action in Chingford 1940 – 1941.

Appendix 1 : The Halex Ltd The premises of Halex were in

Highams Park, which was in the Borough of Walthamstow, not Chingford, though close to the boundary.

The British Xylonite Company or Halex as it was known, was from 1897 to the 1970s one of the most important manufacturers of plastics and plastic goods in Britain. It produced an array of household goods such as brushes, combs, dishes, toothbrushes, trays and washing-up bowls. Halex also manufactured world famous table tennis balls. During the War the company had extensive, well-equipped The entrance to the British Xylonite Co, Hale End about 1925. fire-fighting and first aid squads. They also undertook important war work for the Government and as a result the factory was a legitimate target for German bombers.

Advertisements for Xylonite knife handles dated 1939. Soon all production would be

switched to war work. The Government made it compulsory for the owners of business and industrial premises to provide shelter accommodation for their employees in the event of an air-raid. They were also required to provide an ARP Scheme for all business and

industrial premises above a certain number of employees.

Trailer Pumps lined up ready for use.

Many women were trained as fire fighters at the Halex Factory.

An impressive hosepipe drill carried out by the Halex Fire Brigade.

Wartime production of moulded shell caps in Bakelite. Trimming and

Inspection bench.

The Halex factory interior showing the ‘finishing’ benches.

The staff canteen.

Factory interior showing the production benches. A batch of folded plastic can be seen on the bench nearest the camera.

The manufacture of ration boxes being inspected.

The Halex Factory Fire Brigade, Wardens and First Aid.

Inspection of the Halex Factory ARP by the London Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence, Admiral Sir Edward Evans

Staff engaged in digging air-raid shelters. Halex lorries were used to transport sand-bags.

First Aid and Stretcher Party Volunteers.

The Halex First Aid Team.

Emerging from a concrete shelter with what appears to be a periscope in the roof.

An exhibition of anti-gas products produced at the Halex Factory. The factory produced over 48 million eye pieces for gas masks. They also produced radar components, ration packs, plastic cups and plates for Rest Centres.

Halex staff relaxing outside. By 1949 the company had a workforce of around 1,000 employees.

A factory fire in 1940, (unidentified location).

The Halex Fire Brigade, photographed at the end of the war in August 1945.

The Halex War Memorial for workers who were killed in both wars. (low resolution photo)

Halex factory ‘Spotters’. In order for production not to be interrupted unnecessarily Spotters were posted to provide visual warning of air-raids. So even though the air-raid siren may have been sounded the work force could carry on until it was ordered to go to the shelters. Once the ‘raiders’ had passed the all-clear was given and work quickly resumed.

Spotter’s post situated between the Halex and Larkswood Factories

Anti-Aircraft Searchlight. W.D & H.O Wills, ARP Cigarette card

Enamel ‘Unexploded Bomb’ sign used by the local police. Unexploded bombs frequently caused whole streets to be evacuated and residents were forced to sleep in school or church halls until the bomb disposal squad had rendered the bomb safe. There was a ‘bomb dump’ on Chingford Plain.

Appendix N°2. Record of Air Raid Casualties and Damage to Property 30th April 1940 to 6th April 1945 Local Authority Fatal Serious Slight Total Chingford 89 209 331 629 Leyton 423 879 1297 2599 Walthamstow 301 799 2034 3134

Damage to Property

Demolished Minor Damage Slight Damage Total Houses Involved* Chingford 369 1131 9738 11238 Leyton 1757 6350 19831 27938 Walthamstow 1288 3707 25152 30147 *Note many houses were damaged more than once.

8th March 1941 eight bombs which appeared to be of varying sizes, probably from 100 kg to 500 kg, fell across Station Road in a line from Connaught Avenue to Cambridge Road and a number of serious incidents were recorded. There was one fatality and a number of minor injuries.

A certificate of thanks given by the Citizens of Chingford to returning servicemen in His Majesty’s Forces.

78 Thanks are given to the following :

Waltham Forest Oral History Workshop for giving permission to reproduce extracts from interviews of Kath Evans, landlady of the Royal Oak pub on Kings Head Hill, reference WFOHW 321/2/3

The East London Guardian series of newspapers, part of the Newsquest Group, for giving permission to reproduce text which appeared in its newspapers :

extract from an interview with Janet Gibbs by Waltham Forest Guardian Reporter Zoie O'Brien, published on 27th May 2015;

a letter from Mrs O M Sortwell Head Mistress, of South Chingford Junior Girls School, published on Friday 22nd September 1939;

The East London Guardian series of newspapers, part of the Newsquest Group, for giving permission to reproduce the following photographs of VE Day parties which appeared in the Chingford Guardian newspaper:

College Gardens and Sunset Avenue,

Burnham Road and College Gardens, and

Manor Farm Drive.

Imperial Brands plc for giving permission to reproduce cards distributed in packs of cigarettes by WD & HO Wills

The Francis Frith Collection website copyright www.francisfrith.com for permission to reproduce an extract from the memories of Ron Shapiro

Index

page Black Market & Spivs 31 Abinett 30 blackout 2, 10, 23, 26, 27, accident, road 10 28, 42, 50 Ainslie Wood Gardens 20 blood transfusions 15 air raid damage to houses 36, 56 Bomb Disposal Squad 55 air raid damage to shop 56 Bourne Gardens 18 air raid precautions 2 Brewer, Maurice 28

Air Raid Precautions (ARP) 2 British Restaurants 21, 56 Headquarters British Xylonite Company - see Halex 70 air raid shelter 2, 70, 75 Brown, Betty 23, 38 air raid wardens and poison gas 5 Burnham Road 8, 65, air raids as described in private 18 correspondence buses 28 aircraft part manufacture 40, 48 Butler’s Retreat 59 Albert Avenue 65 call-up for war service 41 Albert Crescent 8 Cambridge Road 37 Anderson Shelters 3, 36, 48 Cannon, Mr 13 Appendix 1 : The Halex Ltd 70 CC41 33 Appendix 1 for the Halex factory in Highams Park Chamberlain, Neville 1

Appendix N°2. Record of Air Raid 78 Chantry, The 19 Casualties and Damage to Property

30th April 1940 to 6th April 194 Chase Lane School 48

ARP stores 12 Chasney 31

Ashbey, Ron 24 Cherrydown Avenue 66

Austin car 27 Chief Warden 8, 10,

Auxiliary Fire Service 35 children 48 badges 10 Chingford Mount 9 Banbury Reservoir 58 Chingford Mount Radio, shop 56

Barltrop, Robert 26, 39, 49 Chingford Plain 51, 77

Beaney, W A 15 Christmas 45 Beast, The, unexploded bomb 55 Christmas Dinner 46 bell, used as warning 6, 57, bells, church 45 Christmas Message 1941, Winston 45 Churchill’s bicycle lights 10, 26, Christmas presents and toys 47 Church of England School 20, 23 end of the war 65 cinema 53 Endlebury Road. February 5 1945 63, 64

Civil Defence ambulance 16, 19 Entertainment: The BBC 50

Civil Defence control room 11 evacuation 22

Evans, Admiral Sir Edward 34 Civil Defence personnel, total number 11 Evans, Kath 51 Clark, Harold 17, 54 Fairmile motor and torpedo boats 40 clothes rationing 32 Fire Brigade, the Chingford 34 Cockney cheerfulness 7 Fire Guards 11 College Gardens 65, 66 fire station 34 commercial civilian helmets 20 First Aid Posts 14, 15, Connaught Avenue 37 19, 63 conscription (compulsory enlistment 41 of people) fish and chips 31

Cork Manufacturing Co Ltd 40 Flexo Plywood Company Ltd 40

Crescent Road 19 Flying bomb (V-1) 14, 58 dances 50 food rationing 29, 45, 46, 65 declaration of war 1 Ford Utility vans 8, 14,

Dennis fire engine 34 Forest Side 8, 36,

Dig for Victory campaign, The 49 Frances Road 38

Doctor Carrot 49 Friday Hill 8 Doric cinema 53 furniture rationing & Utility 33 double cheese logo 33 games 47 Drysdale Avenue 8 Gamma, Phi Beta, Sorority 42 Dun Cow 51 gas clothing store 12 Durán-Jordà, Frederic 15 gas masks 5 Durex contraceptives 40 Gert and Daisy 47, 49 Eglington Road 8, 25, Gibbs, Janet 24 Elarco Limited 40 Gilder, John 22 Elton, Brian 63 Gillham, W F, JP 13, 16

Emergency Feeding Units 19, 63 Gilwell Park 57 emergency temporary mortuaries 20 Globe Road School, Stepney 7

land mine on Westcott’s Laundry 39 Goemans, Claire 14

Green Walk, The 11 Larkshall Garage in Larkshall Road 20

Green, The 2, 8, 9, 43 Larkshall Road 8

Halex Limited 70 Larkswood Pool 8

Hall Lane 8, 38, Larkswood Swimming Pool depot for 12 the Mobile Services Hargreaves 30 Lawrence Hill 8 Harknett, Chief Fire Officer 34 Lewis, Rose 55 Hatch Lane 8 Lewzey 30 Hayward, Gladys 44 Lidstones 26 headlamps, vehicle 10, 14, 16, 27 lights, street 10

Headquarters, Air Raid Precautions 2 Local Defence Volunteers 41, 56, 57 (ARP) London in the Blitz 36 Heavy Mobile First Aid Post 14 London Rubber Company 40 Heavy Rescue lorries 20 Low Hall Farm 30 Home Guard 41, 56 Lugmaver, Eileen 23 Home Guard, gas masks for 5 Lynton Road 8 Horsa gliders 40

mail service 45 Horseless Carriage 51 Make Do and Mend campaign 33 Horton, Shirley, Clifford and Brenda 38, 68 Manor Farm Drive 66 Housewives Service 43 Manor Hotel 51, 52 Hume, David 64 Mansfield Hill 8 Hurricane fighter plane 1 Marmion Avenue 38 Hurst Avenue 9 May Road, ARP base 6 identity card 2 Memorial Ground 8, 9, Incendiary bombs 35 Methodist Hall, New Road 25 J Lyons 7

Jackson, Miss P M 9, 48, Mobile Feeding Centre 62 Johnstone, Joan 18, 20, 36 Mobile First Aid 14 King George V Reservoir 58, 59 Mornington Road 58

Morrison Shelters 3, 51, Kings Head Hill 8, 60, Mosquito fighter/bombers 40 Kings Head Hill. 15 January 1945 60

motor cars 27 Queen Elizabeth Hotel 16

Mullins, Ralf William 48 Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge 59

National Fire Service 35 radio 50

National Service Act and unmarried 41 Rangers Road 8 women rattle, used as warning 6 Navy, Army and Air Force Institute 43 Red Cross 7 New Road 18 Reeks, William 7

Normanshire Drive 18 respirator - see gas mask >

Odeon cinema 9, 53, respirator, baby 11 Organ Lane 8 Rest Centres 7

Oxford aircraft 40 Ridgeway Park 58, 67

Palace View Yard 64 Ridgeway, The 12, 13, pantomime 45, 46 RNLI Royal National Lifeboat 43 paraffin lamp 26 Institution rocket (V-2) 14, 19, Parish Hall 21 59, 60 Pavilion Cinema 53 Rolls Park Avenue 8, 38,

People's War oral history 7, 43, Royal Forest Hotel. 59 petrol 27 Royal Oak 50, 51 poison gas, audible warning of 6 Royston Avenue 39

Pole Hill Road 60 Russell Road 38

Police & Fire 42 sandbags 9 postal service 45 savings schemes 45 school air raid shelters 21 Potato Pete 49 schools 11 preparation for war 2 Scouts and Guides 48 Prince Albert 9, 20, 52, Sewardstone Road 59 Priory Avenue 8 Sewardstone Road South 8 prisoners of war 51 Sewardstone Road, club playing fields 16 prisoners of war, Italian 38 on pub, the public house 50, 51 Shapiro, Ron 56 public surface shelter 2 siren, air raid 2

public transport 28 Snoek 30 soap 32 vehicle use, private 27

Soper, James 30 Victory in Europe (VE Day) 65

Sortwell, Mrs O M 25 Victory in Japan (VJ Day) 65

South Chingford Junior Girls School 24, 25 WAAF 42

St John’s Ambulance Brigade 14 Walthamstow Civil Defence Players 18

St Egbert’s College 8, 11, 12, war memorial 68 19, 20 War Prisoners Aid 46 St Peter’s Avenue 55, 56 War Weapons Week 54 Stainsby Hall, Derbyshire 19

Star Fish Saloon 30 War Work in Chingford 40

Station Road 37 war, end of 65

Street Fire Party 35 war, start of 1

Stuteley Mrs E E , JP, Mayor of 34 Wardens and Civil Defence 8 Chingford 1940 – 1941 Wellington Avenue and The Avenue. 63 summer time 31 18 February 1945 Sunset Avenue 66 Westbury Road, Walthamstow 18

Tennant, Mrs 38 Westward Road 8, 65, Thanksgiving Service 67 Wetenhall, Derek 40 The Auxiliary Territorial Service 41 Wheelwrights 51

Town Hall, Chingford 67 Whitehall Gardens February 1 1945 62 trailer pumps 71 Whitehall Road 8 trifle, 'Wartime' 46 Wilkie the Warden cartoon 10 tube platforms, used as air raid shelter 4 Wilson, Joan 42

Underground railway, used as shelter 4 Winston Churchill’s Christmas 45 Message of 1941 (extract) unexploded bomb 'The Beast' 55 wireless 50 unexploded bombs 77 Woman’s Institute 43 V-1 flying bomb 14, 58

V-1 flying bomb 14, 58 women in war work 42

V-2 (Unexploded) at Palace View 64 Women on the Home Front 41, 42 Yard, Chingford Women’s Land Army 44 V-2 rocket 14, 19, Women’s Voluntary Service 43, 62, 64 59, 60 Vacuee card game 22 Women’s Voluntary Society 43

Vaughan, Dr Janet 15 Women's Royal Naval Service 41

Wright, Lieutenant A 63 YMCA 46

York Road, February 1 1945 63 Young, Gwenda 44