During the holiday of 1937 I went to a young man’s camp at Saundersfoot near Tenby in South Wales and also to the same place in 1938. It was a long journey and we had to make four changes. They were very enjoyable camps and in 1939 August I went to a similar camp at Canford Cliffs, Bournemouth. We didn’t think then that within the month we would be at war. By 1937 the scout troop had come to an end so the vicar was anxious to start a Boys Brigade and Life Boys. As I was by then a Sunday School teacher, he asked me if I would be in charge of the Life Boys as they were the junior section of the B.B. One of the notable events of the B.B. was that one of the boys was awarded the B.B. cross for heroism as he rescued a boy from drowning in what was known as the delph pits. These were actually old quarry workings which had been filled over the years with water and had become an attraction for swimming for people all around the Chorley area. The pits were eventually filled up with waste soil etc from Selwick, near Preston. The boy’s name was Frank Riley and he was very outstanding as he had a completely white head of hair. He was one of a family of boys and the brother of the boy who had died with diphtheria mentioned earlier. Frank was killed in Italy at Monte Casino and his name is in the Roll of Honour in St. John’s Church. Like most of our generation our lives centered around the church. We had a young men’s Bible class with an attendance of around eighty. This class you entered after leaving Sunday School at around the age of fourteen or fifteen. I left the Bible class to become a Sunday School teacher, until I was called up.
The war was gradually appearing more imminent and on the third of September 1939 we were informed by radio there would be an announcement at eleven o’clock. We hurried home from morning service as the vicar terminated the service so that we could hear the news. At eleven o’clock we all listened to Neville Chamberlain making the historic speech; as no reply had come from his request to Berlin, that “we are now at war with Germany”. I often wonder what mother thought as we stood outside the house for a little while, as she had five brothers and her husband in the first world war, only twenty one years earlier. It seemed World War I had after all been in vain. In London that same day there was an air raid alert , the siren going off, but it was a false alarm. All that autumn and winter what was to become known as “the phoney war” continued. We had a very deep snow just after Christmas and I walked to Leyland each morning as the roads were practically unusable except for a narrow track. Our manager at the works arranged for the lads from Whittle and Clayton to be brought home in a little van. Alice walked to Chorley and at Moss Lane, Whittle; there was just a little area which had been cut out for people to get through. During that winter we had our first experience of air raids. A German bomber came over Euxton and dropped a bomb. Our family had all gone to bed when the air raid siren went off and then we heard the aircraft and heard the bomb whistling through the air. We all got up and of course there was quite a bit of tension as we had no shelters at that time. Euxton by that time was a very large munition works, employing thousands of people from all over the North West. A railway station had been specially built during the construction of the factories which started in 1937 and which took over vast swaths of fields which had been farmland along with many local walks being closed. The official opening of the Royal Ordnance Factory was in 1938 and the special guest was Gracie Fields. As much of Euxton munition works was in Whittle-le-Woods we at Crooke Hall Cottages were not very far away and during the opening Gracie sang. The singing was amplified and could be heard all over the village, in addition to it being broadcast on the radio, so one could listen both inside and outside. That year between 1938 and 1939 gave a breathing space to rearm the country, which during the thirties had been reduced to a very dangerous level. The condition of the roads especially Dawson Lane was very bad, being covered with mud and my bicycle used to need constant cleaning as I used that road to go to Leyland. Many Irish men and their families came over from Ireland to work as labourers constructing Euxton. Some of the families are still living in Whittle-le-Woods. There used to be constant trouble at the local pubs, and it was not an uncommon sight to see the labourers asleep under the hedges in the village. They were receiving good wages and then they would go to the pubs and spend them on drink, hence the fights which used to take place.
Continue to 17. Family Trip To Cleeve Prior