Category: World War 2

Every body had a bicycle, even my mother. Wicks the Cycle shop sometimes had a new one but many second hand plus numerous spare parts. Inner tubes and tyres could be ordered probably with the area being rural the authorities were more generous with cycle parts than in the towns. Garages, barns, old farm buildings were searched and ancient thirty-year old cycles were resurrected or […]

TRANSPORT. In 1939 very few people from Crowle worked at the steel works. There was no workmen’s bus; you had to have your own transport. My father had the Morris equivalent of The Austin 7. He was allowed a petrol ration to go to work and continue his agency supplying oil and grease to the local farmers. This of course meant he had permission to […]

GAS MASKS. These were issued to every body early on in the war; there was a serious concern that the Germans would drop gas bombs aimed at the civilian population. We had to carry the gas mask at all times and did so for the first two years of the war. It was believed that the Germans did not use gas because we were quite […]

Crowle at War. A Schoolboy’s Memories – Part 1 By Bill (once known as Billy) Goldthorp. Background. My mother’s forebears, Tills, Everetts, Oates, etc. had been farmers in the Isle of Axholme for generations. For ten years prior to marriage Doris had been the primary school teacher at Eastoft. Boltgate my grandfather’s farm was a mile north of Eastoft. At that time when a woman […]

Dietary Supplements. All the lads were at it. I firstly with my cockerels and two year old hens. We all were after rabbits and woodpigeons, which the farmers regarded as pests. Rabbits at first without much success trying to use snares. Then my father bought me a Webley air rifle for a birthday present. My rabbit total suddenly shot up. At eight years old I […]

Pig potatoes. The small potatoes would be scooped up and taken to the fold yard. Every farm had a yardman who looked after the cows, pigs, chickens and other livestock In the farm building where the pig potatoes were stored would be a large copper where the potatoes would be boiled before being fed to the pigs. Boiled in their jackets they were lovely flowery, […]