Sheltering from the Blitz at Bramall Lane

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Frances Read of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Betty Bartley, and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

During the war when the Blitz started, I was living with my sister at Bramall Lane (Sheffield) and we went to her father in law’s and there were bombs dropping. The soldiers came and took us away from there to under the Bramall Lane football ground. There were lots of soldiers down there. The soldiers were singing to the children and they would bring a drink round. There were lots of bombs dropped on Bramall Lane, and a car was hit. When it was over, my brother came to pick us up and it was nice to see them. My parents were worried, as they were at Heeley, and scared about what had happened to us at Bramall Lane. One of my sister’s neighbours came down and said her house had been hit by a bomb — but then it turned out it hadn’t been hit, so it was a nice surprise! But it was thick in soot so we had to go up to Heeley to stay for a while.

At my mother’s we would go down into the cellars, and we would be petrified. The bombs came down with such a bang. I was born in 1928, so was only about 14 at the time. We had ration books and could only have so much. My mum kept hold of them to make sure of what we could have. I wouldn’t like to live through it again.

Pr-BR

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