Betty Stannard – nee Mann

“I left Coddenham School in 1938 and started Claydon Area School. When war broke out father dug a dugout behind the “lavey”. The first siren we had in the night, we got up and went down in the dugout, ate the sweets we had down there and back to bed. We never used it anymore.  Mother joined the Red Cross and father joined the ARP. When there was an air-raid at night, we could go outside to watch the searchlights in the sky.

At the beginning of the war there was a pillbox built on the bridge corner of the Three Cocked Hat and one at Hemingstone Corner. They were manned at night by the Home Guard.

In September 1940 we moved from Coddenham Lodge to Laundry Cottage, Shrubland Park. Mother and I knitted for the Red Cross making mittens, gloves, scarves and socks. Also, I would make the trousers and mother the jackets for pyjamas. We also knitted 6” squares and they would be sown together to make blankets.