ARP wardens patrolled from various posts around Banstead. The main post was a bunker built in the Lady Neville Recreation Ground behind the pavilion against the hedge backing onto the Barclays Bank land.

Our house 33 Winkworth Road. Photo dated 1936

On the beach with my father Eric Wilman.

The house backed onto the beach and I can remember vividly looking out to sea daily and seeing the vast numbers of boats and ships at sea with a background of black smoke over the French coast. The vessel which really sticks in the memory was the large white ship with a large red cross on its side. The weather as I remember it was sunny.

In my Father s records there are 2 photos of us which included my brother, then only two and a half months old, on the beach at Littlestone.

I can also remember one night an air raid warning sounded during which time we had to stay under the stairs for protection, being the strongest part of the house.

 My Mother told me many years later that early every morning during our stay there my Father patrolled the beach to make sure there were no bodies present. None were ever found although he apparently found a lot of equipment.

PERSONAL PROTECTION

One sunny Saturday afternoon, a lorry arrived and the driver and my Father unloaded what seemed like hundreds of Hessian sand bags and some large sheets of plywood. My father started by covering the dining room windows and external door with the plywood, inside and out, leaving only one small pane of glass exposed. Once this was done he then built a sandbag wall approx. 7 feet high outside across the rear of the dining room, leaving a narrow gap for access. This was to become the  shelter room . A number of times during the war I can recall pieces of shrapnel by this sandbag wall and holes in the hessian. 

At the start of the war whenever the air raid siren sounded ( sited on the police station on the High Street) we used to go into the cupboard under the stairs for protection, day or night. We had been told that the stair well is the strongest part of the house and the place most likely to withstand a bomb hit or blast on the house.  I remember hating going into the cupboard because with the door pulled closed it was cramped, dark, hot and claustrophobic.

"By the way, did you remember to feed the budgerigars?" Adapted from a Morrison shelter cartoon published in 1941.

They were issued free and were approximately 6ft 6in x 4ft 6 in x 2ft 6in high and consisted of a heavy steel plate top, held up by 4 heavy steel corner angle pieces, with steel mesh sides which hooked / unhooked into place and a sort of woven steel strip springy base. This was erected in the dining room, the shelter room. The dining room table was moved to the front room in front of the window and the chairs remained in situ around the shelter which had now become our  new dining room table.

This new place of refuge I also hated because I felt so confined. Initially we used to go to bed there every night but this was gradually relaxed and only became used when the siren went.

I remember us having gas masks but never having to use them.

BATTLE OF BRITAIN July to October 1940

I can remember seeing Spitfires dog fighting with the German Messerschmitt fighters overhead during this phase of the war. One particular blue sky day a tradesman had called at the house, coke I think for the hot water boiler, and I was outside. We all stopped to look up at the air battle going on directly overhead, fascinated with no regard for safety.

THE BLITZ OF LONDON 7th September 1940 to 11th May 1941

The rear of our house in Winkworth Road faced almost north north east towards Central London and from my bedroom at the rear of the house I could look out over Banstead Downs and see Saint Paul s Cathedral on a clear day. I often used to borrow my Father s telescope and look out towards London, fascinated by the unknown territory.

Right from the start I remember the Blitz of London, the frequent wail of air raid sirens particularly in the evening and night, the grinding droning noise as the waves of German bombers passed overhead, one after the other. At night of course our blackout curtains were drawn but I can always remember the times with my Mother spent looking out of my bedroom window at night. The whole horizon and sky above was a burning vivid glow of yellows and reds and oranges from the great fires raging. I also remember the searchlights swinging around the sky. Sometimes during the daylight raids we could see the waves of German bombers and protective fighters overhead en route for Central London frequently under attack from our fighters. Sometimes bombs were dropped in error on the Downs and the craters were there for all to see. I know my Father being in the AFS, Auxiliary Fire Service, attended some of these fires. 
I also remember that in the back garden we had a small aviary with 2 budgerigars and one morning they were found dead with no apparent wounds. My Mother said that they had probably died from the shock etc of the noise from the bombing.

These were for me the worst, especially the V1s. The air raid sirens more often than not would sound, both day and night. One would hear the deep droning type of noise from the engine and we would wait with baited breath for the noise and engine to stop. We then knew we had 15 seconds before the rocket bomb hit the ground and exploded with tremendous force. Fortunately none hit in the close vicinity of our house although we frequently heard the explosions. 

The remains of the old Smithy shown on the right hand side of this photo. The building in the centre was Gilmours.

Probably the most frightening experience was one morning when walking to school with one of my friends. Our school was Nork Primary School, now called Warren Mead Junior School.   From Winkworth Road we would walk to the crossroads with the Brighton Road, crossover to Fir Tree Road and then cut across a piece of open land to Eastgate. From here we would go down the hill of Nork Way and at the bottom turn right into Warren Road. Towards the end of this road we turned left into Roundwood Way.

This particular morning we had just turned right into Warren Road when the air raid sirens sounded, and, almost immediately we heard the familiar dreaded drone of the V1. We looked up and there it was, low and almost directly overhead, and then crashed and exploded a little further on.. We were petrified and ran into the nearest house, the house which was just on the corner, knocking wildly on the door.  A lady let us in and phoned my mother who came and collected us and took us on to school. ( I later learnt that the lady was a Doctor).

One day we observed a V1 overhead being chased by one of our fighter planes. It was using its wingtip to change the direction in which the doodlebug was heading.

I accompanied my father one Saturday afternoon to my school. He had volunteered along with other fathers to help repair the school s windows, many of which had been damaged by a doodlebug landing and exploding near by.

  Later, we started to experience the arrival of the V2s, silent until the explosion. One landed relatively close, on or about the 22nd February 1945. We were having a birthday tea with some friends. Suddenly there was a massive explosion and everything rattled. We learnt later that it was a V2 which had hit the wall surrounding the Banstead Lunatic Asylum, located just east of Sutton Lane, Banstead Downs.

CIVIL PROTECTION

I cannot remember when they were constructed, but as far back as I can remember the anti tank earthworks etc were in place at the crossroads of the Brighton Road, A217, and Winkworth Road and Firtree Road. They consisted of deep trenches dug either side of the A217, on the South side as far as the Police Phone Box on the west Side, and on the Northern side almost as far as railway bridge. To the East side of the trench backing onto the railway cutting a concrete blockhouse was constructed. (as far as I know never used by the army, but a great place for playing as children). On the 4 corners of the cross roads other anti tank protection was built, little pyramids of concrete and rail track bent into arches and the ends buried in concrete.

Crossing the railway bridge and onto the northern side of Banstead Downs, there was a long straight grass track, as wide as a main road. At intervals along its length poles were erected in pairs, one each side, and cables stretched between the poles. These were I was told to prevent the use of this grass strip as a landing ground for German aircraft.

At the eastern end of the houses on Winkworth Road, No1 on the Northern side had a triangular garden coming to a point alongside the road. Running from there was a track along the back of the houses in Winkworth Road until No. 29 and then on to Sutton Lane . The other side of the track were woods. Just in the woods at the end of No. 1 s garden an open top steel water tank was built which formed a water reserve for the fire service. We used to throw stones into the water.

I can remember seeing Barrage Balloons in use, mainly from my bedroom window looking North towards London

AUXILIARY FIRE SERVICE

As mentioned elsewhere my Father served in the Auxiliary Fire Service, stationed at the Banstead Fire Station, located on the corner of The Drive and Brighton Road I remember him leaving and returning to the house in his uniform but can not remember him talking about any of his fire fighting activities. He served part time with the Local Authority Fire Brigade with the Auxiliary Fire Service

OTHER MEMORIES

During the war on the grass verge between our slip service road and the main Winkworth road,  pig bins were placed at intervals, attached to stakes. Any left over food, what little there was, would be tipped into these bins. These were collected at regular intervals and the contents turned into pig swill for feeding pigs. However one night my Father fell over some of these bins breaking some ribs and also damaging his teeth. 

Dried eggs from Canada

One afternoon at Nork Primary School, we were all given a package, containing chocolate powder. It was a present from the people of Canada.

My Mother always seemed to have a supply of dried egg powder from Canada in the cupboard which never seemed too bad.

One day at School we were all assembled in the main hall. Mrs Wiggans, one of our teachers, presented her son to us who had recently reached home by various routes, having escaped from the Prisoner of War Camp in Germany. He told us of his experiences although I cannot remember any of the detail.

Quite often during the war and in summer my Mother would take us on picnics, sometimes on Banstead Downs, and sometimes we would catch a bus to the Walton on Heath, Colley Hill area. One such picnic to the Walton area we came across a massive dump of jerry cans, filled I assume with petrol, with many American Army personnel rushing around. On reflection I assume that that picnic must have been in May / June 1944 just prior to the D-Day landings. I m amazed we were allowed to get so close to such an area.

One Saturday afternoon we all walked along Winkworth Road and then part way up Bolter s Lane. Approximately half way up on the right hand side there was a large playing field next to the Banstead House, the local Boy s Borstal. Along with many others we looked at a German bomber which had crashed in the playing field. Although it was well guarded we managed to get a very close look at the plane.

When Autumn arrived we used to catch the bus to the Colley Hill area to gather blackberries, no doubt to add to our diet. We also harvested rose hips for syrup which were collected by the school.Sometimes when we were playing on the Downs we would see men walking around dressed in a bright blue uniform with white shirt and red tie. My mother said that they were wounded soldiers from the Military Hospital at Belmont.

Richard with younger brother Roger

I have since found a photo, of my brother dressed up as a cowboy, and I was in a sailor uniform, taken on that day. Our area did not have a street party although the residents of Winkworth Road going up the hill from Commonfield Road had one a few days later.

I also remember being taken to the cinema to see the Pathe News report on the Victory Parade through London which took place on the 10th August 1945.

VJ DAY 15th AUGUST 1945

I do remember that I attended another massive bonfire in the same location as the VE DAY bonfire. However that s all I remember of that occasion.

AFTER THE WAR

In the Autumn of 1945 we were able to take a short holiday in a Guest house in Bognor Regis.