Resources Search Results - full record

Title WAR TIME MEMORIES BY GEOFFREY LEGGETT

Description
Geoff arrived at Little Gaddesden School which was of a similar style but larger and much smarter than Great Gaddesden?s and, as it turned out, much better at teaching children! The headmaster, Dr. Vicars Bell, was an excellent teacher who took a great delight in educating the youngsters and kept his staff in good order and discipline to ensure success in the process.

Not long after starting at his new school in 1939, the war also started and, with overcrowding due to the presence of evacuees from London, education became a very hit-or-miss affair. New buildings were constructed to cater for feeding the much larger number of pupils and some of the education took place in a large wooden building nearby which had previously been used as the village hall. Indeed so many pupils arrived for tuition that it became impossible to cater for the numbers which were restricted by building size and the number of teachers. At this point, schooling became restricted to half days thus totalling 2? days per week ? a severe restriction on Geoff?s education at that time. When more teachers became available, this restriction was removed again and both the village hall and the school itself became crowded with classes of children hard at work for the whole of the day. impossible in, what was, a relatively small school.

The next change at school was the introduction of farming and agriculture to ?help the war effort? as it was then described. Gardening on quite a large scale for a school was introduced and pupils were given tasks appropriate to growing vegetables and fruit of various types. More exciting was the introduction of animals such as rabbits and pigs, especially the latter! To feed the pigs it was necessary to circulate the village twice a week with a very large and heavy trolley to collect all the available waste food from the local population. This took a considerable amount of time which, of course, was much more fun as it was no longer spent on education! Geoff can recall the advent of pigs in a much more pleasant way because they were killed off at Christmas-time and their very rare ? in those days - and pleasant-tasting meat distributed to parents for their Christmas dinners. The rabbits and chicken eggs were mainly employed to feed pupils and staff in the canteen, as I recall.
On one occasion, Geoff remembers a friend of the same Christian name (Geoff), or perhaps ?acquaintance? might be a better term, who, working on the garden when he approached, passed him a carrot, complete with leaves, which had been partly eaten, without comment. What happened was that he must have seen the headmaster on his way because it was he who instantly confronted Geoff, told him off for stealing carrots and would accept no explanation whatsoever! Geoff was so upset by this unjust accusation that he ran away across the field to the pigsties and hid behind them for quite a long time before eventually re-emerging.

During the war a huge mass of wooden huts was built in a field adjacent to the local village of St Margarets which was situated up on the hill above Great Gaddesden. It was known locally as ?The Evacuee Camp?. This was constructed to house a huge number of evacuees from London and other cities out in the country and away from the threat of German bombs being dropped during the war. It was also a London County Council school. Geoff had very little to do with this establishment and only a vague knowledge of its origins and usage. He did know, however, as did everyone else in the vicinity, that there were an enormous number of children in the camp who were regularly marched around the area in large groups. As far as he was concerned, the primary attraction of the camp was its internal cinema which was available, free of charge, to local citizens. Geoff made good use of this attraction and saw many popular and good quality films over a period of several years whilst it continued. Needless to say, there was nothing shown which might lead the youngsters viewing it into trouble!

One of the most noticeable features of the war as far as Geoff was concerned was the supply of food. Of course, rationing was in force and severely restricted your shopping but this feature was especially relevant to town-dwellers who could not grow their own food. Out in the country with a large garden and a great deal of manual effort, it was possible to grow a huge variety of foodstuffs and produce magnificent meals all the year round. The main restriction, as far as Geoff?s family was concerned, was meat ? and that became very rare at times.
However, there were ways around that too. At the start of the war, Geoff?s family attempted to catch and then keep wild rabbits in hutches but this proved impossible as they did not survive in captivity. So tame rabbits were purchased and these survived very well on scrap and wild food. They were then very good to eat and tasty indeed. Then there were the wild rabbits and Geoff was taught by his father to make and set wire noose traps for them around the countryside, the most difficult part being the right place to set them. In the appropriate position, they could easily catch several rabbits in a couple of days ? and the family would enjoy them no end! Then there were the deer. Not so many of these about and much more difficult to catch. Geoff and his father used multi-strand cable hoops set into gaps in the hedges at the right height and waited, sometimes for a very long time, for a catch. On the few occasions when this happened, there was far too much meat for the family so they, and their friends and neighbours, ate very well indeed for a few days! Birds came into it too. Pigeons and ducks, for example, were shot occasionally and chickens were kept in the gardens, including that belonging to Geoff?s family where eggs were also produced.

One story that Geoff?s mother repeated occasionally about the war years in the early forties was the one about a local worker who regularly passed by their house on his bicycle and usually greeted them in a friendly manner when passing. However, during the blitz of London, everyone was very concerned about the German Nazi bombers which were appearing quite frequently overhead and had dropped an assortment of bombs in the neighbourhood. On this morning, he appeared cycling at high speed and shouting repeatedly at the top of his voice ?They?re coming; they?re coming, get under cover?. Everyone came rushing out of their houses at the noise to find out what was wrong and, when he stopped, he explained breathlessly that ?the Germans are coming? pointing towards the sunlit horizon to the east where, he pointed out, a large number of black airborne specks were discernible. My mother quickly explained to the man that she had seen these often before and that they were actually barrage balloons floating on wires above London ? not aircraft at all! The man was distinctly relieved at this revelation but departed somewhat abjectly at his error!

During the war, there were a few bombs dropped in the neighbouring area. One attack in particular was not far away at all from their house ? perhaps 300 metres away. It happened in the middle of the night so there was nothing seen of the attack. The Germans were on such attacks quite frequently at the beginning of the war and this particular aeroplane flew at high level from the south towards them, dropping a string of five bombs as he went. They later conjectured that perhaps someone had left a light showing or perhaps a bonfire flared up during the night. Whatever the target, the bombs fell across the local fields and were mainly incendiary types rather than high explosive although even incendiaries made quite a loud bang when they went off! The one loud explosion was some distance away across the valley. In Geoff?s house, there were several evacuees from London who were especially frightened at the attack, shouting and screaming with fear perhaps following prior unpleasant experiences in London. Geoff, on the other hand was still asleep until his mother woke him up, got him partially dressed and dragged him downstairs where everyone else was cowering. This fear, and its effect on them, lasted less than an hour and, as there were no more fearsome sounds, everyone went back to bed again, including Geoff himself.

Another source of interest for Geoff during the war was the crashing of aircraft. In particular, American bombers seemed to be the most common source of such events perhaps because there were two military airfields not too far away from his home. On one occasion, he was told about an aircraft crash but it must have been some time after it actually occurred and there was not much of interest apart from some odd metal parts still lying around in the wood. There was another which also lacked interest but the third was a different matter altogether! This one was a huge bomber - an American Flying Fortress - which had crashed into a wood not far from his home near Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire but remained largely intact apart from the wings which had been torn off by the trees, a wide strip of which had been cut short leaving a gap to the sky. There were no air force personnel on board when it crashed and, although the plane was severely damaged after crashing through a number of large trees, there was still a lot to be seen and found there.
There was no guard that the lads could see when they arrived but there was a great deal of interesting debris scattered around in the wood. For example, he was astonished to see belts of half-inch machine-gun bullets mostly armour-piercing but some containing minor explosives and flashing chemical mixtures lying around the plane and ready to be picked up! There were chunky pistols used for firing flares, complete with a supply of their ammunition, one normal military pistol without any bullets and a variety of other devices, use of which was somewhat more obscure. All of this went into the bicycle bags which rapidly filled and they set off home with their treasures determined to return, better prepared, for more! They tremendously enjoyed themselves on this crash site and returned home with many items which seriously worried their parents!

Keywords Little Gaddesden, Great Gaddesden, evacuees, bombing, rationing, Americans.

Collection Home Front

Place Hemel Hempstead

Year 1939 - 1945

Conflict World War Two

File type image

Record ID number 144

Return to the search results?

Can you add any more information to this resource?

If so please complete this form and we will be in touch

Change text size -

Title	WAR TIME MEMORIES BY GEOFFREY LEGGETT
Description	Geoff arrived at Little Gaddesden School which was of a similar style but larger and much smarter than Great Gaddesden?s and, as it turned out, much better at teaching children! The headmaster, Dr. Vicars Bell, was an excellent teacher who took a great delight in educating the youngsters and kept his staff in good order and discipline to ensure success in the process. Not long after starting at his new school in 1939, the war also started and, with overcrowding due to the presence of evacuees from London, education became a very hit-or-miss affair. New buildings were constructed to cater for feeding the much larger number of pupils and some of the education took place in a large wooden building nearby which had previously been used as the village hall. Indeed so many pupils arrived for tuition that it became impossible to cater for the numbers which were restricted by building size and the number of teachers. At this point, schooling became restricted to half days thus totalling 2? days per week ? a severe restriction on Geoff?s education at that time. When more teachers became available, this restriction was removed again and both the village hall and the school itself became crowded with classes of children hard at work for the whole of the day. impossible in, what was, a relatively small school. The next change at school was the introduction of farming and agriculture to ?help the war effort? as it was then described. Gardening on quite a large scale for a school was introduced and pupils were given tasks appropriate to growing vegetables and fruit of various types. More exciting was the introduction of animals such as rabbits and pigs, especially the latter! To feed the pigs it was necessary to circulate the village twice a week with a very large and heavy trolley to collect all the available waste food from the local population. This took a considerable amount of time which, of course, was much more fun as it was no longer spent on education! Geoff can recall the advent of pigs in a much more pleasant way because they were killed off at Christmas-time and their very rare ? in those days - and pleasant-tasting meat distributed to parents for their Christmas dinners. The rabbits and chicken eggs were mainly employed to feed pupils and staff in the canteen, as I recall. On one occasion, Geoff remembers a friend of the same Christian name (Geoff), or perhaps ?acquaintance? might be a better term, who, working on the garden when he approached, passed him a carrot, complete with leaves, which had been partly eaten, without comment. What happened was that he must have seen the headmaster on his way because it was he who instantly confronted Geoff, told him off for stealing carrots and would accept no explanation whatsoever! Geoff was so upset by this unjust accusation that he ran away across the field to the pigsties and hid behind them for quite a long time before eventually re-emerging. During the war a huge mass of wooden huts was built in a field adjacent to the local village of St Margarets which was situated up on the hill above Great Gaddesden. It was known locally as ?The Evacuee Camp?. This was constructed to house a huge number of evacuees from London and other cities out in the country and away from the threat of German bombs being dropped during the war. It was also a London County Council school. Geoff had very little to do with this establishment and only a vague knowledge of its origins and usage. He did know, however, as did everyone else in the vicinity, that there were an enormous number of children in the camp who were regularly marched around the area in large groups. As far as he was concerned, the primary attraction of the camp was its internal cinema which was available, free of charge, to local citizens. Geoff made good use of this attraction and saw many popular and good quality films over a period of several years whilst it continued. Needless to say, there was nothing shown which might lead the youngsters viewing it into trouble! One of the most noticeable features of the war as far as Geoff was concerned was the supply of food. Of course, rationing was in force and severely restricted your shopping but this feature was especially relevant to town-dwellers who could not grow their own food. Out in the country with a large garden and a great deal of manual effort, it was possible to grow a huge variety of foodstuffs and produce magnificent meals all the year round. The main restriction, as far as Geoff?s family was concerned, was meat ? and that became very rare at times. However, there were ways around that too. At the start of the war, Geoff?s family attempted to catch and then keep wild rabbits in hutches but this proved impossible as they did not survive in captivity. So tame rabbits were purchased and these survived very well on scrap and wild food. They were then very good to eat and tasty indeed. Then there were the wild rabbits and Geoff was taught by his father to make and set wire noose traps for them around the countryside, the most difficult part being the right place to set them. In the appropriate position, they could easily catch several rabbits in a couple of days ? and the family would enjoy them no end! Then there were the deer. Not so many of these about and much more difficult to catch. Geoff and his father used multi-strand cable hoops set into gaps in the hedges at the right height and waited, sometimes for a very long time, for a catch. On the few occasions when this happened, there was far too much meat for the family so they, and their friends and neighbours, ate very well indeed for a few days! Birds came into it too. Pigeons and ducks, for example, were shot occasionally and chickens were kept in the gardens, including that belonging to Geoff?s family where eggs were also produced. One story that Geoff?s mother repeated occasionally about the war years in the early forties was the one about a local worker who regularly passed by their house on his bicycle and usually greeted them in a friendly manner when passing. However, during the blitz of London, everyone was very concerned about the German Nazi bombers which were appearing quite frequently overhead and had dropped an assortment of bombs in the neighbourhood. On this morning, he appeared cycling at high speed and shouting repeatedly at the top of his voice ?They?re coming; they?re coming, get under cover?. Everyone came rushing out of their houses at the noise to find out what was wrong and, when he stopped, he explained breathlessly that ?the Germans are coming? pointing towards the sunlit horizon to the east where, he pointed out, a large number of black airborne specks were discernible. My mother quickly explained to the man that she had seen these often before and that they were actually barrage balloons floating on wires above London ? not aircraft at all! The man was distinctly relieved at this revelation but departed somewhat abjectly at his error! During the war, there were a few bombs dropped in the neighbouring area. One attack in particular was not far away at all from their house ? perhaps 300 metres away. It happened in the middle of the night so there was nothing seen of the attack. The Germans were on such attacks quite frequently at the beginning of the war and this particular aeroplane flew at high level from the south towards them, dropping a string of five bombs as he went. They later conjectured that perhaps someone had left a light showing or perhaps a bonfire flared up during the night. Whatever the target, the bombs fell across the local fields and were mainly incendiary types rather than high explosive although even incendiaries made quite a loud bang when they went off! The one loud explosion was some distance away across the valley. In Geoff?s house, there were several evacuees from London who were especially frightened at the attack, shouting and screaming with fear perhaps following prior unpleasant experiences in London. Geoff, on the other hand was still asleep until his mother woke him up, got him partially dressed and dragged him downstairs where everyone else was cowering. This fear, and its effect on them, lasted less than an hour and, as there were no more fearsome sounds, everyone went back to bed again, including Geoff himself. Another source of interest for Geoff during the war was the crashing of aircraft. In particular, American bombers seemed to be the most common source of such events perhaps because there were two military airfields not too far away from his home. On one occasion, he was told about an aircraft crash but it must have been some time after it actually occurred and there was not much of interest apart from some odd metal parts still lying around in the wood. There was another which also lacked interest but the third was a different matter altogether! This one was a huge bomber - an American Flying Fortress - which had crashed into a wood not far from his home near Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire but remained largely intact apart from the wings which had been torn off by the trees, a wide strip of which had been cut short leaving a gap to the sky. There were no air force personnel on board when it crashed and, although the plane was severely damaged after crashing through a number of large trees, there was still a lot to be seen and found there. There was no guard that the lads could see when they arrived but there was a great deal of interesting debris scattered around in the wood. For example, he was astonished to see belts of half-inch machine-gun bullets mostly armour-piercing but some containing minor explosives and flashing chemical mixtures lying around the plane and ready to be picked up! There were chunky pistols used for firing flares, complete with a supply of their ammunition, one normal military pistol without any bullets and a variety of other devices, use of which was somewhat more obscure. All of this went into the bicycle bags which rapidly filled and they set off home with their treasures determined to return, better prepared, for more! They tremendously enjoyed themselves on this crash site and returned home with many items which seriously worried their parents!
Keywords	Little Gaddesden, Great Gaddesden, evacuees, bombing, rationing, Americans.
Collection	Home Front
Place	Hemel Hempstead
Year	1939 - 1945
Conflict	World War Two
File type	image
Record ID number	144