Wartime Watnall - What was it like being a civilian in WW2 Watnall?

8th May 1945 - High Spannia street party for Victory in Europe (V.E.) Day looking up the hill
towards Watnall. Stonehouse's shop can be seen on the left with the Hardy Ale's advert.

Today, we look at civilian life around Watnall during WW2 and focus on the wartime story of the Smith family of Kimberley - dad Arthur, mother Mabel and 8-year-old daughter Eileen. Eileen was interviewed by the BBC in 2005 aged 74. She talks about their gas masks, rationing, hosting evacuee children from the big cities and the American soldiers billeted at Kimberley School. You can read her interview below...

Army camp, Cloverlands House¹

Watnall and Kimberley would certainly have felt like a very militarized area with the the 900 personnel of RAF Watnall some of whom were billeted with families in the village, the Army camp in the grounds of Cloverlands House on Newdigate Road and shortly before D-Day, the American GI's at Kimberley School. To temper the predominantly male military feel, there was a large contingent of women serving at RAF Watnall in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAFs). There were also several anti-aircraft guns and large radio transmitter masts located in prominent positions in the area. The military often travelled in canvas-covered Army lorries or by train at Kimberley Station so they would have been a familiar sight marching through the village streets as can be seen in the picture below. 

BBC People's War - People in story: Eileen O'Brian (nee Smith) parents Arthur and Mable Smith
Location of story: Kimberley, Nottingham

Home Guard, WAAFs and Army
marching through a (unknown) nearby village²

I was eight when the war started and didn’t realise what it meant. We lived in a small village about five miles outside of Nottingham and we had a spare room. We had three children billeted with us from the city of Nottingham. They were three sisters, all older than me, maybe ten, eleven and twelve. They stayed for around one month and then their parents came to see them and took them home again.

Almost immediately we were issued with gas masks which we had to take everywhere with us. My mum had to buy black material to make curtains, to block out the light at night because we had an air-raid warden who came round at night and shouted ‘put that light out!’

Later on we had more evacuees from Liverpool, Birmingham and London in our village. We had the wife and three children of an Army Sergeant who was based at an army camp in Kimberley called Cloverlands Hall, which was owned by the local Brewery. Kimberley had just had a brand new secondary school, which was taken over by the Army to billet the soldiers, English and American.

My education carried on in the small primary school, but with all the extra evacuees we ended up only doing half a day each day. When the air-raid siren sounded we went down into our pantry, which was under the stairs. My Mum erected two planks as beds for myself and my younger sister who was only three at the start of the war. My Mum and Dad sat on the cold steps until the all clear had sounded.

My Mum and Dad sacrificed their coupons for their egg rationing in exchange for ‘mash’ and bought one dozen of chickens, which were fed on the mash and boiled potato peelings. We never went short of vegetables as my Dad had an allotment.

In 1944 a family's typical weekly ration allowance was, per person, 3lb of potatoes, 2½ pints of milk, 1oz bacon, 1 egg. Meat, cheese, bread and jam were also rationed as well as certain non-food items - soap, clothing, petrol and paper. Hosting evacuees or billeting the military would boost the family's overall allowance.

Nottingham Blitz

Bomb damage to
Nottingham University College

Watnall was an early target of the German air force, the Luftwaffe. On the night of 30th August 1940, a couple were killed on Alandene Avenue by a direct hit on their house by a 50kg high explosive bomb. Today, a rebuilt modern house shows where the bombed house once stood. They were the only casualties of the war to be killed locally by enemy action. Some reports say that this bomb did not actually explode but caused extensive damage anyway. Had it exploded, neighbouring properties would have been badly damaged too. One local eyewitness to the Nottingham Blitz said... "front doors were simply taken off the hinges and blown straight up the stairs."⁴

More high explosive and shrapnel bombs landed on Norman Street, Cliff Boulevard, Parkham Road, Holly Road and Newdigate Road but thankfully failed to detonate. Over 1000 1kg Thermite incendiary bombs were also dropped over the area. There's more information about the Watnall air raid and the bombs used here. 

Locals volunteered for various new civil defence organisations. Local fire brigades were formed to deal with the incendiary bombs. "Fire watchers" and "fire guards" had to check roofs for smoking bombs before fires got started. The Auxiliary Fire Service had 45 stations in the Nottingham area manned by over 1000 personnel. Civilians were trained to use sand to extinguish the incendiaries rather than water. Volunteer air raid wardens (ARP's), newly-trained nurses and first aiders also patrolled the streets even during air raids at considerable risk to themselves. The Home Guard or "Dad's Army" had a unit based at the Great Northern Hotel⁵ and a platoon at nearby Hucknall. The Women's Volunteer Service (WVS) ran a force's canteen at Victoria Station and "made buckets of tea" for the large troop trains coming through. Serving 400-500 troops per train with jam jars for mugs had to be done quickly before the train pulled away.

1942 - Local lass in her National Fire Service engine.
18-year-old Sylvia Dale is now 99 and lives in Kirkby

Later in the war came the "Nottingham Blitz", the Luftwaffe bombing of the city of Nottingham on the evenings of 8/9 May 1941. It was part of a nationwide campaign to disrupt key industrial production, undermine morale and destroy factories, rail networks and infrastructure. Large areas of Nottingham and West Bridgford were flattened and University College Nottingham was damaged. Casualties were heavy. There were 159 people killed and 274 injured. At the Co-op bakery on Meadow Lane, 49 employees and members of the Home Guard were killed and 20 others injured. At University College, 45 people were killed. John Hibbet, then a young boy, stood on his garden wall overlooking the burning city with his dad's arm round him. He says... "the sky was aflame from horizon to horizon".

Blackout and smoke screens

To reduce the treat from night time air raids, black out conditions were imposed from the start of WW2. There were no street lights and on cloudy nights the city centre was so dark you could easily walk into people. Cars, lorries and buses had to be fitted with blacked out headlamps and train carriages had blacked out windows. Train carriages were lit with a single blue light. In winter, the blackout could start as early as 4:30pm. Houses could show no lights and thick blackout curtains had to be fitted over windows and doors. Air raid wardens would patrol the streets to check for any chink of light showing. Decoy fires lit in the Vale of Belvoir helped draw enemy bombers away from Nottingham and saved many lives. Huge black smoke screens were also laid across Nottingham to hide it from enemy aircraft. They created a terrible oily smell and were not popular. Signposts and train station names were removed too.

July 1940 - single blacked-out headlamp on this C8 bus and war time white edging to the front mudguards.
Coming from Ilkeston and Awsworth, arriving at Maws Lane with 40 Bridges viaduct in the background. 
Bus Details. A.E.C Regal, Weymann Body, ERA 925 (No 171) New 1938 Chassis number 06622556, seating 32
Year of withdrawal 1959. Disposal to Machin in Spalding used by them as a staff bus.

V.E. Day

The end of the war brought everyone out for the traditional street party on 8th May 1945 - Victory in Europe (V.E.) Day. This one shown below was on High Spannia on the main road where Watnall meets Kimberley. The building in the background has gone, replaced with modern detached houses.

High Spannia street party on V.E. Day

The Moorgreen Squatters and the post-war housing crisis

Even after the war things did not immediately return to normal. Rationing continued until the early 1950s and there was a post war housing shortage. Many houses had been bombed, which left people homeless; the birth rate increased significantly; and many who lost loved ones could no longer afford to run their household alone. It was estimated that around 750,000 new homes were needed to tackle the problem, and the government could not keep up with the demand. Temporary "prefab" houses went someway to solving the problem but many people took over disused military camps. One of these was at Moorgreen. 

Notts Evening post March 1947

Shortwood Camp had been an anti-aircraft post on a ridge above the Horse and Groom pub and soon after the war ended, the "squatters" moved in. From newspaper reports, it’s clear almost everyone sympathised with the squatters. Empty government property was seen as fair game; it was the government’s responsibility to provide housing, and government property belonged to the people anyway. The newsreels and papers presented squatting as the Blitz spirit, as ‘make-do-and-mend’. It was part of the armed forces’ tradition of ‘scrounging’ or ‘liberating’ much-needed items.

Conditions were often challenging though as local girl Judy Sisson who was born at Shortwood says... "My parents were given a place there as after the war they were living with Dad's parents so technically "homeless". They weren't cottages, they lived in the Nissen huts, which Mum said were freezing in winter, uncomfortably hut in summer. Times were hard but everyone helped each other, sharing what they had and making lifelong friendships." 

Local lad Ken Lord recalls... "I remember my brother Harold who worked at Crooks Farm Moorgreen telling me he used to go up there with a tractor and trailer to collect the waste food in the bins for the pigs and got to know some of the families quite well, I think most of the families were rehoused in the new council houses being built on Larkfield Estate."

Judy's brother John Sisson says... "My dad's name was Cecil Sisson always called Biddy. He was mentioned in an article in the Nottingham Post on 1st March 1947 as a leader of squatters in that camp which I believe was Shortwood Camp. The article was about being snowed in during the bad winter. We moved from there in 1948 to a council house on Larkfields Estate when I was 3 years old. I remember myself and my mother being taken there in my uncle Jim's motorcycle and sidecar."

Those RAF lorries were a challenge for the WAAFs!

Incendiary bombs were a constant threat. Civilian volunteers called
"fire guards" looked on roof tops for them.

To read more stories in the "Wartime Watnall" series, please go to the main "Tales from Watnall Hall" website here...

https://watnallhall.blogspot.com/search/label/wartime%20watnall

Sources and notes

Elaine Merrill - VE Day High Spannia/Cliff Boulevard, Kimberley; Lillian Walker - troops by Great Northern Hotel, Station St, Kimberley - pics with permission, from Facebook

Back in 2005 the BBC started a project called "WW2 People's War" where they interviewed elderly people with the aim of creating "An archive of WW2 memories - written by the public". There is no subtle way to tag on the end of that "...before it's too late!" but no doubt that was an important motivator. It was very successful and trawling through the resulting BBC archive I came across the wartime recollections of the Smith family of Kimberley.

Eileen O'Brian (nee Smith) parents Arthur and Mable Smith - WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar

Facebook post by user Nma Shush on the Watnall bombing raid of Aug 1940

1 - The picture is most likely taken at Cloverlands Army Camp. The sunken garden was identified by local historian Roy Plumb.

2 - Speculation that this pic is outside the Great Northern Hotel in Kimberley. If so the background buildings have mostly all gone so this was a tricky one to verify. Lillian Walker the owner says that the picture is outside the Great Northern Hotel on Station Road in Kimberley. That is right next to the station so it makes sense that the mixed group of marchers is heading there. The one remaining building that can be used for a positive id is the tallest of the 3 terraced buildings at the rear of the march on the left. It is white in Photo B and has an asymmetric roof which matches the building still there today, almost opposite the Nelson and Railway pub. The missing corner building can perhaps be seen in the background of the older pics below. It does not appear in 1950s pics taken from Kimberley Station platform. Photo B was taken by Richard Shaw who says "the white building is No. 3 Station Road, once owned by Kimberley Brewery. The newer building in front of that is built on top or near top of what was The Great Northern. The yellowish buildings on the right are a row of cottages of some age beyond Lilian's photo." Soldiers at the front seem to be in Home Guard uniform. The Kimberley Home Guard was based at the Great Northern Hotel. Behind them appear to be some WAAFs in uniform. There was a large WAAF base at RAF Watnall. Behind them looks like Army, they were based at Cloverlands on Newdigate Road.

Photo A

Photo B

Looks nothing like it in this post war pic

4 - Nottingham At War film - interviews with local people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQXhNV_q-Yg&ab_channel=IMAGESOFWAR - 2.5 million rounds of Spitfire ammo came out of the Nottingham Raleigh factory every week

5- Great Northern Hotel - Local historian Roy Plumb says "The former Great Northern Hotel was destroyed by fire on the afternoon of Monday 29 July 1940. At that time it was the headquarters of the local A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions) wardens, Home Guard and Medical Transport Depot.". The pub in the downstairs part of the hotel was locally known as the Pig and Whistle.