Newsletter Friends of Congleton Museum

Life During Wartime
Patricia Anne Hurst (nee Jolley)
Pat Hurst was born at her maternal grandparents’
smallholding in the rural village of Smallwood. Only a year old
when England entered WWII, Pat shared her parent’s house
on Willow Street (since demolished to make way for a car
park) with her younger brother and began attending nearby
St Stephen’s school in 1943. When her father volunteered for
service, Pat was often sent to stay with her paternal
grandparents near the park. Interview by Betty Butterworth
Q: Were your parents working
when you were born?
A: My mother didn‘t. My father
had been doing a college
course. He did a degree in art
and he qualified to teach art.
Q: Did he ever get to do that?
A: No, because the war came.
Q: You told me he volunteered
for the war. What does that
mean exactly?
A: Instead of having calling up
papers… he joined before
then. He went into the
Cheshire Regiment.
Q: You told me that your
mother was upset that he‘d
volunteered.
A: She said, ‗You should have
waited until you were called
for.‘ She was worried about
him. He was only a little man.
Q: And she had one baby and
another on the way?
A: Yes, so she sent me to my
grandmother‘s most of the
time. My little brother wasn‘t
very strong. He was baptised
on the kitchen table – using a
mixing bowl for the water -
because they thought he was
going to die. He was very
weak, but he survived.
Q: Did your house have an air
raid shelter?
4
A: We didn‘t have a shelter.
The shelter was near my
grandparents‘ house.
Q: Do you remember going
into the shelter?
A: Definitely. I can even
remember the outfit… I was
only about two, but I can
remember the outfit that they
put me in – a blue ‗siren suit‘.
You put it on when you heard
the siren. It was an all-in-one,
like babies wear now. It was
all in blue!
Q: You wore a special outfit
to go into the shelter?
A: Well… I was spoiled,
wasn‘t I? I had everything!
Q: Even during the war?
A: I never went short
because my grandmother at
Smallwood, she‘d got
animals… And she was
always baking; she had a big
Aga. And she had fruit, with
having an orchard. She made
apple pies and raspberry
pies. It was gorgeous! And
she had goat‘s milk. I didn‘t
drink much milk, but she did
have goat‘s milk. And she
made cheese – goat‘s milk
cheese. And we had bacon.
She‘d swap something with
someone else, so there was
bacon.
Preserving the past, recording the present, educating the future
Q: Do you have any other
memories of going into the air
raid shelter?
A: It was horrible. It was dark,
cold… and the smell of
cement… I can smell it now -
you know when cement‘s not
dry? These shelters were
underground, at the bottom of
Rood Hill, where the chippy is
now – just round the corner, at
the bottom of the hill.
Q: How many people would go
down there?
A: Oh, you could get 50 people
or more; it was very big. And
there were wooden forms to sit
on - no chairs, just long
wooden forms. But they had
entertainment. I can remember
they had me tap dancing!
Because I‘d had some tap
dancing lessons, they thought I
was Shirley Temple! And they
told stories, there was
singing…
Q: Did you have a favourite
subject in school?
A: Yes, nature! We had a
nature table competition and I
won a prize – it was a game
called Knight Errant. It came