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Page 26 |
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Memories of Arthur Long These are the Pamber Heath memories of Arthur Long recorded by John Feuillaide for an Open University project between 4th and 9th of September, 1999 and used here with his kind permission. The transcription of the memories amounted to 8 pages and too long to insert all here so I have only included what I consider are the best memories from him.
John. And where are did you go to school? Arthur. Silchester. John. Silchester? Arthur. Yer. You were there and that was it. Started school and finish there, you know. John. How old were you? Arthur. 14. Then I went to Thornycrofts. Stayed there until I was 16 and then I was at Vickers at Aldermaston, building the Spitfires. That was in 1944. Yes, yes, I was on the sheet metal work. They came as wings, fuselage and engines, they all came in separate, you know and then we had to assemble them and there were certain parts we had to make up, like wing fillets. You had the blanks and you had to shape them and fit them because they were things that had to be fitted because they varied so much. They done all the engine tests outside the Hangar and then the test pilot came to taxi it across, out onto the drome. Of course, that was the Americans there. The airfield. Just before D-Day there was an influx of troops in there. There was all more tents put up all round by the Hangar in among the other huts, because a lot of their living quarters was dotted all around by Hangar 5, all round there, and in between them there was more tents going up, you know. And the next thing you knew, there was a thousand more troops moved in there. And then, D-Day, all gone! The lot, cleared out! Church Road - I was 7 when we moved from there and went down to The Glen. John. Whereabouts in the Glen? Arthur. Well, it's number 13, the house that lays up on the hill. It was called Haycott. No, before you get up the top of the hill, you know where Spion Kop was, if you came down the hill, there's another house up on the right, that was never there are, that was just a field, up there. But the house next to that, which not all that long, two, three year ago, was sold to another person and he built a road way up into it. Well that's it. John. Oh that's where you lived, was it, yes I know the one you mean. After the war .... You were on Spitfires right up to the end of the war, were you. Arthur. Yes. John. And then what happened? Arthur. I went from there down to Turners and Hunters, wood yard, timber mill, saw mill, you know. From there I went into the forces, the army, national service. The call up. John. You were in the army, were you? Arthur. Yes. I had to do just over 2 1/2 years. I would have been out within the two years but there was a shortage of tradesmen coming in. See I was on weapons and small arms. I took the trade test and got through it and there was a shortage of recruits coming in so they had to keep certain trades on until they could get replacements. So I was lumbered a bit longer. Mind you I didn't mind, I was enjoying myself anyway, in the army. I came out and went back to Turners and Hunters as they had to keep my job open for me. I wasn't there all that long. The trade there was dropping off then, you know, and the AWE was crying out for people. I had an interview and got a job there and I was there seven years. When I went there it was Ministry of Works. That must been in the Fifties. Somewhere around there, 52, or something like that. But I left there, and I did about a month, I think, on the buildings, with a friend of mine, just to fill in, then I got a job in Lansing Bagnall, in Basingstoke. No, I didn't, I tell a lie. I went on to Ralphs of Basingstoke first, Ralphs, lorry driving. They was the haulage, used to do all ballast, sand and ballast merchants. I did seven years on there and then I went into Lansing Bagnall. I stayed there 25 years, until I retired. John. As a fitter? Arthur. Yes, yes. And since then all we've done is travel. (laughs). Yes, we always had pigs, chickens, a supply of eggs, and bacon, plenty of bacon. That's one thing about the old village you go round and everybody mostly had one or two old chicken and a pig, always had a pig. It was, er ....., people were friendly, I mean, you didn't never have to lock your door, you wouldn't have to worry about that. If anyone come in your house they come in to put something in there, not to take it out. You walk in your house and find some one had been in and left something there for you. But then, as I say, after the war it started to go all up. John. You say about the three bombs that dropped, one dropped in Clappsgate, didn't it. Arthur. Yes, down the bottom, one dropped just at the top here, well, I suppose where Jimmy Pope lives now, somewhere just there. The next one was down the bottom end of Clappsgate Road, just before the first bend to the left, on the right-hand side there was a little shop there, Elsie Long. Elsie had groceries, she didn't do so many...as Andrew's, and sweets, she had a lot, quite a few sweets. And the other one dropped down the Glen where there was another shop there. That was Andrew's shop, my uncle. That was where Rose Long, my aunt was killed because she worked for my uncle Andrew and that one, that destroyed Andrew's place completely, the shop in The Glen. The one at the end of Clappsgate Road, that damaged it, the building but it was liveable afterwards, you know. And the one at the top here did no damage at all, cos there was nothing there, just a bit of blast of one or two houses that was the opposite side of the road, there was nothing, just fell in the woodland bit. So it was lucky there weren't more people killed, really. John. So Andrew's shop, what sort of shop was that? Arthur. That was groceries as well. |
I
was born in Church
Road, right opposite the Church. In a little wooden bungalow that
was there then. That belonged to Benham's who used to keep the shop
and the bakery. His mother (Lucy Benham). That's who owned the little bungalow.
I lived there until I was seven and then we moved to down
the bottom, The Glen, down the Glen, and I lived there until I got
married and then came up here (Pelican Road). ...we
lived on this ground because you couldn't build here at that time,
they wouldn't pass the building plans and we had a caravan here and
lived in the caravan and then when they did pass it for building
ground, we lived and built that next door, 53 and then just before I
retired we had this built. I mean we had all this ground, it was too
much. So I had this built, cut the ground down a bit, it was less
work.