Herbert Culpan's Wartime Memories

Grandfather helped to bring me up. I was born before the war in 1937. My dad was in the war and grandpa lived with my mum and I. He was a special constable in the war, and he had a box of these truncheons, which he thought he would use when the Germans came. Although he had this special truncheon, he was a special constable, I'm afraid we used to get things on the black market. The man who lived next door was a proper policeman. We used to cook pork and things and we had to keep all the windows closed so that he didn't hear it. I can't tell you a lot more about this truncheon, except that he had a box and they were for everybody to give out. I think as he was a special constable, that's where he got them all from I think.

He was a mill owner, he had the Moderna Blankets Mill, but he had retired just before the war. So he was a bit into everything and had a go at everything. And in here as well, I've got his snuff-box and I remember in the war with his snuff-box and everybody smoked in the war. We used to collect these cigarette cards, which I haven't got any more. But Grandpa thought that smoking even then that smoking was a terrible thing, and he didn't let anyone smoke in his car or his house or anywhere but he did use this snuff. And there's still some in from a hundred years ago and he used to pick some up and put it on and (sniffing sound). I actually remember him doing that.

I was two and a half when the war started but I actually remember things very very clearly from about three. In fact, I remember the first Christmas of the war. I was in a cot in the room that I'm still sleeping in and mum had bought things before the war, when they knew the war was coming. And they gave me a set of pans; they'd be aluminium as there would have been no plastic or anything. I remember in this cot how thrilled my mum was. I thought it was Father Christmas who'd brought me these and I was so thrilled to see these things. And then my dad used to take me down because my mum had been to town to buy me these little dresses before the war. And my dad used to put this lovely little dress on and take me down and stand me in the office and I used to have to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

It's funny how clearly I've got a lot of memories of the war. I've got a lot of photographs because we went to Blackpool. Mum and I. Dad went off to be in the Navy. Mum used to take me to a great-aunt in Blackpool. Because my great aunt, great grandfather, great grandmother were in cotton and that went kaput so they bought this boarding house at 31 Crystal Road, Blackpool. I have pictures of my great aunt in the First World War of the soldiers who were billeted there before they went to the war. But mum and I used to go during the war. I just remember the bombs falling once in Blackpool. Round here we just got one incendiary bomb that fell, and it lit up the moors. I was kept away from it all and felt very safe. We just had one evacuee come to stay with us. Her mother came but I'm afraid my mother and she didn't get on very well, so they didn't stay awfully long.

When Dad came back, Mum and Dad talked (my mum after) and they said we're not going to have any more children because Rommel was then marching across Africa and it didn't seem the right time but towards the end of the war "¦I wanted a little baby sister but they had twins. A little boy and a girl but I wanted to send them back.

Going back to Auntie Florrie. I went back to Christal Road a couple of weeks ago when I was in Blackpool. We used to go to Blackpool all the time and I have some pictures of us on the Sands in the war when we went.

Where was the evacuee from? Liverpool. I don't remember very clearly but I do just remember that my mum used to have the cream at the top of the milk. And there was a bit of an argument about that. She said it should be shaken up. We were short of everything. We had hens in the garden, and geese up the hillside. We had rabbits, which we occasionally ate. Bobby was in the pie one day and it did put me off rabbit. I can't eat rabbits now.

Grandpa was a bit soft. We used to have old boilers and old hens. When they got too old and stopped laying, we had to wring their necks and Grandpa couldn't do that, so we had old Ike. I remember this old Ike used to come in and wring their neck. All through the war, Grandpa had old hens boiling and they smelled awful we used to eat them and make soups because Grandpa said it was very good for us. Grandpa was into this eating well.

Book - A lot of it isn't in the war but the mill was still going during the war. A lot of people had to go to the war like my dad did. At the mill, they made utility blankets. They made great coats in the First World War but in the Second World War, they made the coats for the forces.

I remember ever so clearly that you couldn't get clothes and things in the war. You had ration books for clothes, so Mum had a sewing machine and she made everything for us during the war. You couldn't get sweets. You just had a very tiny ration and I used to walk down to Mytholmroyd, where Willie Whitely, used to hum all the time. You got these little bags and it was two ounces you could have. There were loads of ones you couldn't get. You couldn't get chocolate. But we did go and get tripe. There was a tripe shop. We bought raw tripe, which people now would go urrggg but actually, you put vinegar and salt and pepper on. And grandpa would take me down and I used to love eating this trip because we couldn't get sweets.

I got on the bus from Mytholmroyd as a six and a half year old with my cousin and we walked from Queen's Road to Parkinson Lane School on our own. I remember the Americans sent us over some drinking chocolate and we had to take these tins into school. We all went in a line and we got this drinking chocolate. And you could get Robison's Lemon Barley with Sherberts that you dip in and lick the lemon barley. Because sweets were very short. You couldn't get fruit. Bananas"¦you just got black bananas sometimes"¦dried ones. You couldn't get oranges. It was a wonderful treat when the first oranges came in. You had to mark off when you got your oranges in the ration book. My friend's mother rubbed it out, so she got two lots.

The canteen at the mill was used as a community thing during the war. People had to go to work if they hadn't any children. It was a real community during the war. Mum used to take me down there a lot and we would have meals there occasionally. They had lots of theatre plays and dances. Even during the war, we managed things like that.

Dad didn't want to go into the war but if he had to, he had to go in the navy. He used to come home whenever he could. He was down at Gosport near Portsmouth. He'd come up on the train, it would take him all day and people would cover for him. Once he got to Mytholmroyd and had to go straight back because they wanted him. When he joined it was in the middle of winter. He had to go to Butlins to be trained. At Skegness, I think. He said it was so cold he wore his great boots in bed. And he came up and brought up a lot of the other sailors. He had booked to take me to the cinema in Hebden Bridge to see Mrs Miniver, which was very sad. We got in because we'd booked but the cinemas were packed. And I felt so sorry for these sailors because they were standing outside and they couldn't get into the cinema.