The vet was a long way away so we had to learn how to dress his wounds ourselves. He always seemed to understand we were trying to help him and didn't struggle too much. Sometimes he was shut into the pantry to catch a mouse that had been hungry enough to stray indoors ! He was a very good hunter ! In those days there wasn't any tinned cat food and he had to eat scraps from the table or fund his own food - sometimes birds unfortunately, then I used to get a piece of cloth and bury them in the garden with a cross to make their graves, with flowers on.

There were other children living near our new home and I soon made friends with them. We all went to the same school and it was about 25 minutes walk. Usually we stayed to lunch and took our sandwiches and drinks with us, although we got milk at school and orange juice too. The village school catered for children from 5 to 14 (which was school leaving age at that time). We were divided into three groups - the infants in one room, the 7 - 10's and the older ones in one large room with a sliding door to divide it into two rooms. The Scholarship exam was taken when the headmaster thought a pupil was ready for it, so I took it at 9.1/2 and passed. Those who did not pass stayed on there until 14 and those who passed went to Wotton-under-Edge to the Grammar School. I should have gone there but fate intervened and we moved back to London but that's another part of the story. Some of the children who stayed until 14 couldn't read or write. On the other side of the playground was another building where we had our lunch and also did sewing classes and gym, unless it was good enough weather to be outdoors either in the playground or on the large playing field behind the school. It was also our theatre and we put on some displays especially for Officers of the US Army for American Thanksgiving Day or Independence Day. I remember once one of them wanting me to sit on his knee and I wouldn't. Eventually he came and picked me up. He said I reminded him of his little girl back in the States. We sang "America" and the "Star Spangled Banner" and they gave us sweets and toys and at Christmas we got stockings full of goodies too. I remember being Colorado one year, when we formed a map of the USA.

In spite of the war we went on outings from school. I remember going to the Zoo in Bristol, by train and then bus. The headmaster's Christian name was Alfred and, unfortunately for him; the very large old gorilla at the Zoo had the same name so of course we used to have fun calling the Gorilla "Gaffa" - the headmaster's nickname. We also went once a year to Weston-super-Mare - yes, the whole school on the train. We had games and picnic on the beach but the sea went out so far there wasn't often a chance to paddle. I didn't mind because I never did like waves.

We also had allotments behind the school where we learned to grow vegetables. I remember being very proud of my little piece of garden. In fact we had about half an acre of land around the cottage and my father loved growing his own vegetables. I used to collect the butterfly eggs from the cabbage leaves and keep them in jam-jars until they turned into caterpillars and then see how many would eventually turn into butterflies ! He grew potatoes and other vegetables, runner-beans , peas, beetroot and lettuces and radishes in summer, brussel-sprouts and cabbages and turnips. In fact he spent most of his spare time in the garden and loved it. He settled very quickly and easily into country life.

I also remember the visit of the Dentist and the Nit-Nurse - least said the better. Sometimes children got hair lice and had to have their hair washed with special shampoo - and I got the same treatment just in case. They also used liquid paraffin which was very effective in showing up the eggs. The local clinic was in Wotton-under-Edge and there was a bus every 2 hours. As I was not a very good patient Vi got the job of taking me there for immunisations and dental treatment. Once we missed the bus and a friend of Vi's stopped in his car to give us a lift and I refused to get in, so we walked all the way - I did say I was spoilt, but I suppose someone might have wondered what was happening if she had bundled me into the car screaming. I don't suppose I had ever been in one come to think of it. The Doctor was also at Wotton and you had to get your medicine at the surgery not at the chemist. You also had to pay before the National Health Service started in 1948 but I think we belonged to the Hospital Savings Association (HSA) and so got some of it back. I used to get sore throats and colds quite frequently and there was talk about having my tonsils removed but it never happened. At one time I didn't eat much so I was fed Parrish's Food and Phospherine tonics to improve my appetite. Then every week there was Syrup of Figs as a laxative !.

Not many people had cars but the garage opposite the Railway Tavern and Mr. Francombe ran a Taxi service, mainly for hospital visits and emergencies, as petrol was also rationed. The farmers had cars to pull trailers to take their animals to market and one such trailer swung out one day and knocked one of the older village girls off her bicycle. She had very bad head injuries and was ill for a long time and eventually died. She was one of the brightest girls at the Grammar School.

At holidays and weekends we had a super time playing in the fields and streams near home and further away if we dared. There was a brick works the other side of the railway and we used to like to go down to the woods near the clay-pits and watch the buckets of clay on the overhead line going into the factory. Some of the kids had parents who worked there and they had written the children's names on the buckets. We used to watch for "our" bucket to go past. There was a crossing over the lines, near the large electric transformer down Mill Lane but we often walked the long way round to the Copse, over the bridge and through the fields and over the stone walls too. In summer we would dam a little stream so we could paddle and try to catch fish. We always broke the dam at the end of the day.

We had to learn about poisonous plants and berries. The most common was the deadly nightshade - a very attractive red berry and very, very deadly poisonous. There was a family near the blacksmiths with 3 or 4 children and the eldest, a boy, was deaf and dumb. One day he and his small brother and sister were playing in the field. They must have got hold of some berries when he wasn't looking. He ran home with them when they showed him what they had eaten but he couldn't make his parents understand how urgent it was to get a doctor or try to make them sick. By the time the parents understood it was too late and they both died.

We used to get most of our food from the Miss Pugh's near the Congregational Church. Next the Railway Tavern there was a green grocers, Mr Evans. There was also a sweet shop down Station Road, on the right nearly at the end of the station yard. The Post Office, formerly in the tailor's shop, moved to a very modern building at the top of our road and there was a telephone box outside. As well as the Railway Tavern there were three more pubs in the village itself and several more on the outskirts.

There was also the Richardson Hut where they put on plays and people could play Billiards. The Women's Institute met there too. Some weekends they held dances there and we kids went along for a while. Once a year there was the Village Fete with Clay pigeon shooting and a fruit and vegetable show and guess the weight of the pig and a display of chickens, geese, goats and sheep and cows not forgetting the Morris Dancers. We also had concerts there and as I had joined dancing classes (tap dancing) I took part. I also remember being a fairy or angel or something in one of the plays and had wings attached to the back of my dress and attached to my fingers with brass curtain rings. We also did Snow White one year. Our dancing kit was black shorts - made of blackout material which was not rationed - shirts made from old sheets and metal "taps" screwed to our normal shoes - black of course. Two of the older girls in the village, Joyce Starkey and Peggy Mussel, were very good dancers and singers and were the real stars of the show. Peggy's father was blind and they lived next door to the school. I used to like to go and talk to him and watch him making wicker baskets.

The King's Hall was next door to the church and they used to have film shows and dances and concerts there too. I remember the projector often used to break down. Otherwise to go to the cinema you had to go to Stroud or Wotton under Edge and the bus service was not that good. Sometimes we went to the Colston Hall in Bristol for a Pantomime - matinee - by train.

I used to enjoy the Lantern Slide lectures in the Congregationalchurch, usually about Missions overseas. It was there that I heard about leprosy for the first time and how people lost parts of limbs through this dreadful disease. The Leprosy Mission is still my top choice of Charity - they seem to achieve so much with so little money.

Another of our favourite walks took us through a farmer's orchard and when the fruit was ripe we used to help ourselves.. He was not a very nice man and no-one seemed to like him, so he was fair game !. We used to climb over the wall, get our fruit and then go over the wall on the other side, sit under a tree and share out what we had. We never took more than we could eat. Sometimes he saw us and chased us but couldn't catch us. I often went home with torn skirts from climbing - little girls didn't wear shorts or trousers then ! Of course I dare not tell my Mother I had been stealing fruit either !

I also had some rabbits in a hutch Dad made, in a shed beside the house - one rabbit at a time. I liked finding dandelions and pulling carrots for them and spent quite a lot of time cuddling them too. One day we had rabbit for dinner - I don't know why I was suspicious because we often had them. I ran out to the shed and my rabbit wasn't there. I cried and screamed that they had killed my rabbit and in the end no-one wanted to eat it. I got another rabbit and that was given away when we came back to London.

We children also used to spend quite a lot of time in the railway cutting on the Bristol side of the station, collecting engine names and numbers - how I wish I had kept the lists !! By this time of course the war was well under way and some of the trains were hospital trains with red crosses on the sides of the carriages. The passengers often used to wave to us. It was a Midland and Great Western Line, to Gloucester and Birmingham. We were good friends with the signalman and he remembered me many years later when we visited Charfield again.

There was a small lake some distance away, I think it was an old mill-pond, where the older children went to swim during the summer but I was never allowed there.

Sunday school outings were fun too - a ride on a horse and cart to the local farm with games in the field and swings hung from the rafters of the barn and a big tea-party; with lots of animals to look at.

Harvest time was good too - we used to try to help with the hay making in June. The hay was put into heaps to dry and had to be turned with a pitchfork to dry. When it was dry it was collected with a tractor and trailer and taken to the farm. The farmer's used to have girls from the Land Army to help out.

Another way we earned pocket money during the war was by collecting silver paper. German planes dropped strips of it to interfere with radar and we got ld per pound for it. We also got paid the same for a pound of rosehips or hawthorn berries (haws). They are very rich in Vitamin C and were used to make syrup.

Coal was in short supply also of course. Now and again we could go the station yard and collect a bag. My dolls pram came in handy ! We also had to collect wood where and when we could.

In the autumn we also collected blackberries by the bucket full to make jams and pies and then there were the hazelnuts which we just ate for the pleasure ! We collected conkers too (horse chestnuts) and bored holes through them, put one on a string and had a fine game trying to break our opponents conker.

There was also a cattle market in the Station yard and we loved to go and watch the animals being loaded and unloaded from the trains and lorries. We didn't think about the fate of the animals but it was nice to go down and stroke the thick wool in the sheep and pat the cows and admire the pigs. We spent ages watching unwilling animals being pushed around by red-faced furious farmers ! The Station yard was also the bus terminus. One single deck "Bristol" bus which ran from Bristol to Wotton. You could change at Wotton for Dursley and Stroud and we went there sometimes shopping. It was in the yard while sitting on the bus that Mum and I had our closest encounter with an enemy plane. It was a smallish one and came straight for us and we could see the rear gunner. He peppered the yard round the bus and then the plane went off. We were all terrified. On reflection he could have killed us all easily. No doubt he was on his way back from a raid somewhere and it was his idea of fun.

Tortworth Court, now an Open Prison (still ?), was taken over by the US Army during the war and used as a prisoner of war camp too for a while. At weekends the Yanks came down to the village pubs and spent freely when they had money. Once their pay ran out they still came, hoping somebody would buy drinks for them until next pay day. Vi had lots of friends. Most of them were in the Army or the Navy or the Airforce and our house was usually full at weekends. We used to go to bed and leave her to play the piano an enjoy herself. Some of them were American and they all made a fuss of me and brought sweets and cakes and Coca Cola. If we met a Jeep when we were out for a walk there was usually a bottle of coke for me. They saw Mum didn't go short of anything and once even brought a blanket. Sometimes when I got up in the morning there would still be chaps sleeping on the floor downstairs and I had to step over them to get to the kitchen. I remember one had brought some iced cake which was in the larder and another one was coming that evening for tea so I was given 6d not to ask for any cake ! Mum enjoyed entertaining them and feeding them - after all she had two sons in the Forces too. One G.I. stayed the night and was upstairs in bed (Vi slept on the settee downstairs) when another arrived in a Jeep - he escaped through the bedroom window - the kitchen roof sloped nearly to the ground and was our exit in winter if the show had drifted over the front door ! Of course the soldiers made lots of promises of what they would do after the war but at least one kept his promise to me and sent me a beautiful doll, dressed in prink organdie and complete with kid shoes and silk socks - I still have her.

There was no street lighting in the village and you had to take a torch if you went out after dark. Windows had to be covered so that no light shone out and you could buy heavy black material without a ration book to make blackout curtains. We had wooden shutters too. Material and knitting wools were rationed as well as food. I learned to knit with stuff called "yarn" which was not rationed. Sometimes I had embroidery silks and used odd pieces of material to make handkerchiefs.

Our main contact with the outside world was the radio. I remember listening to Tommy Handley in "Itma" and "Monday Night at 8" which often coincided with my bath-time - a large galvanised bath with two handles, on the mat in front of the fire in winter and in the kitchen in summer. Often the hot water was used for two or three baths. Remember, there was no hot water tap ! We had a rain water butt in the garden and often used that water to wash or rinse hair - I remember it was lovely soft water and lathered up very easily with a bar of soap; we didn't have shampoos.

When there were air raids over Yate or Bristol Dad would take me outdoors to watch the "fairy lights" - I didn't realise at the time that they were the markers for the bombs and he was looking to see how far away they were. I got very good at recognising our planes for the enemy's too, from the sound of the engines. The nearest bomb to us fell in a field miles from houses. It made a large crater and killed a cow. Once a German plane came down close by and pilot landed safely by parachute. The local women took him into one of the houses for a cup of tea until the police arrive

There was one winter when we couldn't get out of the house very easily. Fortunately Mum kept a supply of tinned food so we didn't starve. Dad had to go out of the window on the landing, trudge round the house and dig out the front door. The snow was about 6ft deep so there was no question of going to school ! We children had a whale of a time building igloos as well as snowmen. Of course, the water-pump froze but our well seemed to keep OK. The milkman couldn't get round either, but I don't suppose it lasted very long. The milkman had a horse and cart and used to measure the milk into a jug - no bottles then, and I expect it was straight from the cows!

During the war there were "practices" when the ARP and Red Cross staged a mock raid and wanted to have casualties to practice on. Some of my friends went but I wasn't letting them practice on me - I watched sometimes from the bedroom window

My father died in March 1946 and was buried in the Cemetery behind the Congregational Church. He never did want to go back to London. Mum, on the contrary didn't want to stay so in May 1947 we moved back to London.