From when I was born in September 1936 my childhood and my early teens was spent living at number 10 Sheep Street, Highworth, Wiltshire. The small stone built cottage which was situated near the gate leading to St Michael’s churchyard had a living room, a small kitchen and a toilet downstairs, with two bedrooms, and an attic room above. It was warm in the winter with an open coal fire in the living room as the main form of heating. To the side of the fire grate was an oven which mother used for cooking such things as milk puddings, jacket potatoes and baked apples. In the kitchen was a gas cooker and a copper for boiling washing in. Water was fetched for domestic use from a standpipe just outside the front door near the church gate, which was also used by several other houses in Sheep Street and Vicarage Lane.
My older brother Roy and I slept in the back bedroom where from the small window could be seen the churchyard. Mum and Dad slept in the front bedroom looking down towards Mr and Mrs Avery’s large house in Vicarage Lane. Living next door at number 11 Sheep Street was my grandparents, Phineas and Kate Archer, (Dads mother and father). Granny Archer died when I was still a baby so I can’t really remember her at all.
When I became of school age I attended the infants school at Highworth Primary School. One memory I have of those early days is having to lie down during the afternoon on some oval shaped mats on the floor of the classroom with the other children for a sleep. Another memory is having to queue up with the other children for a round boiled sweet about the size of a marble which the teacher took from a sweet jar with a long handled spoon. I have never known the reason why we had these sweets given to us; perhaps it was because it was the early days of the Second World War, and of course many things were rationed in those days. I soon moved up to the big school and went into Miss Bessie Smith’s class. Miss Smith lived just opposite us in Sheep Street so I had to be careful what I did, otherwise she would have told my parents if I had done something wrong. As I got older I found that Miss Smith was a nice person and I used to run errands for her to the shops, and was always rewarded with a few pennies.
During the early part of the war we always had to take our gas masks to school because of air raids. The air raid siren was on a telegraph pole by the mat factory in Brewery Street. When there was an air raid warning we had to either get under our desks or stand by our cloths peg in the cloakroom with our coats over our heads. Perhaps this was to help stop flying glass hitting us. We were always glad when the all clear was sounded. Miss Smith always stayed with us on these occasions telling us not to worry. Looking back now I think we were very fortunate to have her as our teacher. Luckily no enemy bombs fell on the school during that time.
During my time at the junior school I played football for the school against the Upper and Lower Stratton schools, and on one occasion I scored a hat trick. Next day at assembly our headmaster Mr Burke Jones made me stand on the stage while he told the school about it. He said I was another Dixie Dean who was a prolific goal scorer in the English football league at that time. I remember feeling quite nervous and wishing he hadn’t called me up on the stage. Apart from that the only other thing I can lay claim to while at junior school was playing the back end of a cow in a school play; a non speaking part which pleased me down to the ground.
As the war progressed things became very exciting for the youngsters of Highworth. More and more convoys of army lorries and tanks could be seen, and of course aircraft could always be seen flying around. During that time the Rescue Services and the Aux Fire Service held exercises incase of the real thing. They had set up a casualty station for the injured in the old Infants School in Shrivenham Road. On one occasion my brother and I were just going indoors in Sheep Street when the canvas covered ambulance driven by John Roberts pulled up outside our house. This frightened us both because we thought they were going to take us to the casualty station. We ran indoors and looked out of the window. Thankfully they went to Miss Huckson’s house just opposite and brought her out on a stretcher then took her away. My brother Roy said “That was a near squeak” because as youngsters we all dreaded having to go in an ambulance.
My brothers joy was very short lived because a couple of weeks later he was walking up the High Street when the ambulance pulled up; “Yes and with John Roberts”; someone jumped out, put his arm in a sling, and bundled him into the ambulance and took him off to the casualty station. Roy reckoned John Roberts knew we were frightened and thats why he did it.
When the German bombers of the Luftwaffe were going over to bomb the Midlands, Mother used to put the gaslight out in the living room and allow my brother and me to stand by the door to watch the searchlights pick up the outline of the aircraft, but of course they were very high up in the sky. Some evenings we would listen to Lord Haw Haw with his propaganda broadcasts, but I was too young to understand what he was on about.
On one occasion near the end of a school day an aircraft hit the top of some trees in the park not far from Eastrop Grange, and crashed killing all the aircrew. It happened just before we came out of school; when the bell went we all rushed to see the wrecked plane. I remember we were told off by a man at the scene of the crash; who told us in no uncertain terms that it was no place for young children to be. I remember seeing that the man had covered the bodies of the aircrew with their parachutes, but at that early age we didn’t really understand too much about it. I later learnt that the pilot was a Canadian.
One day my friends and I saw a Horsa Glider hit a telegraph pole at the side of the railway line just past the railway station at the bottom of the Butts. The Glider carried on and crash landed in the hedgerow of one of Mr Painters fields on the north side of the railway line. No one seemed to be hurt at the time. Later a large American army lorry arrived with some American soldiers. One of them asked us to help find the tow rope. After searching for a while we found the rope by the side of the line near Pennie Lane. We ran back to tell them and we were rewarded with some packets of chewing gum each. We found the American soldiers were always generous with chewing gum and plasticine from when we used to wait for their convoys of lorries passing through Highworth. The best place to wait was at a crossroads because their lorries always seemed to slow down there. In later years I found out it was an American glider practising for the Normandy Landings.
Most of the local lads lives revolved round something to do with the forces; lots of aircraft, soldiers, convoys of army lorries pulling Ack-Ack guns, and tanks. As the war progressed more and more military personnel seemed to be in and around Highworth. The Market Square and the surrounding streets were filled with army lorries. Some of the children who lived in Sheep Street were allowed to play in the back of one of the army lorries parked at the top of the Market Square. This was great fun for us kids because not one of the soldiers told us off, and of course when it was raining we could play in the dry.
Along Swindon Street there was a long convoy of Canadian tanks parked, which I have since found out were on their way to the docks for the Normandy Landings. Like all small children we stopped to look at the tanks, and saw a soldier pumping up a primus stove when it suddenly exploded and one of his trouser legs caught fire. Another soldier quickly wrapped a blanket round him and put the fire out. I didn’t know if he was badly burnt because we had to go to school.
One Sunday tea time we were queuing at Mrs Haggits sweet shop in the High Street when someone shouted, “Parachutes falling over Coleshill” we all rushed out, some getting jammed in the doorway in the mad rush. The sky was full of parachutes dropping from American Dakota aircraft. We all ran round to Cherry Orchard to see them falling in the fields, woods and the river at Coleshill. I later found out that this was a practice jump for the Normandy Landings. Next morning there was a burnt out Tank and Army lorry in the Market Square and soldiers walking about with their arms in slings and bandages on their heads. A very exciting time for the youngsters of Highworth.
When the American forces were camped in their Bell Tents in the grounds of Hannington Hall many of them used to come to Highworth to the local pubs for a drink. Grandfather Archer became very friendly with one of the American sergeants who he used to go drinking with at the Globe Inn in Sheep Street. When this sergeant had one or two drinks too many he always slept it off on gramps bed before travelling back to camp. On several occasions he borrowed gramps bicycle and sometimes it was in the middle of the night when he left for camp. I must say he always brought the bike back safely next day. He was also very generous to my grandfather with gifts of cigars and whiskey.
During the school summer holidays in 1944 I spent a fortnight with my Aunt Lil and Uncle Dick at The Brow, Hyde Road, Kingsdown. This must have been after the Normandy Landings because I can remember convoys of army ambulances going through; I later learnt that they were from R.A.F. Down Ampney where some of the badly wounded from the Normandy battlefields were flown into by Dakota aircraft. I used to wave to the wounded soldiers who were in the cab next to the driver, and they used to wave back. Many of them had bandages on their heads and arms in slings. At that time I was much too young to really understand what terrible injuries some of them had.
On Christmas day; which must have been near the end of the war; I can remember my grandfather seeing two German POW’s standing by the lamppost near the Chemist shop in Sheep Street. He sent my Aunt Lil down to see if they would like a Christmas dinner and some bottles of beer. The next thing we knew they were drinking beer with Gramp, then we all sat down to a good Christmas dinner. That Christmas my brother and I were given a model battleship each; when a large marble was bowled and hit a target on the side, the ship exploded as if a torpedo had hit it. The two German POW’s who were from the prison camp at Eastrop played with us during the afternoon. A few days later they brought my grandfather a present of some weather vanes which they had made out of old jerry cans, and coco tins. With the end of the war in Europe came the Victory celebrations in the Market Square, with dancing and singing and a large bonfire. My brother and I were allowed out to join in the fun, and I remember the Market Square was packed solid with people having a good time. Mrs Baker who lived at the end of Sheep Street, made a dummy of Hitler and Mussolini and hung them on a lamppost in the Square and charged people to see if they could pull their heads off; I can’t remember anyone achieving this. Afterwards she threw them on the bonfire along with some bags of chicken feathers which smelt terrible.
The Archer Family Tree 