Reminiscences on WW2 in Blackwell Parish: Graham Peake, living in Newton

Reminiscences  on WW2 in Blackwell Parish:

Graham Peake, living in Newton

Graham was born on Mount Pleasant in 1930, so was 9 years old when war was declared. He can remember sitting listening to the radio announcement on the battery driven wireless. There was a shop at Blackwell where you took your batteries to be recharged. Additionally at that time there were Start’s Shop opposite Blackwell School, a newsagents run by Shug Smith’s father, the Co-op, Post Office, and Chip Shop. Opposite Primrose Hill were Petrol Pumps, Haberdasher, Hairdresser and a Cobblers.

Graham attended Blackwell School where the headmaster was Mr Smith, remembered as firm but fair. There were 2 age groups in each class, the school catering for children from 5 to 14 years. There was a female teacher who lived on Hilcote Lane, and another who lived at Shirland. An assembly always started the day. When sirens were sounded the children were sent home as there was no bomb shelter at the school, with the instruction to return when the All Clear was sounded, Graham says he never heard the All Clear sounded! The school staged fund-raising dramas to raise money for the war effort.

On the day of Graham’s 11+ exam, while walking to school with a friend, they were told of a bomb crater behind the farm at Mount Pleasant and 2 unexploded bombs in the field on Alfreton Road, opposite South St near the bus stop. He recalls that the bus stop was moved until the bombs had been collected by the military. Others were dropped near the Methodist Chapel at Blackwell. Graham’s dad was a ARP Warden ( Air Raid Precautions), and was on duty when an incendiary bomb dropped in front of the Blackwell Hotel, and a colleague was reported to have placed his tin hat over it..but fortunately the bomb failed to explode. A Fire Watcher in Blackwell thought he had been hit with shrapnel, but actually he had been hit on the forehead by the letter F of the metal Fry’s Chocolate Advertisement which had blown off. It is unlikely that bombs were targeted on Blackwell, and rather were dumped before flying home.

On another occasion while walking home from school up the hill on Alfreton Road,  aeroplanes were sighted and someone shouted “ German Planes “ so Graham and his mates dived into the hedge where the bank rises from the road level. About 1942 when going to play cricket on the playing field the lads found several containers, looking like “salmon tins with wings on”, which turned out to be Anti Personnel bombs; none exploded and the Army came and took them away.

Aside from these few memorable days Graham tells that children barely knew there was a war on. Most men were employed in the Colliery, and were not conscripted due to the need for coal for the armaments production, and most families raised their own pigs and chickens, and had vegetables from their allotments, so food was not in short supply in Blackwell. A school class of about 25 pupils from Southend on Sea was evacuated to Blackwell with a school teacher; Graham’s parents took in a brother and sister, Peter and Beryl Scudder, who were about 7 or 8 years old. Next door took in 2 teenagers, who ran away after 2 days and were tracked to Chapel en le Frith.

On leaving school a few days before his 14^th Birthday, Easter 1944, Graham took a job at Codnor Station; He had to set off from home on his bicycle at 4.30 am to be at the Ticket Office by 6am. He had a code book and on receiving messages had to translate them with the code book and pass the information on to the signal men to allow trains to pass, or direct them to sidings. Leaving the Station by the 7pm train to Westhouses, he would be home about 8pm and after eating went straight to bed to be ready for 4am again. After 6 months Graham left the Railway and started at A Winning Colliery.

At the end of the war Mount Pleasant residents organised a Victory Tea Party, but Graham missed it as his first love was football and Chesterfield Town were playing at home! As a boy he and his friends were allowed to play on the fields at the Villa on Mount Pleasant; the owner Mr Skidmore was always very pleased to see the youngsters enjoying themselves there. Graham was told that in the dim and distant past the Villa had been a staging post for carriages.

Graham had a cousin George Purdy, and every Saturday the 2 of them used to collect a tray of chocolate from the newsagent’s shop opposite Newton Chapel. George used to carry the tray on a strap round his neck, and Graham used to chip the ration coupons as they sold the chocolate door to door in Blackwell.

Schooled and employed at Blackwell, Graham knew little of Newton in his youth. When married to Joyce , they lived initially with Graham’s dad before moving to a caravan on Town Lane, off Cragg Lane,  Newton on Teddy Ball’s land. Teddy Ball was an undertaker. On Alfreton road, where no 1 now stands, there was a row of 3 cottages, one of which was occupied by a blind man who used to be employed straightening nails for Teddy Ball. On the opposite side of the road, east of Green Farm were another 3 cottages, one of which was occupied by the Heathcote family; to the side of that row was Barracks Yard, at the side of Nan’s Nick.

Graham remembers 2 names of men killed in the war:

Harold Hart of Cambridge St Blackwell, was Graham’s Uncle Charlie’s brother; Charlie had married Graham’s aunt, a sister of his mother. Harold Hart’s sister Hilda was Gt Grandmother of the Olympic Medal Swimmer Rebecca Adlington.

Samuel Granville Roberts, known as Granville, was a good footballer who played for Nottingham Forest before the war.

Many thanks to Graham for recording some notes on his early life.