Itteringham.com - War Years

In 1936 Mr Cossey Skinner and his wife Win lived in the Manor House. Mr. Skinner was in the Home Guard. They used the front lawn on Sunday mornings to drill and lay out equipment.

A lady used to come and give demonstrations in the village hall. One poor man fainted while practising the bandaging.
W.S.

Many villagers, both men and women did "Fire Watching." Cups of tea were available from the old bakehouse in the centre of the village.

My husband was in the Home Guard...no not in the Home Guard - in the ARP. He called it the IRP and not the ARP (laugh)...
Well, the lady that lived over the road there, they used to have their meetings in her house before they went round to see if the boats were in, that sort of thing and one day when I came down to the shop, she said, "Oh, we had a spree last night!" So I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "They found a new game to play." So I said, "What was that?" She said, "Well, you find a bluebottle and you hold its wings and if you hold it over a full matchbox, that'll empty the matchbox." ...with its legs... hold it over the matchbox and lift it away out of the matchbox. [Ruth demonstrates repeated movement with hands]
So that day after that, when it was time for my husband to go again, before he went off, I caught two bluebottles and put them in a matchbox and as he was getting all his gear ready to go away, I said, "Here, you'd better take this with you, look." So he said, What's that?" So he opened the box and one flew out. I said, "Nora told me all of you'd been playing empty the matchbox with a fly, so I though I'd better find you some flies...save you the job!" (laughter) He took it very well!
I suspect... they did have to pass the time.

Well, reckon that was a bit boring but there you are...
Ruth Harrison

Evacuees

The school was made ready for evacueees in October 1939. Several of the villagers looked after the children but some returned to their families despite the danger.

I had some evacuees. They came quite early. Poor little souls, they did look wrecks some of them. I had two from Gravesend and they were a couple of little monkeys... they were sitting outside the gate which joined the churchyard gate and Reverend Summers came down the road and he says, "Are you coming to church this morning?" Beryl said "No I'm not!" So he said, "Well, where do you go on Sunday when you're at home?" She said, "We go to the pub with father and we sit on the step and wait till he comes out."
Ruth Harrison

They were a couple of rough 'uns. They stayed with me till about a year before the war finished and then they, Mrs. H. their mother, took them home cause Beryl was getting a bit out of hand. I missed them, I missed them a lot.
Ruth Harrison

The little boy used to go down to the river every night. He'd only got one pair of trousers and he used to come home wet through. I used to have to dry the trousers every night... Just paddling in the water and all times during the year.
He came home one night, I said "What are you wet again? You are a naughty boy!" "Yes," he said, "Don't put me to bed Auntie, give me a damn good hiding!"
He'd rather have a damn good hiding than go to bed...I suppose that was what he'd been used to, I don't know? ...I didn't give him one...
Ruth Harrison

His mother sent him another pair of trousers after a bit so he had on pair on and one off but otherwise I used to have to wash them out Saturday nights and dry them Sundays, oh dear. We had a lot of accidents round here at that time. Then things started getting worse, some of them went home.
Ruth Harrison

Military

The nearest airfield was the fighter base at RAF Matlaske. The NCOs' and airmens' messes were at Barningham Hall but all the officers were billeted at Itteringham Mill. The transport from Matlaske to Itteringham was by bicycle. Further details are recorded on the Mill Page.

Westland Whirlwind P7094 c.1943

After a forced landing near Matlask, when returning to base on 23rd December 1941, this aircraft was transferred from No. 137 squadron to No. 263 squadron after repair, almost a year later. Flying as HE-T it was wrecked on 16th May 1943 after 166 flying hours.

On 29th May 1942, a Westland Whirlwind from Matlaske piloted by P/O Jowitt arrived over the airfield at 06:00 hours. When at about 800 ft, his port engine caught fire and the aircraft went into a spin. Jowitt baled out and conviently landed outside the officers' mess in time for breakfast! The plane crashed in the watermeadows by the bridge near Bintry Farm.
The aircraft was No. P7118 of 137 squadron and had flown a total of 111 hours. The aircraft was named 'Bellows 4' which indicates it was one those purchased by the Argentinian company Bellows, who donated four Whirlwinds to the RAF.
It's believed the wreckage was excavated by an aviation museum after the war.

Westland Whirlwind P7110 in 1941
This aircraft was almost certainly stationed at Matlaske during the course of it's service
photo supplied by www.ww2images.com

There was a plane crashed just over the bridge, alongside of the river, on the Common side of the bridge, on the bend. If you look you can see, on the bend, it went down the bank.
Ruth Harrison

Home Front

It was awful. We had a rough old time, esecially when they were bombing Coventry because there were troops up on the park at Wolterton, there were troops at Barningham Hall and there was the airforce at Oulton. We were in the middle of the lot... they used to put the searchlights up and you could see the planes in the searchlight. They fired at them, bits of shrapnel would come down sometimes. We had bombs one night come down, they started just over the bridge and they missed the farmhouse, Hill farmhouse and dropped further afield on the road where you go down from Aylsham to the Common.
Ruth Harrison

Some of them (bombs) fell in that plantation up there. We had it pretty near sometimes. My father was scared stiff of 'em. He worked at that time up on the farm that joined the arifield, I think it's Harrolds' now. And he came home one day and he said to my mother "I'll have to have some clean linen, some clean clothes." She said he'd been hiding behind a row of wire netting while they machine gunned the airfield and that frightened him (laughter).
Ruth Harrison
Possibly evening of 29th October 1940 when 5 Dornier 17 bombers bombed and machine gunned the area.

Tom Baxter had a miraculous escape one day, when he decided to walk home for his dinner. On his return a large bomb crater was where he had left his bicycle. Had he not decided to go home, Tom would have been no more.

We didn't have official shelters, we had shelters that they made themselves, you know. We had a pigs' house lowered down; they dug a big hole and lowered the pigs' house down and used to have to go down three steps to get into it, down deep. But don't think that was a bit of good really because had anything dropped we should have had it, shouldn't we? I know my brother was home on leave, he was minesweeping off the Naze and he was home on 48 hours leave and he was so tired because they'd been, you know, doing it all the while. He went to bed soon as he got home and of course out go the sirens. My mother opened the door and she said, "Boy, you'll have to get up, the siren's out." So he said, "I aren't coming." So he said "I aren't coming, I'm tired." She said, "Well you'll have to come, we're going to the shelter." So he said "Well you can go, I'll stay here." But she wouldn't go without him. She always used to carry her handbag on her arm with the rent in. She said if the house went down she'd got the rent money with her.
So we went off and she wouldn't give me any rest when we went down; I said, "You'll have to get up boy, we've got no peace up there." So he got up and she was waiting for him just out in the yard, so she walked in front of him as we were going up the garden and a chandlier flare came out, lit everywhere up like daylight. 'Course we started to trot, to run to get down the dug-out and instead of going down, she fell down, went down head first. So my brother said, "What on earth do you think you're up to?" She say, "I always go down here like that." He say, "Well, the Lord know what you do when you're in a hurry then." (laughter) Poor old soul.
Ruth Harrison

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