A child's wartime in Slough. by Nick Hooper

I was born in Slough in 1935 and lived on Shaggy Calf Lane until the end of the war in 1945. I remember walking to Thomas Gray School with my gas mask over my shoulder. It wasn't unusual to spend hours in the brick air raid shelters that had been built in the playground, attempting to do school work whilst awaiting the 'all-clear' that would allow us to return to our classrooms.

My father had a bomb shelter installed in the garden behind the house, but due to my mother's claustrophobia we only used it for a couple of nights and never again. One night we had an air-raid when three bombs landed, one in the garden of a house just along the street and the others in the road. No one was hurt, but some chickens lost their feathers.

In the spring we would walk to Wexham woods and pluck armloads of bluebells and on Sundays in the summer the whole family would cycle to the Brocas at Eton for a picnic and a dip in the river. I remember VE day and the wonderful celebrations and street party which were held on the green.

In January of 1946 my parents moved. The 'scholarship' exam was upcoming and it was thought best that I not change schools until after the exams so I had to move in with my grand parents who also lived in Slough and re-joined the family at Easter.

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