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Title WARTIME MEMORIES OF SONIA WATERTON (FORMERLY SULLY)

Description
I did not arrive in Hemel Hempstead until Easter 1944, so missed all but one of the daytime air raids, which necessitated the use of the shelter at the girls? end of the building. The former undercover cycle parking area had been made into a large surface shelter by the building of thick brick walls blocking the original open access. Inside, the space was divided into bays to accommodate forms by dividing bays piers with sandbags.
I presume some bench type seating but don?t remember exactly what we sat on. By then we habitually carted our gasmasks about with our satchels or cases. The original gasmask boxes, by then superseded by pouch like wallets with a carrying strap.
I may have missed the experience of lessons being conducted in the shelter, but, until I left years after the war ended, I did derive some personal benefit from the blast walls. A constant cause of annoyance to me was the staff?s tendency to harass me out of the cloakrooms before I was ready and lock the door. I developed a ploy to defy their authority. I would hide behind a coat on a peg, by crouching on the lockers. Undetected by the cursory inspection of the member of staff, I was locked in. When I was ready to leave, I climbed through the window onto the flat parapetted roof of the girls? toilet block. From there it was an easy route to the ground, using the blast wall adjacent to the entrance to the block, by supporting my weight with a hand on either side of the narrow entrance. I hope that after 60 years, there is an amnesty for my crime. I was never caught!

School milk
The distribution of school milk in the Grammar School was more casual than the round the class handing out experienced at junior school. Unadvertised, two or three crates of bottles were left on the table next to the kitchen hatch, in the back corridor behind the stage. Very few found their way there to drink the milk. I can never remember more than three of us. Regularly, I knocked back three bottles, making one pint. A fine and nutritious supplement to the war time diet.

Keywords air raid shelter

Collection Hemel Hempstead School

Place Hemel Hempstead

Year 1944 - 1949

Conflict World War Two

File type html

Record ID number 148

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Title	WARTIME MEMORIES OF SONIA WATERTON (FORMERLY SULLY)
Description	I did not arrive in Hemel Hempstead until Easter 1944, so missed all but one of the daytime air raids, which necessitated the use of the shelter at the girls? end of the building. The former undercover cycle parking area had been made into a large surface shelter by the building of thick brick walls blocking the original open access. Inside, the space was divided into bays to accommodate forms by dividing bays piers with sandbags. I presume some bench type seating but don?t remember exactly what we sat on. By then we habitually carted our gasmasks about with our satchels or cases. The original gasmask boxes, by then superseded by pouch like wallets with a carrying strap. I may have missed the experience of lessons being conducted in the shelter, but, until I left years after the war ended, I did derive some personal benefit from the blast walls. A constant cause of annoyance to me was the staff?s tendency to harass me out of the cloakrooms before I was ready and lock the door. I developed a ploy to defy their authority. I would hide behind a coat on a peg, by crouching on the lockers. Undetected by the cursory inspection of the member of staff, I was locked in. When I was ready to leave, I climbed through the window onto the flat parapetted roof of the girls? toilet block. From there it was an easy route to the ground, using the blast wall adjacent to the entrance to the block, by supporting my weight with a hand on either side of the narrow entrance. I hope that after 60 years, there is an amnesty for my crime. I was never caught! School milk The distribution of school milk in the Grammar School was more casual than the round the class handing out experienced at junior school. Unadvertised, two or three crates of bottles were left on the table next to the kitchen hatch, in the back corridor behind the stage. Very few found their way there to drink the milk. I can never remember more than three of us. Regularly, I knocked back three bottles, making one pint. A fine and nutritious supplement to the war time diet.
Keywords	air raid shelter
Collection	Hemel Hempstead School
Place	Hemel Hempstead
Year	1944 - 1949
Conflict	World War Two
File type	html
Record ID number	148