Instalment 4
The buildings that were occupied were as follows:- From the gate the road went straight ahead for a 100 yds. or so before going downhill, as stated earlier, the path to our home was on the right At the bottom of the slope there was an entrance to a field on the left, with a cottage style building just inside, occupied by Mr and Mrs Fenn, then later, Mr and Mrs Smith. The road then turns to the right and levels off. After about another 100 yds. or so there was an opening in the hillside, on the right, with a Nissan Hut, Mr and Mrs Barr. A little further on the left, was a flat roofed building, the concrete base is still there, the openings to the soil pipes show were the toilets were, Mr and Mrs Drabble, with their children, George, Leslie, Evelyn and Barbara. A little further on, on the right, just a little way up the slope, was another cottage. Mr and Mrs Williams. Continuing onward the road divides, with a mound in the centre, another cottage on the top, Mr and Mrs Wright. Bear right up a slight incline, at the top of which is a large concrete area on the right, where some Nissan Storage Huts used to be. Opposite on the left is a large
mound, probably from the spoil when the area for the Nissan Huts was excavated. The purpose of the mound was to hide the area from being observed from the sea. Onward ’till the road turns left, on the right hand side was a small flat roofed bunker type building occupied by Mr and Mrs Sutcliffe and children, their names escape me. A path continued past this building to a larger house, Mr and Mrs Smith and Peter. Continuing along the path leads to a road, going up towards the end of the site, another building on the right, Mr and Mrs Williams, brother to the other Williams earlier. Returning back down the hill until the road on the left, leading down from the mound earlier, another cottage, Mr and Mrs Hughes.
The clamour for transport to school was increasing. So my father borrowed my grandfathers car, as no one else had a car, and he clocked the distance from Lloyd St. School to the furthest family on the site, which just gave the qualifying distance for free transport. So after some disagreement the council finally agreed and from then on we had a Taxi to and from school. This service was provided by Barlow’s Taxis from Queens Rd. Craig y Don, who had a fleet of Austin eights of pre war vintage. ( I think that was the model ) Big black saloon cars with chrome bumpers and large Headlights and bulbous wings.
A while later as all the suitable buildings on the site were occupied, some families started to occupy the buildings of the Radar site, up the concrete road near the Rest and be Thankful Café, on the Marine Drive, so the Taxi would pick us up on the Gunsite and then drive up to the Radar site to pick up the children from there
One morning on the way back down the Marine Drive, we were confronted by a large Ram standing in the middle of the road, the taxi driver slowed down and sounded his horn, but the Ram refused to move, so the driver crept forward slowly towards the beast. We thought afterwards that he saw his reflection in the shiny wing of the Taxi, because he suddenly charged. BANG, straight into the offside wing. He staggered back knees buckling under him, shaking his head from side to side going Bbaaaaaaaa Bbaaaaaa baaaaaaa, before slowly staggering off. The dent in the wing had to be seen to be believed. It’s one of the funniest thing I’ve seen. We were still laughing when we got to school.
The site caretaker had a dispute with some of the residents,( because that’s what we were, having been given Rent Books, 8s and 6p/wk. rent, they’d given up trying to evict us.) about being late opening the gate in the morning. Alongside the Gate there was a Sentry box, which also contained the main switch for the electricity supply, to get his own back the caretaker turned off the supply to the site. I’m not really sure what happened but some of the residents worked for MANWEB, the electricity board, anyway the supply mysteriously by-passed the Sentry box, control box, we had no further trouble.
Apart from one of the residents, a man was sent round to read the electricity meters, when this particular meter showed that none had been used, the resident explained that he’d been away. The explanation accepted, the meter reader left. The next quarter, the same thing happened again, this time he said he’d been called to work away on an urgent job, so hadn’t used any electric. Again the meter reader left, but suspicions aroused. A week or so later an Inspector arrived after dark, to find every light on and
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electric fires in every room. Further investigation revealed the tenant had by-passed the Electric Meter. He subsequently went to Court and was never seen again.