"I spent 16 hours in a pantry sheltering from Sheffield Blitz bombs"

The following was a familiar story repeated every time my family had a gathering over the years - and this is what I remember being told.

I was born on November 29 1940 at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

The sirens had sounded as my mum, Minnie Barsby went into labour.

So it was decided to take her to the delivery room instead of going through the usual routine of putting all patients under their beds. She was having contractions in the lift amidst all the hustle and bustle but I was eventually safely delivered.

When my mum’s sister, Amelia Bond came to visit her, she persuaded her not to go home to her house in Normanton Street, Pitsmoor where she would be on her own but to bring her baby daughter to Stothard Road.

Here Amelia lived with her husband, Walter who was away in the forces, her daughter, Barbara aged 17 months, her niece, Kathleen aged 5, her invalid

mother, Ethel Roberts and her brother, William who was an air raid warden.

So on the afternoon of Thursday, December 12 the ambulance brought my mum and I to 16 Stothard Road, Crookes.

A nurse called to check that we were alright and then Amelia prepared some finnan haddock for tea. As she served it out at 6.15, the sirens went.

Amelia and Minnie had to get their mum, who was a very large lady in a wheel chair plus two children and a babe in arms out through the kitchen to the

Hansen shelter in the garden.

With the noise of the sirens and the planes overhead increasing, they decided they would not make it in time so instead they went into the pantry under the stairs which led out of the kitchen.

They somehow managed to squash into the small, awkward space. Grandma Roberts was lowered onto a ‘Bluebird Toffees ‘ tin in which there was a cake for tea – a birthday cake to mark Kathleen’s sixth birthday which happened to be that day!

The tin remained in the family, slightly dented, for many years and was put back into use as a cake tin.

The little group were to remain trapped in there for sixteen hours!

During that time Amelia reached up onto the shelves to find some food and a drink for them all and Kathleen was directed to wee where she was sitting!

Meanwhile my mum reached for a bottle to feed me. The next day she realised that the bottle was covered in soot!

It must have been a terrifying night with the sound of the planes overhead and explosions and bangs in the street. A bomb exploded just across from them at the bottom of Stothard Road and another one down Springvale Road.

They heard glass smashing and loud thuds in the house and frightening noises on the stairs overhead. Grandma Roberts was certain that a plane had actually landed on the roof.

They were worried about William who was on air- raid duty in the city centre and about Walter who was due home on leave that night.

The next morning they found they could not open the pantry door.

They were trapped!

Eventually, they heard people moving about and they shouted for help. A neighbour in the same yard, George Beal heard them and he removed the items which had fallen against the door .

Were they glad to see him?!

What a sight awaited them. Kathleen still recalls that everything was thrown about in the house. The windows were blown in. The settee had been hoisted through the window into the street.

Chairs etcetera were tipped over and thrown about. Everything was covered in soot including the row of nappies hung drying above the fire. Items from upstairs littered the staircase and Grandma Roberts thought that there was some twisted wire from a German plane but that turned out to be her knitting.

The most amazing spectacle was a row of jugs on a kitchen shelf. They were balancing on the edge of their bases.

With the help of the neighbours , Amelia boarded up the windows and made the house as safe as she could. She pinned a note on the door of the outside toilet for William and Walter to say where we were going. We then went to Wesley Hall which had been opened up as a rescue centre and where they were serving cups of tea.

Next they had to find somewhere to stay. With Grandma Roberts in a wheelchair nursing Barbara and Kathleen on her knee and with Minnie carrying

her baby they set off.

My mum and I went to my grandad’s in Stannington View Road . Amelia, Grandma Roberts , Kathleen and Barbara went to Amelia’s in laws in Harcourt Road manoeuvering with some difficulty over piles of rubble as they went.

The nurse who had visited us just before tea was not so lucky. She was killed on her way home.

My dad, Eddie was stationed at Kelso in Scotland and he was given compassionate leave to come home. He eventually took my mum and I back to

Kelso and a kind family, the Kennedys, took us in as evacuees - putting me into an empty drawer for a cot !

But that is not the end of the story.

My parents’ house on Normanton Street in Pitsmoor received a direct hit on that Thursday evening and again on the Sunday, December 15 .

They did not salvage a single item.

Sheffield Blitz December 12 and December 15 1940 660 were killed 1,500 were seriously injured 40,000 were made homeless 3,000 homes and shops were demolished 78,000 homes received damage