Video of 1940s Swansea.

Jayne  and I went to visit the 1940s Swansea Bay Exhibition. While there we had a great deal of fun looking at all the exhibitions and trying to imagine what it was like to live in that time era. I found it hard to imagine what it was like to be stuck in an air-raid shelter for possibly hours in a small, dark confined place. I was shocked about the food rationing and the small amount of food that was available every week. But even these days most people work to a budget and have to learn how to economise.

Here is the video that we made of the trip.

Entertainment during the War

Here is a popular dance song played during the war and people would dance to this type of music.

Download: uc?id=0B__xwQGDUJTtNjEwNWFjYTUtYTQwZS00NmQ2LTlkNzctZjEzZjI4MTQxYTE1&export=download&hl=en

During the second world war, people listened to the radio much more than today, and music was one of the major sorces of entertainment, people  also listened to live music and would go dancing. The ‘Jitterbug’ dance was very popular and the ‘place’ the go to dance, was the Patti Pavilion in Swansea. No alcohol was served just ‘tea’ and people would dance the night away on the ‘sprung’  wooden dance floor at the Patti. The women would put gravy browning on their legs as they couldnt get nylon stockings and draw a line up the back with an eye pencil to pretend they had stockings on. They would put their swirly skirts on and Jitterbug or slow dance to  a live band.

Some of the favourite dance songs of the moment were:

• In the mood by Glen Miller
• The South American Way by The Andrews Sisters
• Other big band music

Music courtesy of V1Corps

Copyrights:
The music is public domain.

3 Nights Blitz

Short video of 3 Nights Blitz, showing how people lived and survived during the hardship of the war.

It’s hard to imagine what was going through people’s minds as they went about their daily lives: i.e will they still have their homes intact and jobs to go to.

Although this video is good, it does not mention the destruction of Swansea.

Memories of the War

My mother always spoke about the Second World War with fear.  She told me that many, many times she would be woken from her bed at nightime and told to quickly get up and to go down to the air-raid shelter in the back-garden. Sometimes it was too late and the bombs started to fall so they hid under the stairs in panic. She dreaded the sound of the air-raid siren and it would terrify her and make her panic. She would sit in the air-raid shelter and put her head down and pray that the bombing would stop soon. When it did eventually did stop bombing the bombsites in her neighbourhood would become her playground, and her brothers and sister would investigate what damage had occurred the night before and climb up on to bombed buildings and play games.

 

word cloud courtesy of Wordle

1940s Swansea Bay

This place is based just off Fabian Way and reconstructs what it was like in Swansea during the Second World  War.

There are displays of actual material and short films showing what life was like for civilians during the war. You can follow the course of the bombers in the RAF Plotting Room before taking cover in an air-raid shelter.

When the all clear sounds you can walk down a reconstructed street, past houses, shops and into the corner pub. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like during that time and how we could have survived on the typical rations and restrictions of life.

Below is a video of one of the demonstrations that they display

If you want to visit have a look for details on their website.

Destruction of 1941 Swansea

For 3 nights in February 1941, Swansea was under a continuous flame of  death and destruction due to the 2nd World War, the city centre being the worst hit.

Below is a map to show some of the worst areas

View Larger Map

 

 

Rationing during the second world war

During the war food was in short supply and rationed by the government. Everyone in the country had to be extremely resourceful and make meals out of what they were given. Most people cooked and frozen convenience meals were unheard of!!! People cooked meals from scratch and used fresh vegetables from their gardens as the government told them to ‘dig for victory’. Everyday basic foods were rationed and you needed a ration card to go to the corner shop to buy your food. Meat, cheese, sugar, tea and other foods were in short supply.

In addition to information on the graph households were also allowed to have 1800ml of milk every week and meat up to the value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (6 pence in today’s money)

Information from Woodlands Junior School

Clothing Coupons

Clothes rationing began in 1941 due to being unable to import clothing and our factories were being used to produce uniforms.

Everybody was issued with a ration book. Each page of coupons was a different colour and you were told to use one colour at a time,you were also told when you could use the next colour. There were sixty-six coupons per year,which as the war progressed was reduced to forty-eight coupons per year.

You used a mixture of money and coupons to buy clothes which didn’t go very far  as,  for example , a women’s dress cost you eleven coupons. Noted designers created hard-wearing garments which used a minimum amount of material. They all carried the cc41 trademark.

Photo from Swansea Heritage Net

Anderson Shelter

This type of shelter was named after the Home Secretary Sir John Anderson. It was made out of galvanised corrugated steel and constructed in a four foot deep hole in the garden.

Once built the shelter was six foot high, four foot six inches wide and six foot six inches long and covered by fifteen inches of soil on the roof. The shelter could accomodate between four and six people.

Those people on low incomes were not charged for them, but those on a higher income were charged £7.

Photo from Swansea Heritage Net.

 

 

 

 

 

Through a child’s eyes

As a child growing up, my mum and dad talked about their experiences during the air-raids of Swansea.

When the sirens started they used to go to a shelter at the bottom of the street and put on ‘Mickey Mouse’ gas masks.  My grand father had the job of warden, going to everybody’s house in the street telling them to go to the shelter.

This is a quote from a child growing up during the Blitz:

“We could see the flames in the sky and knew that Swansea was being bombed”

Quote from news article

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