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The Home Front
10 St James's Place, Chorley, Lancs, PR6 0AG

Tel:- 01257 410297
Email:- thehomefront@blueyonder.co.uk
child with father during the war
Home Life
Homes

The Bleasdale Family The type of house people lived in varied a great deal. Some had inside lavatories, running water and electricity, others had just paraffin lamps and a long walk down the garden to the outside "lavvy". Many people had pail toilets which had to be emptied once a week and were shared between several households. Much better were outside water toilets and some people even had inside toilets. Po's or potties were used over night and quite often the contents thrown down the sink in the morning.

Kitchen floors were either flagged, quarry tiled or covered with linoleum, coconut matting or peg rugs. Rooms were very often shared with either siblings or an aunt and sometimes children would sleep 3 or 4 to a bed.

Most people did not have washing machines and clothes were still boiled, mangled and ironed just as they were in Victorian times. Irons were either gas or coal irons which could be filled with hot coals from the fire.
Jack Hargreaves
People

There were Italian prisoners of war interned at Chorley and they received extra cheese rations! We don't know why this was but they did work in the quarries.

There were also lots of Americans (Yanks) stationed in the area who provided local children with chewing gum "Got Any Gum Chum?". American families would also send food parcels to the area and these were doled out to local families.

"Evacuees - The only thing they brought with 'em were nits!"
Evacuees from Manchester, Liverpool, London, Poland and Germany stayed with families in the area, many forming life long friendships. Some described the new children as great, others did not get on so well. Some evacuees from the cities were from poor homes. Others found rural life too quiet and returned to the cities to face possible bombing.
Irene Catton and Evacuees

Irene Catton and Evacuees
Irene Catton's family had two evacuees staying with them.
One did not stay long.
Irene remains friends with the other girl to this day.
The Black Market
Everyone knew about the Black Market and rumour had it that items could be found at the Queens Hotel in Chorley. People travelled to Ireland to smuggle ham and other goods and items could be bought from people who worked at Liverpool docks.
Clothes
Most boys wore short pants until they were 15 with long socks, a vest, a shirt and clogs or boots. Girls were not seen in jeans or trousers and would wear a blouse and skirt. Many items of clothes were 'hand me downs' from older siblings or were made from pieces of material. One young girl remembers going to school with pieces of card in the bottom of her shoes to cover the holes. Everyone had their Sunday best which was usually just one outfit.
Bleasdale Children
Illness
Some children's diets were good due to eating fresh food, but if you got something serious like scarlet fever, diphtheria or TB there were not the medicines that we have today so recovery was slow. Many children got measles, chicken pox and mumps, but there were not so many colds as there are today. Sun lamps were used to give extra sunlight as some diets were lacking in vitamins and minerals.