Memories are made of this

Bert Childs I was born in Mill Road Welling borough in 1911.
My dad was a builder and my mother a housewife. We moved to Finedon in 1921 and we lived in Welling borough Road (where Buds and Blooms are now) I learnt the apprenticeship skills of building and my pay was five shillings for the first two years of apprenticeship. I then spent two years as an improver and my pay increased by two shillings. I left school at fourteen and qualified when I was twenty. I had to pay for my own clothes with the money I earned. I went to Welling borough Technical College three nights a week after working during the day and studied building quantities, general building and Math’s.

Building of houses in Hawthorne Road- had to go to Leicester to fetch rest of bricks(due to General Strike) L-R Ike Skelham, (labourer) Ernie Ireson, apprentice,Frank Whiteman, Sid Mallard, (foreman) Walt Mason, from Burton, Billie Dickens, Bert Childs in front apprentice

We had a gang of builders in Welling borough Road on land (where Minney’s shoe factory had stood.) The factory was burnt down when I was about seventeen.

There used to be six butchers here and I think that Shelton’s had two butchers. They also owned a slaughterhouse in Regent Street.
I recall that Stanley the postman lived at Lime Tree End. I think that they had bought Finedon Hall as an Ecclesiastic retired parson’s retreat. It stood empty and deteriorating for years.

Finedon Hall
Inner courtyard with workshops and laboratories
The scientific technical centre was founded by General De Gaulle to undertake tropical research work such as the cure of diseases, exploitation of natural resources by the natives etc.

Initially the centre was only open to disabled soldiers of the allied armies who wished to learn a new trade. Boys were also being admitted in order to be trained with the wounded soldiers to assist in the work of reconstruction after the war. There was a large scientific library as well as workshops and laboratories fitted up with every thing necessary for research work and the training of apprentices.
Directors, teachers, apprentices boys and disabled soldiers of every nationality and class form one big family, whose dominating feature is an atmosphere of liberty, good-will and friendship.

Elm Grange Farm
War time Memories I remember making black out frames when Chamberlain declared war Sept 1939 .We used packing case lining and we put heavy lined curtains at the windows. We used to have air raid wardens walking round telling you off if you smoked a cigarette in the street. I was first stationed at Inverness; Lord Lovett’s castle and was in the Royal Engineers. I worked at Liverpool Dock directing the cargo as to where it should go; this was in our training days.
I remember June 8th D day too and the landing of Infantry Craft from Newhaven where we were stationed waiting for the invasion. At Aramandius, where the Mulberry Harbour was, we were forced to wade up to our necks and onto the shore. We then had to walk for several kilometers through sectioned off tapes where land had already been checked for bombs. When we eventually got to camp we had to make our own billets whilst our clothes dried on us.
I was then in a party that went on to Rotterdam. We were at Brussels when four thousand eight hundred flying bombs were dropped and I dived when the billets were blasted; there was glass everywhere.