Home From Home

My mother was born in Cheetham Hill but my father was born in Russia and came over as a small child in the 1890's. I don't know why they choose Manchester I suspect they may have been attempting to get to America because they had relations in America. Perhaps the journey was too long for them and once they arrived in England they didn't want to travel any further. On my mothers side my grandfather came from Baden Baden in Germany it was a very famous spa town and they came here in the 1850's. My mother's parents were a family of watchmakers and jewellers by trade. They lived on Cheetham Hill Road, almost opposite Cheetham Town Hall and the Cheetham Assembly Rooms. Cheetham Hill Road used to be called York Street, but the name was changed. They lived at what became 144 Cheetham Hill Road and the house is still there.

My father was a tailor and my mother stayed at home and looked after the family. I was born in Broom Avenue in Salford. Broom Avenue was made up of semi-detached houses. My aunt and uncle, the Blasberg's lived across the road with their son Eric, my cousin. Another uncle called Philip Meyer, was a bachelor and lived with them. The Mendelson's lived next door to us and as kids we all played in the Avenue. We played marbles and a game that involved flicking the fancy card disc's that we used to take out of the tops of milk bottles.

The first school I attended was Cheetham Methodist School on Thomas Street. There were a few other Jewish children who went there but not many. You see there simply wasn't a Jewish school in the area and this school was the closest one within walking distance to where I lived. I have very happy memories of the school.

... The air raid shelter was basically a square hole in the ground covered by corrugated iron sheets. We all had gas masks in little cardboard boxes with a piece of string so that you could carry it over your shoulders. The boxes weren't very strong and my mum made better one's out of bits of cloth. ...

From Cheetham Methodist School I attended a school in Congleton because war was declared and we were evacuated. Whilst in Congleton I stayed with a family on a farm and I have fond memories of those days. I was there for several months. I collected eggs, milked the cows, churned butter the hard way and generally helped out around the farm. Living on the farm instilled in me a love of animals, which has stayed with me. Later on in life this love of animals inspired me to go on a camera safari in East Africa and write a book about the National Parks and the animals I saw there. The farm was quite close to the Macclesfield canal and I remember taking my sketch book to the canal and drawing the bridges. In fact I still have that sketch book. I am still in touch with that family today. I spent a few months there and I returned home just in time for the Manchester Blitz!

We were evacuated once again but this time to Blackpool. My uncle had a house in Warley Road and so my brother my mother and myself went to stay there. Blackpool was still quite a busy holiday town during the war. I remember they built the Lancaster bombers in what is now the main bus station in Blackpool. We played on the beach and on the piers. The piers had gaps in them so you weren't able to walk their full length. Of course there were no illuminations during the war. I can remember walking along the promenade on a particularly stormy evening with my friend. We would dare each other to dodge the breakers and I can distinctly remember returning home absolutely dripping wet. Before the end of the war we returned to Broom Avenue Salford.

On our return to I remember having to go to the air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden in the middle of the night. It was always very cold in the shelter especially in winter. So I used to wear a siren suit. Winston Churchill started the fashion for siren suits. The suits were like large baby grows made from a heavy material and it kept you warm in the cold shelters. I would leap out of bed at the sound of a siren and jump into my suit and hurry to the shelter. In the shelter we had a record player which had to be wound up by hand. We used to play records. I clearly remember the records by Flanagan & Allen entitled 'Umbrella Man' and 'Underneath the Arches'. The air raid shelter was basically a square hole in the ground covered by corrugated iron sheets. We all had gas masks in little cardboard boxes with a piece of string so that you could carry it over your shoulders. The boxes weren't very strong and my mum made better one's out of bits of cloth. My Uncle Philip has always had a loft of racing pigeons and during the war he bred carrier pigeons for the Army and the R.A.F.

During the war we grew a lot of our own food such as potatoes and lettuce. We had a greenhouse in which we grew our tomatoes, cucumbers and raspberries in the summer. We used to go shopping on Leicester Road we would go to Classic's, the grocers, which is now Marshes Paper Merchants. Mrs Classic used to give me tiny packets of chocolate raisins. We also shopped at Brackmans Bakery and Halberstadts the butchers.

A photograph of a Victory party, Sunday 19th August, 1945, Maude Street, Hightown. Catalogue Reference: (MJM) PD732/14

I was a member of the Cub Scouts during the war and I remember going out after a particularly heavy night of bombing and collecting shrapnel with my friends. We would take our bits of shrapnel to our Cub Scout leader. Half way down Broom Avenue where I lived was a barrage balloon site and we would collect shrapnel there. You see it was scrap iron and it was all part of the war effort. I remember burning my fingers pretty badly after picking up a hot bit of shrapnel. At the end of the war we had street parties to celebrate VE and VJ day. We had a VE party in Broom Avenue but the one I remember the most was a street party in Japan Street, which is just off Tetlow Lane. It made the headline news. Nobody wanted to be associated with living in a street called Japan Street because Britain was still at war with Japan at the time. So the residents of the street petitioned Manchester Council to have the street name changed to China Street. Their request was not granted and a VE street party went ahead anyway. It is still called Japan Street to this day. This story was contributed by a volunteer at Manchester Jewish Museum as part of a project in collaboration with Moving Here. All the stories collected are available in a booklet from the Manchester Jewish Museum.