Wartime Shackleford

A Memory of Shackleford.

The gentleman in this photo is my grandfather Mr James William Arthur Reffold late of the Pump house that lays to his left behind the shop.the horses name is Jimmy he was a large ginger horse.
I lived in Shackleford through the war with my mother sister and brother my father being away in the army we lived in the last house on the road that lead to the bypass we went to Shackleford school if the army was not using it.
All around Shackleford the army was billeted waiting for the big invasion on France ,we walked to school past tanks guns and trucks that is where i saw my first black man ,we went around the back of a truck and he was sitting there ,we all ran away.
One day we were coming home from school when a twin engine plane crashed in to the top of a tree ,my sister found a boot with a leg in it ,that was part of life.
Only one bomb was dropped in shackleford that i can remember that was in the field behind the cider house go to the top of the hill out of Shackleford were the road splits, look down towards the cider house ,it was about half way cider house made a big hole in the field we used to slide down it until the farmer filled it with rubbish ,opposite the pub in the field there was a prisoner of war camp it had Italians first
they worked in the fields with big round red and orange disks on their backs,then came the Germans.We had many a dog fight over us ,a few bombers cruised in the fields, one v1( doodlebug) its engine stopped over us we laid on a bank but never heard any bang so we went home, the home guard was a force they had pick-axe handles and threw brown paper bags full of chalk at each other for hand grenades ,made more mess then the Germans ,very much like Dads army