Newport Stories:
Tadpoles & Wellies

Les Knight was nine years old when war was declared in September 1939. He remembers with pleasure playing on the overgrown redundant Newport Potteries site off Corporation Road which would soon be transformed into the Royal Ordnance Factory.
This is his story.

"Whilst returning to memories for enjoyment and expression one also experiences both elements of happiness and sadness. The first decade of my life began in 1930 and ended with the start of the conflict with Germany although the latter meant little to me at the time. Through newspapers, the wireless and the cinema I became aware that conflict between far-flung nations was not uncommon. There was the Sino-Japanese War (1931) and then the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). At home our own difficulties with Eire were increasing. These were perhaps indicators of worse things to come.

The joy of family life

My very happy life up to the age of ten was unsurpassed. The joy of family life was made complete by my mother always being at home providing comfort and support after school. This is something almost unheard of to-day. School offered you challenge and you wondered if you could absorb it all by the end of the week for the weekly class test, or even whether it would get absorbed at all. Only time would tell.

As a teenager, I must admit, I grew up rapidly. The first year of the war time was spent playing war games and we were, without doubt, going to beat the Germans. Despite the newsreel footage in the cinema where the story was gloomy we knew, as children, it was going to be quite different. How and when was not the question, we only knew the answer. Living daily with the prospect that invasion was imminent and the suffering that others faced was something that had to be overcome.

During 1941 we had felt the hardship of air raids, death of school friends, the destruction of property and the ever increasing awareness of the military presence. Who can recall the barrage balloon sited on the top of Beechwood Park and the large area around being ploughed up to plant potatoes that put paid to our football?

The soldiers attracted the girls

A large army searchlight had been placed in Purnall’s farm across the road. This attracted us lads but the soldiers attracted the girls. German aircraft flew regularly over Newport although not much damage had taken place. However one night in June a German bomber jettisoned four sea mines in order to escape the RAF fighters from St. Athan. Many families were killed and my class mate, Eddie Gilbert from Eveswell Street, was also killed. Only his brother and sister survived that fatal night.

Masses of tadpoles

I can recall the construction of the Royal Ordnance Factory off Corporation Road. It was situated on the old Newport Potteries site that had originally been used to manufacture pottery and china. The building of this factory destroyed our childhood playground. For it was here that at a certain time in the year I was off on Saturdays, wearing black ‘wellies’ and equipped with an empty jam jar and a fishing net (if you were lucky to have one), to collect the masses of tadpoles that suddenly appeared in the smelly ponds on the site. I had instructions from my mother not to get dirty and to mind my clothes. Monday was just two days away and I didn’t have anything more suitable than the clothes I was wearing to go back to school. You certainly couldn’t wear your Sunday best because that was for Church only. However instructions to keep clean fell on deaf ears and bed without your tea or supper was a dear price to pay for a jar of tadpoles.

Soho Street

As time went by ‘Soho Street’, as it became known, (the way under the railway to get to the ponds), became a gathering place for the collection of engine numbers and other things. Living in Maindee was a great experience and I don’t think those memories will ever leave me.

Rumour was widespread

Rumour was widespread but we eventually discovered that the guns produced there had to be tested for quality and firing them into this tall tower-like structure was how they did it....simple eh? This became another moment of war time life which we got so used to that I think, with hindsight, half the time you forgot they were being tested.

As I write this I can still recall going out with my father on his Civil Defence duties, patrolling the streets, observing enemy aircraft. I remember standing in Tennyson Road watching the night skies when Cardiff was being blitzed.

These are only some of my early war time experiences. Maybe I should write more, but that‘s for another time."

- Les Knight, January 2006

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