World War II Dances

This house, opposite the school, used to be The Plough pub. In 1936 the landlord was Mr Bertie Smith.

Mrs Sparrow: We had quite a lot of upset, there was a lot descended on the village. Of course we had the army and the Canadian radar unit, I mean, they were billeted among the houses in the village, so not only had we got the evacuees we’d got the radar Canadian unit at the top of the village; the army they did have their own camp but it seemed like a lot of people in the village at one time.

Interviewer: Did it make much difference to the social life of the girls in the village?

Mrs Sparrow: Very much, yes, yes. I was about 11, 12, we used to watch the older girls making eyes at the soldiers, the airmen. I was envied quite a bit because we had an airman staying next door at my grandmother’s house and he was a lovely chappie, and he used to take me and look after me at the village dances so I was quite honoured really, I’d got my own bodyguard. One or two of the soldiers married village girls and actually still live in the village, you know.

Interviewer: Did it cause much friction between the local boys?

Mrs Sparrow: A little bit, yes, because we had the village school was used at the weekend for dances, and if we didn’t get a fight it wasn’t a village dance. We hadn’t got a local constable then, he came from Markfield, and he used to enjoy a drink and if there was any trouble either in the pub or the dance hall he disappeared on his bike or he came and cheered them on. But it was just, there was a knife fight one night, I remember this in particular, in the toilets in the boy’s playground, there was a knife fight, you know.

Interviewer: Who was that between then, do you know?

Mrs Sparrow: The local lads and a Canadian airman actually, but no one really got injured, they were separated before it got too far, but I know knives were drawn and it got rather nasty, you know. But there was usually a punch up in the village when there was a village dance in any case.

Interviewer: Whether there were soldiers there or not?

Mrs Sparrow: Oh yes, there was a pub across the road so they used to go and get pretty tanked up in the pub and then come across to the village dance, you know. I mean, as kids I remember running round saying, ‘oh fight, there’s a fight’, you know, and there was more people outside in the playground than there were in the dance. It was good fun really. There didn’t seem to be the viciousness somehow that there’s now, it was a fight and that was it and it was all over.

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