Hazel Watson interviewed by Alison Viney Houghton about growing up in England during the Second World War

Hazel Watson talks about her experiences as an adolescent growing up in England during the Second World War. These recordings were made for Alison Viney Houghton as part of her "The Age of Innocence 1937-1947" oral history project. The recordings covers subjects such as Hazel's family life in Penkhull near Stoke-on-Trent, England; family life; her brother Tony enlisting in the RAF; her sympathy for Jewish refugees; Walter Barouk and his family; rationing; the fear of the Staffordshire Potteries or steelworks being bombed; air raids in the Midlands; her family's anxiety about her brother while he was overseas and a POW; the effects of being a POW on her brother's mental and physical health; the British Restaurant; penfriends; housework; house railings being pulled out for metal salvage; her memories of the work done at the Potteries, and their preservation; the large population of Czechoslovakian workers from Teplice in the town. A transcript of this recording is available. For further information please contact the Sound section.