Today we continued with our HISTORICAL ENQUIRY.
It was a bit of relief after a morning of assessments!

For our enquiry we used a range of historical sources, including Mr and Mrs Williams.

Yesterday we generated some questions to ask to help with our enquiry and this afternoon we quizzed Mr and Mrs Williams about their experiences before and during the war

We discovered that before the war, food fresh food was quite plentiful, but once the war began things changed. Fresh meat was substituted by tinned meat such as Spam and Corned Beef. Fresh milk and eggs were rare and families used dried dairy products. Mrs Williams described how in 1942 a boy in her class brought in a banana. It was the first time anyone in her school had seen one, and the headmaster called a special assembly to show it off!

Before the war Mr Williams had toys made of tin and other metals. Once the war started, metals were used for making ammunition etc, so most toys were made of wood.

Mr Williams also described the effects on families when fathers went to war and mothers went out to work for the first time.

Mrs Williams talked about having evacuees in her home. Before the war she had a bedroom to herself, but when her family gave shelter to two evacuees from London, she had to share a room with her elder brother.

Mr Williams described how before the war there were many Italians living in the Rhondda running cafes and ice-cream parlours. When the war began many Italian men were interned (put in prison) and deported (sent out of the country). He told us how his godfather, an Italian, was deported and died when his boat was torpedoed.

Both talked about air-raid shelters, hiding in the cellars of their schools or under tables when the sirens went off.

Mrs Williams said it was a terrifying time in which to live, especially when some German prisoners escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Bridgend.

Mr Williams said it was quite exciting watching planes 'dogfight.'

They brought in some artifacts for us to look at from before and during the war.

These are sets of coins from the 1930s and the1940s.

One of these records dates from 1933, while the other was made in 1942. The earlier record is much thicker and heavier. As plastic was needed for the war effort, records became flimsier in the 1940s

These are all newspapers from before the war.

They contain cartoons, advertisements and celebrity gossip.

We looked at one wartime paper (which Mrs Davies forgot to photograph!) and of course it was concerned with more serious issues.