Teenager who faced Bristol Blitz turns 100

A teenager who volunteered to be a fire watch during the Bristol Blitz has spoken about her experiences as she celebrated her 100th birthday.

Joyce Weaver was 15 when the Second World War broke out and only 16 when, during the spring winter of 1940-41, Bristol experienced 548 scares and 77 air raids which killed 1,299 people, seriously injuring about the same number and destroyed more than 80,000 houses.

For the teenage Joyce, this meant long nights armed with a bucket of water and a pump, trying to put out the incendiary bombs that the Luftwaffe rained down on her southern part of Bristol.

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She worked during the day in the Robinson paper bag factory, just off East Street in Bedminster – and now lives just around the corner at the St Monica Trust retirement village, off West Street – but on nights where Fascist planes bombing Bristol will long be remembered. .

“I remember arriving on Coronation Road on a bus early in the morning and all the platforms in Bristol were on fire,” she said. “Another time I was walking to work after a bomb had been dropped on the White Horse pub in the night and there was a tram on the roof.

The war brought a dramatic end to what she describes as a “very happy” childhood. She was born at home in Beauley Road in Southville – her father was a qualified engineer – and when she was four the family moved to what was then the village of Bishopsworth, where new developments in the 1930s finally integrated into Bristol.

She went to the new Cheddar Grove School in Bedminster Down and then Marksbury Road School in Bedminster, but admitted that she “wasn't a very good scholar” and struggled with geometry in particular – Only once did she score four points out of 40 on a geometry exam – much to the dismay of her engineer father.

But she said her childhood had been “very happy” and “we always seemed to have everything we wanted”.

After leaving school, she went to work for the Robinsons. The factory building is still there with the Robinsons' name at the top, although it has since been converted into apartments. She earned ten shillings for a long 48-hour working week. “It was five cents an hour, but I enjoyed it,” she said.

“My aunt was a foreman there and she always gave me all the dirty jobs. They installed new accounting machines when the company moved due to bomb damage and they asked me if I wanted to learn, so I did,” she added.

She met her husband Bert while babysitting her sister. He was a merchant seaman who took part in the Normandy landings, carrying supplies after D-Day to support the troops during their invasion of France.

After the war, the couple bought a home in Southville and raised three daughters there and remained there for 65 years. She lost Bert in 1980 and remained in her Southville home until age 90, when she moved to Monica Wills House.

His 100th birthday on June 2 was marked with a surprise birthday party attended by family, friends and staff at his West Street home.

“I never indulged in anything and just trotted along. I think it’s all in the genes and staying active,” she said. “My grandfather was 90 years old when he killed himself while cycling home from playing whist.

“Bert died in 1980 and since then I have been on my own. I only have one caregiver who comes twice a week and our girls are always so nice. Whoever comes in puts the vacuum cleaner on before going home. It's surprising that there are clumps left on the carpet! » she added.

Monica Wills Village Manager Claire Chambers said Joyce had been a much-loved member of the community for ten years.

“Joyce was one of the very first people to put her name down when the Monica Wills House was built and it's amazing to think that she can see her old house, where she went to school and where she worked from the balcony of her apartment,” she said.

“Joyce has been a much-loved part of our community for ten years and it was wonderful to be able to organize a surprise party in her honor and celebrate her long life with her many friends and colleagues at the St Monica Trust here at Monica. Wills House” , she added.