By Joan Jones resident of Llanafan, Ceredigion:

"My name is Joan, I was born near Poole, Dorset in 1926; I was the second child in a family of seven children. I had a happy childhood as the family lived near the Chines Beaches and Parks. Before the Second World War my father was a Boatman on the big lake, so we, the children had boat rides and even steamer rides to Swanage and Weymouth during the Summer Season.

Even though it was a one and half mile walk to church for Sunday school, I was a regular attendant, calling at my aunt's house on the way home, it was here in September 1939 about 11am, that my sister and I heard the voice of Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister announcing on the radio, that war had been declared on Germany. We were terrified and ran all the way home.

I left school in March 1940, just fourteen years old, and went into a dressmaking and alterations shop. Little did I know that the excellent training would come in so useful during the long years of clothing coupons, when the ability to make something from nothing would be such an asset.

When this job finished in 1941, I was aged fifteen years and worked for a Chemist's wife helping in the shop and doing various chores. Unfortunately on my sixteenth birthday this job came to an end, as my wages should have been raised from ten shillings to twelve shillings per week. The Chemist could not afford the extra pay. After that blow, my life changed drastically."