Amongst the stories featured in the archive are a number of memories relating to Spondon and from Spondon residents, including regular Spondon Online message board contributors Ken Porter and Bill Slater.
We've picked out the best of the Spondon stories and you can read them on the BBC website via the links below:
498 HAA(M) Bty. Royal Artillery
In 1941 the town of Derby was defended by several AA batteries including Allestree, Littleover and Thulston. Three more were in Spondon...
by Ken Porter
A Spondon teenager in 1939
In August 1939 I began work as an office boy at Rolls Royce Ltd. Nightingale Road, Derby. Other members of our Spondon gang already worked at Rolls Royce and other local factories...
by Ken Porter
My Own War
War preparations began early in 1939, including a distribution of gas-masks at The Old Farm on Church Hill to all Spondonians...
by Ken Porter
A Young Girl's Story from Chaddesden
My mother, Annie Grace Hulland Glass was a child of 11 when the war started. She wrote the following recollections of her childhood...
by Slaterlk
War Memories
On visits to see my Grandmother at Spondon, I can remember seeing search lights and guns at the side of the road. Also along the Derby ByPass - Raynesway there were lots of military vehicles parked...
by D E Smith
Jolly Good Company
By 1943, four Italian Prisoners of War were working on a farm on a private estate in our village. Two were Protestant and two were Roman Catholic...
by G M Miller
Frank Walker-Smith: Battle of Britain Hero
It was a baptism of fire for Spondon Pilot Officer Frank Walter-Smith when he took off with 85 Squadron on 18 August 1940...
by Bill Slater
Frank Walker-Smith and 85 Sqdn
I was an ATC cadet in 2069 Sqdn in Spondon, Derbyshire and had met Frank Walker-Smith
by Bill Slater
A Wedding on a Shoestring and Desparate to Help
In June 1945 I was twenty years old and my sister was twenty-two years old. She had been engaged for a few months and suddenly decided to be married in six weeks time at our local church...
by Anita Hughes
'Unnecessary Suffering' and 'Very Nervous' Father was in the A.R.P (air-raid precaution) and was a Warden. He was on duty as soon as the siren sounded and would put on his special navy woollen trousers, jacket and beret with a badge and an armband...
by Derby CSV
The Shock
We would be seventeen years in 1942 when my friend and I, with other Air Rangers (Girl Guides) attended a special evening meeting in our local school for young women of our age...
by Joyce Wright
DErbyshire: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1126/
You can read more about the history of Spondon with our other features:
