AUDREY Riddle will never forget the events of one Sunday morning in Southampton more than 60 years ago.

The date was November 1940 and Audrey, together with a friend, headed into the centre of Southampton after one of the heaviest bombing raids of the Second World War.

"We were going to see if our places of work had survived,'' said Audrey, who then worked at Edwin Jones (now Debenhams) while her friend was at Plummer Roddis, two of the largest department stores in the town.

"I remember clambering over the fire service hose pipes that were everywhere and piles of rubble. Plummer's had gone but Edwin Jones was still there. That was short-lived as the following night the bombers returned. Anything that had survived then went in the second raid.

"Next day I was cycling along Palmerston Road when a woman stopped me and said: 'For God's sake, go home! A shelter has received a direct hit and Edwin Jones has gone.'

"I can remember there was a dog-fight taking place overhead at the time so I quickly went to a nearby shelter.''

Audrey was then living with her parents, Ethel and Perc Butt in Osborne Road, Portswood. She attended a local commercial school which stood on the site of the former Cotswold Hotel before joining the railways to work in the offices at Eastleigh, where she stayed for 19 years.

"My uncle Leslie Found was conscripted into the National Fire Service in Southampton and was based at the Wadham's garage at Stag Gates,'' said Audrey, who also worked in the Civic Centre's social services department for 20 years.

"He fought the blaze at the Cold Store in the docks which burnt for several days, and many people will remember it because of the awful smell.

"My uncle, who used to play the tuba in the Albion Silver Band, came home from the blaze and I remember opening the back door and seeing him standing there with his face all black with smoke and streaked with water.

"My mother prepared a meal for him but he was so tired he just put his head on his arms and went to sleep at the table.''