It was a Sunday. There was no panic, nor any great shock or surprise. Just a smooth implementation of contingency plans which had been developed over weeks, months, even years.

War found Shropshire prepared. So said the headline in a local newspaper at the time. It was actually true.

The writing had been on the wall for months. As the war clouds gathered threateningly, there had been exercises and drills.

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Together with these drills and the planning, the long lead-up to the outbreak of hostilities had led to a psychological preparedness. Many had accepted that war was inevitable long before it arrived.

So, superficially, for Salopians not much changed in everyday life when war was declared. But, at the same time, everything changed.

It has, of course, to be appreciated that nobody knew what was going to happen. The might of the German war machine with the blitzkrieg on Poland was yet to sink in.

Blitzkrieg and Blitz were soon to be familiar words.

The big fear was air raids. There was a belief that within days British towns and cities would suffer devastating bombing raids causing thousands of casualties. Hospitals were on standby.

It didn’t happen. In fact, the effect of air power was considerably overestimated.

Shrewsbury’s policemen and key workers started carrying steel helmets. There were ARP (Air Raid Precautions) wardens and first aid posts.

And the blackout was rigorously enforced, with fines for those who did not comply. Lights showing from the ground could help a German bomber navigate. Householders, shops, and businesses had to ensure that not a chink of light was showing. Putting up blackout curtains was a nightly inconvenience.

The blackout was to prove far more lethal than the Germans. There was an alarming increase in road accidents. Cars were only allowed sidelights and all street lights were turned off.

To help drivers, white lines were painted along the middle of the roads (this was a novelty for the time), and kerbs were also painted white. Nevertheless, there were so many deaths that after a while the regulations were eased somewhat.

A helpful innovation was headlight covers with horizontal slits, which meant that motorists were able to drive with dipped headlights.

Initially, there was no food rationing. Its planned introduction was delayed, allegedly partly as a result of a “no rationing” campaign by the Daily Express.

During August 1939, key public buildings in Shropshire were protected by sandbags.

Towns had sites designated as air raid shelters, supplemented by trenches dug in public places. Shrewsbury’s shelters at the start of the war were located under the general market at the Shoplatch end (accommodation for 650); inside the old disused water tower off Butcher Row (accommodation for 350); under the cellars of a demolished house outside the castle walls at Castle Gates (accommodation for 250); under the lower ground floor of Shrewsbury Castle, below the council chamber (accommodation for 250); and under the railway companies’ vaults off Howard Street (accommodation for 300).

These were supplemented by 10 trenches dug in The Quarry, each of which would take 50 people.

The biggest and most obvious impact of the start of the war was a huge influx of new, young, faces to Shropshire – trainloads and trainloads of them.

They were the evacuees from the big cities, who began arriving on September 1. This friendly invasion comprised both children without parents, and mothers with young children. They were put up by local families, who were keen to “do their bit”.

It was a two-way learning process. Many Salopians had never seen city children. And many city children had never seen the country.

In fact the numbers arriving were lower than had been expected. And it seems some folk from Liverpool took one look at Shropshire – and went back home.

“They are for the most part mothers with young children who had been billeted in rural districts,” the Shrewsbury Chronicle explained.

“Many have lived in Liverpool all their lives and find country life strange. They expected that there would be trams or frequent bus services, and the lack of fish and chip shops is mentioned as a grievance.

“To these complaints, which may be regarded as somewhat frivolous under the circumstances, is added the real grievance created by the fact that it has not always been possible to billet families together, and some have been widely separated.

“Instead of waiting for these matters to be adjusted, as they would have been, many mothers have gone back to Liverpool, taking their children with them.”

And then, after the initial drama and activity . . . nothing. No bombing raids. No military action – except at sea, far away from landlocked Shropshire.

The county adjusted to a new normality, which was not to be shaken until the breaking of the storm in 1940.

There was a rush to enrol in the Shropshire branch of the Women’s Voluntary Services for Civil Defence, with nearly 2,000 new enrolments in a fortnight.

Although there was no Home Guard at this time, there was an organisation called the Home Defence Corps, which guarded strategic points such as Shrewsbury railway station.

The crisis brought with it a host of restrictions, big and small.

Petrol rationing, introduced on September 16, had a big impact.

Cars were restricted to between four and 10 gallons a month, depending on their horsepower. It was estimated that this would allow motorists to cover an average of 150 miles a month.

Of not quite such a far-reaching impact was the grounding of homing pigeons.

The Wellington Journal reported: “The attention of local pigeon fanciers is drawn by the Chief Constable of Shrewsbury (Mr Frank Davies) to that section of the Defence Regulations which requires them to register their names at the Borough Police Station.

“ No homing pigeon may be liberated without a permit, to be obtained at the Police Station.”

One consequence of the conflict was that many events were immediately cancelled, including Shrewsbury Carnival, and the Miss Shropshire competition, which was linked to the carnival at that time.

There was destined to never be a Miss Shropshire 1939.