大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from newcastlecsv on behalf of Mr Bulmer[name of contributor/author] and has been added to the site with his / her permission. Mr Bulmer fully understands the site's terms and conditions".

I was five years old when WWII started, so my sister, who was eight, and I, along with about fifty other children, were evacuated from Wallsend, where we lived half a mile from the Shipyards, to a little village called Glanton in the heart of Northumberland.

We were billeted near a big house on the outskirts of the village which was owned by a Major Huston Boswell that had been commandeered by the Army. I was with Mr & Mrs Hosie who also had four daughters and a son. He was a chauffer/groom for the Major, and my sister with the gardeners family, Mr & Mrs Short.

It was a bit of a culture shock at first, from town to country, but we had fun, potato picking, helping with the harvesting, blackberry picking etc.

I often got rides in a Bren-Gun carrier or Army trucks when the soldiers took them out on the roads. I remember one day while playing in a field, a twin engine plane flew over and we all waved like mad. We found out later it was a German that had lost its way! We used to get rough winters, one time being cut-off from school, for a week, which was only half a mile down the road! Food was pretty basic, Scotch Porridge (with Salt, not Sugar!!) Home made girdle scones, and everything cooked on a wood fire, we also got Dried Egg in tins, which made lovely Scrambled Egg and Drinking Chocolate from the States and I still have some of the toys we were sent. Sometimes the soldiers put concerts on in the village hall, and the odd dance. As a special treat, we went to the pictures in Alnwick. Sweets and ice cream were rare, so we made do with Victory V Lozengers! We used to get home now and again, but most nights were spent in the shelter, because of air-raids.

We were lucky to have two good families to stay with, as some evacuees had terrible times. And we still went to visit them well after the war was over.

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