大象传媒

鈥淚 was evacuated from Coventry at the age of four. I went to Wigston Parva and was again evacuated to Sharnford Leicestershire.

My clearest memory was the countryside as I was a town girl and did not see much of it. Fields, animals, birds and farms. Grandma Jenny said that鈥檚 why when I grew older I wanted to live in the country.

In the Winter I wore a skirt, a blouse, a hand knitted jumper or cardigan (with colourful fair isle patterns knitted in them). In the Summer I wore a short sleeved button up cotton with round collars. We also wore white ankle socks and black T-bar strap shoes. I wore a woolen top coat buttoned, hand knitted gloves, scarf and a hat that tied under the chin.

Being in the country meant we had a lot of fresh vegetables along with eggs and chicken. They made their own bread, which I loved! Also, the people I stayed with made delicious meat paste. I can remember the eggs and bacon with brown sauce which I never got at home!

Both homes I stayed were welcoming, but they had no children of their own, and so they loved me very much. The first man did not believe me when I was poorly, and so my Grandma came and took me home. The second people wanted to adopt me, after a while was taken home again.

Coventry was badly bombed between 1940 and 1942. This is when I got evacuated.

When it was VE day I was lucky to be taken by a neighbour to Ramsgate and I remember them lighting beacon fires all along the shore.

I was very lucky to have my Auntie Mary and Cousin Derrick evacuated near me. I started school and played there but I don鈥檛 remember that much.

I did not know anyone that was killed or bombed as none of my close friends or relatives were killed during this time.

My worst memory was being bitten by a dog at my second placement. I was also quite scared when my Auntie told me that the German planes emptied their spare bombs in the field where I lived- it might have been safer in Coventry at the time.

Here are some more memories and experiences I had during the war.

I lived in a farm labourers cottage (so did Derrick). My Auntie came from Coventry to have her new baby away from the bombs. She lived in a nearby farm.

They were very poor dwellings but Poppa took me a couple of years ago, and now they have been converted into really up- market and expensive buildings.

When I went to school, at first I had to walk about four miles. Later, I moved just across the road to the school. Every playtime we had our bottle of milk (a third of a pint) and could eat our lunch at our desks. Everyday I said I had left my lunch in my coat pocket but when I went to get it I ran home across the road and so I got the new fresh bread made that morning for my lunch!

We had a water pump in the middle of the village green in front of the cottages and this is where we fetched all the water.

We fetched warm milk straight from the farm in a jug for breakfast!鈥�

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