大象传媒

This item has been written by DOROTHY GARDNER

And was also included in a book by Derrick Finch titled 鈥� FOR I WAS A STRANGER (and you took my in)

I arrived in Pentewan in October 1940 when I was 8 years old, with my mother, brother Ron(11) and sister Rosemary(5), to escape the bombing in Surrey. We moved in to The Nook (now renamed Merlins) next door to the chapel and school on Pentewan Hill. My father and five brothers and sisters remained at home.

Although this move was in no traumatic as it was for the London evacuees, who left their mothers and were billeted with complete strangers, it did mean a totally new way of life. After being in a large surburban school with a class of 52 girl, it was strange to sit in a small village school comprised of one class, boys and girls, taught by Miss Brown. However, I quickly adapted to the new life and loved the village and the beautiful surroundings.

It was good to be away from bombs and air-raid sirens, to sleep in a comfortable bed instead of in a damp and musty air-raid shelter in the garden. In Pentewan we enjoyed such freedom as I had never known before, freedom to explore the fields and woods, the rocks, cliffs and sea. In Spring we picked primroses and violets, in Summer picknicked in the fields, and in the Autumn picked blackberries and mushrooms.

We had many 鈥榮ecret鈥� places where we loved to play 鈥� a little nook by a stream, a fallen tree in the woods which we called 鈥榯he horse鈥�, and hiding places amongst the fern and bracken. No worries about our safety in those days! On Sundays we all three attended Sunday School at the All Saints Church on The Terrace, where my brother was a choirboy.

We 鈥渟trangers鈥� were welcomed by so many villagers. I recall Mr Prynn the grocer, the Sarah family at the farm and our lovely gardener at The Nook, Mr Bacon.

After a while at the village school, I moved to the girls鈥� school in Mevagissey, where my brother being at the boys鈥� school next door. We usually walked there and back, except in the worst weather when we used the bus service. I used to take sandwiches for our lunch, though accasionally we would enjoy a delicious pastry from the bakers.
This was ordered and paid for (4d in old money!) on the way to school and collected at lunch-time,when we would watch the pasties being taken out of the oven in the wall on the long end of a long shovel.

Ron was an adventurous boy and often got into scrapes, like dropping his glasses in the Black Pond, which had to be drained, and getting a piece of wood stuck in his foot while climbing a tree, which Miss Brown extricated.

Although our time in Pentewan was so short 鈥� about 18 months in all 鈥� it left a lasting impression of a most happy time of my life and I know Ron feels exactly the same. Whenever I am in Cornwall I love to re-visit Pentewan and re-live those happy days.

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