大象传媒

The following notes consists of odd items wrote as I thought about my evacuation days.

My pre-war evacuation day thoughts were of going to Stansfield Street School(Sunderland) for our issue of gas masks which were in cardboard boxes not quite as long as shoe boxes and had string fastened so you could carry it around your neck, also in mind were black out curtains and buying candles. Dates are confused but again thoughts stray and I remember Mam sending me to Dundas Street to buy two towels for Brother Vic who was in the territorial army and was called up immediately; somewhere, air raid shelters being dug in the parks come to mind.

The exact day of my evacuation is obscure but the mental picture of standing in the fore court of Monkwearmouth Station in navy garbadine rain coat and school cap with gas mask case round my neck and a suit case full of clothes is very clear. We also had name labels on. The government has now agreed to allow war evacuees to attend the War Memorial Service at the cenotaph wearing name labels.

At that time the front of the station was much flatter and had tall iron railings with gates, the school children were all inside with the parents talking to their sons through the railings, it was all boys going that morning. We were finally herded on the to the train with destination unknown. The journey was the longest I had ever done but the excitement of the journey was marred by the thought of leaving home.

We finally arrived at our station, I am not sure whether it was Driffield or Bainton, all the sign posts had been removed to make it difficult if the enemy invaded but my next thoughts are of waiting in a large hall for our names to be called. Eventually my name and a boy called John were called. We were ushered into a big car, my excitement was terrific this was my first ride in a posh car. After what seemed a very long ride with one or two stops to open gates we finally stopped at our destination, again with our gas mask boxes round our necks, our cases in one hand and a food parcel which we had been given in the hall. We set off down this long narrow path at the end of which was a small cottage, the Gentleman who had driven us there knocked on the door and introduced us to our hosts Mr and Mrs Coatham.

After a chat we where shown to our bedroom, which was a room with a double bed, chest of drawers and chair, there was no wardrobe, the ceiling sloped and there was a small window nearly touching the floor, after a while we were called down for tea.

I remember John complaining when we went to bed that they had started on our food parcel and they were eating our food.

The cottage had two rooms downstairs; one the front sitting room was only used on special occasions the other was the everyday room with dining table, settee and chairs. One corner had the water boiler and in the other corner a cupboard with a dish on a shelf which was used for morning and evening wash, and washing up. Cooking was done on the open fire and a small paraffin stove on the floor. Upstairs there was the main bedroom and the other half was divided with a screen to form a small bedroom, the rest was used to have the tin bath in, there was no window so you used a candle.
The first days are muddled thoughts of walking this long, long path to the village, nearly two and a half miles, in the morning and again in the afternoon, to report to the teachers in the Village Hall. At first there was about 120 of us, most were billeted in the village, houses, the Church Hall and Vicarage and nearby farms, it turned out we lived the furthest out of the village which was called Bainton.

Nights seemed to consist of lying in bed, with John, who became very homesick, crying his eyes out, and trying to ignore the constant chiming of the downstairs clock. Being a country cottage it only had a thin wood floor with no plaster ceiling, consequently everything could be heard and this clock struck the hour and every quarter, half and three quarters, causing numerous disturbed nights. As I said John was very homesick and I believe only stayed a week, I think his parents came for him. The number of evacuees dropped rapidly to 80 in the first few weeks then gradually declined till it reached 60.

During the first few weeks we reported at the hall twice a day then went back home or had a ramble in the afternoon. When the numbers dropped we had activities in the hall in the morning and used the village school in the afternoon and changed round the following week. The school consisted of one large hall with sliding doors at one end to make a separate classroom that we used. Our teaching was kept separate from the local children. Owing to the facilities available our lessons where restricted and our education suffered.

After John left I settled into my new home and was very content with Mr and Mrs Coatham who made me very welcome. They were a very nice couple, not very old and not long married. As time went on I discovered I was billeted in the Head Gardeners Cottage on a high estate which was owned by a Major Wrangham who lived in a massive house with a front lawn half the size of a football pitch; the grounds where extensive, high woods surrounding the estate, there was a large vegetable garden and a high orchard with high brick walls. There were three very large greenhouses that housed vines, nectarines, flowers and plants, and one for tomatoes and cucumbers. To look after these there was Mr Coatham, the Head Gardener, two gardeners and an apprentice.

Major Wrangham also owned all the local farms, which put him in high esteem with the locals and employees; he had more staff in the house.

It was instilled into me at the very beginning that it was Sir or Madame.

The major was always very pleasant and often called me over to speak to me, even at that age I was interested in joiner work and he was also interested in woodwork and had his own work shop and invited me to see it. Mrs Wrangham was not very popular and had a habit of nosing round the cottage and larder to make sure we were not using things from the garden, I was told she did not like children.

Very soon I was given me own chores to do which I enjoyed doing, there was water to bring down from the outside pump for drinking or rainwater from the outside water barrels which had a tap. We all rose early in the morning at 6.30 and I would go with Mr Coatham to check the greenhouses, feed his own chickens and do various jobs before coming back for breakfast at 7.30 which often consisted of home-made bread, and cured ham or bacon followed by apple pie.

At first I used to walk to school I would use the rear entrance to the estate which meant a walk through the drive with gates at each end, then the long walk. After a time Mrs Coatham allowed me to use her upright ladies bike, this gave me much more time to help in the gardens, which very soon became my favourite haunt.

I was very happy, sometimes playing on my own in the sheds, as time went on I was allowed to do more jobs on my own, cleaning the greenhouse boilers in the morning and lighting them after school, collecting our own hens eggs and feeding them at night, collecting vegetables and fruit for the hall.

We had our own garden plot for vegetables and this was looked after at nights and weekends.

In the large greenhouse, which housed prize vines, I can remember Mr Coatham on the stepladder clipping out any imperfect grapes and cutting the highest bunches which must of weighed between three or four pounds, and laying them on straw in large square baskets and sending them off to Market Weighton to put on show in the shops. They were sent off in a farm cart, I went sometimes if it was a Saturday, it was a long day with nearly 30 miles to travel.

We also used the farm cart to go shopping in Driffield which was about 10 miles by road, but we cut this short by going across the fields we used to leave the horse at the stables then go shopping.

After I had been with them a few months Mam sent my bike to me, this enabled the three of us to go out together visiting Mr Coatham's parents who lived in Dalton Village for tea on Sundays and made it easier for Church and shopping.

Even when I had my own bike I was still a loner and quite happy spending time at home. It did not worry me about going to the village at nights to play with my school pals, I did go to the Village Hall on a Friday night when they were showing films.

I loved going out with Mr Coatham in the evenings for a walk trying to catch rabbits or shooting them or wood pigeons, it was all to help our food supplies, we also had our chickens.

One night comes to mind when I had been in bed quite a while when Mr and Mrs Coatham came to bed. Shortly there was a terrible noise coming from their bedroom, they were banging about, laughing and jumping about, it seemed to go on for ages and I was hiding under the bedclothes worrying what was going on. Next morning they explained that a bat had got through the window.

Times and dates eluded me but I remember that at first the vegetable, fruit and flowers were grown mainly for the Hall with Mrs Wrangham being involved with some ladies group coming to collect the surplus 鈥� there were tomatoes, cucumbers, marrows, peaches, vines, all the vegetables you can name including spinach, artichokes and asparagus.

We had a grocer calling every fortnight with our provisions and at some time he mentioned he would take the surplus fruit. I remember working till ten o鈥檆lock at night in the fruit loft packing apples and pears into boxes and barrels ready to send to his shop.

Mr Coatham changed the pattern on his gardens to grow more vegetables to sell to the shops. I even had my own small garden to do my bit. Every Saturday afternoon I would ride to the village with an accumulator, this was a rechargeable acid battery for the wireless, as this did not last very long we only listened to the news and the odd programme. While I was in the village I would spend my pocket money on a Milky Way and bring back a packet of ten Robin cigarettes for Mr Coatham, which were his weeks supply.

Another regular job was helping to cut the wood logs for the fire. We used a two handle saw, then split them. We used a lot of wood as we did most of the cooking on the fire and heated the water, there was also a cess boiler in the corner of the living room for clothes washing and bath water. Coal was only delivered once a month. Bath time was a Saturday, the water was heated then carried upstairs and emptied into a tin bath then carried down the next morning.

Another job what was always there to do was drawing water from the hand pumps outside, all water for the gardens came from the pumps, there was two large ones in the garden with a platform to stand on, there was always tubes or water carriers to fill.

The winter of 1939/40 was, I believe, a hard one, on several occasions I was not allowed to go to school owing to the snow. Major Wrangham had a large snow sleigh pulled by a horse and I did get a ride once or twice.

During the heavy snow the garden was plagued with wood pigeons trying to eat the brussel sprouts as these where the only greens showing above the snow. I can remember Mr Coatham sitting on the settee in the living room with his shotgun pushed under the bottom window trying to scare the pigeons away.

Pigeon pie soon appeared on the table. I have not tasted it since. Two other events come to mind. The first, the pigs I helped at weekends to feed and clean up. When the time came when they were to be slaughtered to help our food supply. It was arranged for the butcher to come on a Saturday morning I was teased because I hid behind a wall when they were shot in the head with a humane killer. The rest is best not put into words but I was there and watched and helped until all the various parts of the pigs had been put into tanks of brine.

The other event that sticks in my mind, which at the time seemed harmless to me, but I realise now, could have had serious consequences.

In the potting shed there was a drawer that was full of bits and pieces, nuts and bolts etc, there was also two rifle bullets from the First World War. I used to play with these a lot. I think I must of pestered Mr Coatham about these and he kept telling me that they were dummy bullets and harmless, however, I remember one night we went out to the coal shed and Mr Coatham put the bullet on the centre of the floor half closed the door then dropped the head of his felling axe on to the bullet. There was a loud bang and flash when we opened the door and it took ages to find the two parts of the bullet ends where they were buried in the wall. We realised it was a silly thing to do and threw the second bullet into the pond.

Mr Coatham also kept bees, he had two hives and were kept in the corner of the bottom garden. During the summer I would help to take our the honey trays, if I remember rightly the trays where about 12鈥� long by 6鈥� and made of waxed octagonal honey combs which the bees filled with honey. These had to be changed periodically, these trays were then put into a large earthenware bowl in front of the fire until it melted and then poured into jars. Before we touched the hives we wore large brim hats with fine netting over our faces and tucked under our coat collars, we fastened elastic bands over our coats at our wrists and trousers at our ankles and large gloves. We had a hand bellow which had brown paper lit inside to cause smoke to drowse the bees.

Suddenly everything changed it was the 鈥榖attle of Dunkirk鈥� and some of the army that was rescued took over the area, they commandeered the Hall, forcing Major Wrangham and her Ladyship into two rooms, they took over the surrounding woods felling trees to pitch tents etc, a large camouflage marquee was set up in a nearby field as a dining mess. The soldiers used to let the pigs out of the next field and let them roam around the tables during meal times and feed them. They also took over the field used by a half blind pit pony that was used to pump water for the Hall.

I believe it was called a Jenny wheel, the pony was tied to a shaft and made to go round and round for at least an hour, you had to walk round behind the pony edging him on, I did it some days, pumping water into tanks for the house. This field suddenly became like a huge mole field full of dugouts.

The soldiers became very friendly, we were issued with passes which we had to show to the guards at each end of the driveway every time we went out or came in. Owing to the amount of army traffic on the narrow road from the Hall to the Village, I was not allowed to use my bike to go to school, however very often I was given a lift in either a jeep or personnel carrier, motorbike with a sidecar or on a big truck by my army friends. As they usually dropped me off at the school I was soon the envy of all my schoolmates.

The army used to have a helicopter called a Lysander and every morning at prompt nine o鈥檆lock it would come hovering in to land on the front lawn of the Hall, much to the annoyance of Major Wrangham, to pick up or deliver despatches. As it was usually punctual I used it as a guide to know if I was late for school.

I can鈥檛 remember how long the army stayed but we were invited to the army concerts and had various items of food smuggled to us, at one time we had an army officer staying with us in the best room and having meals with us. I had a great thrill handling his revolver and helping to clean the badges and boots. I had had previous experience cleaning Brother Vic鈥檚 Territorial Army uniform.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.