大象传媒

I was evacuated from the Small Heath area of Birmingham twice.

After war was declared the Garrison Lane Junior School was evacuated to Henley-in-Arden. I was 10, my brother 12, and I left a 5 year old brother at home because he was having treatment for mastoid at the hospital. My brother who was 12 came to Henley and must have been one of the oldest of the children.

We were taken to Garrison Lane School and then marched in crocodile to the station (Bordesley?). I remember walking from the station to the school where the people were waiting. Because my brother and I were offered together we were left until last but no one offered to take the two of us. At the end there were two sister-in-laws who lived near and one offered to take my brother, the other me.

The family who took me in had a girl called Jean who was 7. When we got to the house and sat down to tea I realised I was alone without family and cried all through tea.

Afterwards I was put into a double bed with Jean and that was the last time I cried.

The family I lived with were very good to me. He worked as a blacksmith on Henley High Street and my brother Arthur and I used to go to help him. We used to pump the furnace or turn a small wheel that cut screws. We watched him shoeing the horses and mending spades and farm implements.

At the back of the blacksmiths there was an enormous pig in a pen and we would watch it being fed. One day when we went the pig had been killed and we watched them jointing the carcass and rubbing salt petre to preserve the meat.

We did not go to school with the Henley children. We went in the morning and they went afternoon, or vice versa.

I remember the walks we were taken. One morning along the lanes all the hedgerows were covered with cobwebs and glistened with raindrops. I鈥檇 never seen anything so beautiful. We were taken to a field with horse chestnuts and were able to fill our pump bag with conkers.

We spent very little time in the house. Once breakfast was over I would call for my brother at his house and then we would walk down the High Street calling for other evacuees. We would race about the Mount.

We also picked blackberries which we took back to my house where the lady put them into a big pan and made jam.

The lady of the house was a dressmaker and I watched her make a flowing cloak with a hood that was reversible 鈥� green on one side and purple on the other.

My brother was in the church choir and on November the 11th, I remember the service and the intense sadness when the trumpet was played for 鈥渓ights out鈥�.

In the evening the girls had sewing lessons at the Mill and when we came out it was dark and the bats flew about our head. I remember a weekend when a strong wind stripped the hawthorn leaves from the hedge and I realised winter was coming.

The family my brother lived with had a son who had left home for the forces.

Both families were very kind to us, allowed us our freedom to roam the countryside with our fellow evacuees and themselves were very like our parents we鈥檇 left behind.

Just before Christmas 1939 my parents came to take us home. My mother said my younger brother had no one at home to play with and we could look after him.

It had been a lovely holiday for us.

[see Evacuation to Pipewood Camp Boarding School for this contributor's second evacuation from Birmingham]

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This story was contributed by Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service, Solihull Libraries by kind permission of the original contributor. It was originally contributed to Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service's collection in 2005 (Ref: NC Solihull Historical: Reminiscences 2005/28).

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