大象传媒

VAUXBELET COLLEGE EVACUATED FROM GUERNSEY TO ECCLES AND HALE

[Ronald Eric Gould, born 12/7/1928, was a pupil Les Vauxbelets College, Guernsey, from 1935 鈥� 1942 and was evacuated with the school in June 1940. The following is an edited extract from a typescript he prepared in 2005.]

The two or three days leading up to the evacuation were an awful time for our parents, we the children at the time did not realise quite what was going on. There does not appear to have been a decisive lead from the States of Guernsey to evacuate. Some families felt they should go, if only for the. sake of the children, then the notices appeared 鈥� 鈥淒O NOT LEAVE DO NOT RUN AWAY, DON'T BE YELLOW鈥�. What a time to make a decision, turn off the water, gas etc, lock your door and walk away, not knowing when you might return, if ever. As children, we did not have to think about all of these things, we just did as our parents told us and the majority left the Island on June 20th - 21st - 22nd with their Schools and their teachers and some helpers.
Please remember this story of events started. 60 years ago and if I had only thought to write my recollections 5 years ago I could have checked a few, in fact quite a few facts and details with my father, Reg Gould, but sadly he died a couple of years ago aged nearly 94 and still with a wonderful memory.

On June 20 we gathered at Les Vauxbelets, all with our gas masks and our little haversacks or whatever our parents had managed to find to put in our change of underwear and a spare shirt and not much else. The School in 1940 was in the building now occupied by Bob Froome. Some time around lunchtime we were sent down to the main building, to the refectory and given something to eat and drink. Early in the afternoon, as far as I can remember, we lined up two by two and we walked all the way down to St Julian's Avenue and gathered opposite the Gaumont Cinema to wait till we would be able to go on down to the Harbour.

The time now I believe was around 5pm and soon we were told that there was no boat for us this day and to go home and come back at 6 am the next day. I do not remember how I got from St Julian's Avenue to my home at Valnord, but I suppose my Dad was around with his lorry and no doubt I was taken back next day by the same means.
In this day and age it seems almost impossible for a whole School to walk three miles from Les Vauxbelets to Town, but it must be remembered that the School was a Catholic School and was not supported by the Education Department and if they wanted buses they would have had to pay for them, unlike the States Schools. On the way down I walked with another boy called Peter Lihou, whose family lived at the Foulon and we got on so well we decided we would try to stay together, I suppose we thought we would be support for each other, but sadly when we all came together on the 21st Peter did not come. Years later I found out that his mother had decided to take the family to relations in Bristol.

June 21
Strangely, I cannot remember saying goodbye to my Mum and Dad - remember I had to do this twice. As a small boy I could turn on the tears at any time but on these occasions I have no memory of parting, maybe my mind has shut it out or maybe I thought of it as a couple of weeks鈥� holiday, I don't know.

I know my Dad saw me just before we went, aboard "The Viking" and he gave me what he had in his pocket, which was a ten shilling note (50p) and a nice nearly new penknife. As you will read later the ten shillings lasted two weeks and I lost the knife on the River Bollin later in the year.
The family haulage firm of E. J. Gould & Son was run by my Dad, Reg and his brother Ken and nearly all our work was on the White Rock, so I spent all of my holidays on the lorries and on and off the Mailboats, so when it came to going on "The Viking" it was not so exciting to me as to many of my schoolmates who had never been on a ship. I cannot remember anything of the voyage, it must have been without incident as we arrived in Weymouth about teatime and we were taken to the Weymouth Pavilion for a medical (nits etc) and were given some refreshments. I have passed the Pavilion very many times in the last few years and it always brings back memories.
i
Later that evening we boarded a train, for many it was their first time, and set off. Remember it was June 21st the longest day and we journeyed for quite a time in daylight and for some it was the first time they had seen black and white cows and even sheep and rivers, it was all so exciting at first, but as it got dark and we all got tired we tried to settle down in the corridors and on anything that we were carrying as the train was full. We had no sleep that night.

Next morning, June 22, we arrived at a Town called Eccles (Eccles cakes - that is the one!) and we were taken to a Congregational Hall together with the children from St Martin's School, this was to be our home for the next two weeks. My first impression was of the smell of smoke and grime, everything, buildings etc were black with the soot from factory
chimneys. We Soon settled in and I seem to remember we were allocated a camp bed, I am not sure but I believe we had to share and they had to be packed up when we got up. The people were very kind but the food was not up, to much and my 10 Shilling note went on Cornish Pasties from a cake shop!

The washing facilities at the hall were not great when you think that there must have been about 200 children, teachers and helpers all living in a Church Hall that was not designed for such a use. Early on in the first week it was arranged for us all to go along to the municipal baths, this was not just a pool, which I believe there was, but large white cast iron baths, each in its own cubicle. You paid your money, I think it was only a few pence and you were lent a rough towel and a piece of soap and a cubicle number and you were left to get on with it. This area was very industrialised and very few houses, which were mostly 'back-to-back', had a bathroom, hence nearly every Council in the north-west built these huge bath houses.
Soon after we arrived our teachers offered our help in filling sandbags, the air raids had not yet started, but were expected and all large windows were adorned with paper tape in criss-cross patterns helping to cut down flying glass and hospitals and special buildings were all being protected by high walls of sandbags and we were able to repay some of the kindness shown to us by filling and stacking hundreds of bags.

On the first Sunday we went with some of the local lads to the park and noticed that they had a lot more things to play on, including a giant slide, we did not have one in Guernsey so that one was well used and also a model aeroplane club were flying their planes, this was very exciting as we had not seen any at home.

One experience that really amazed me happened one day when we went along to a football field and as we were kicking a ball around I glanced towards the end of the field and thought I was seeing things as a large cargo ship, many times larger than our mailboats, was steaming by 40 miles from any sea. I soon found out that the Manchester Ship Canal was the reason for this!

On Saturday, one of our teachers managed to get us free entry into the local cinema and the film which had just been newly released was "The Wizard of Oz" with Judy Garland and 60 years later I still remember it. The people in the whole area were all very kind to us.

On the second Sunday, July 7, we were told to gather up our few belongings and we were marched to the Station and trained up or across to a very nice village, or small town, called Hale. This meant that we crossed from Lancashire into Cheshire. In 1940 many of the well to do business people working in the City of Manchester lived in Hale, it is only 11 miles away.

We all walked from Hale Station to the local Conservative Hall and the Local Womens' Voluntary Service were in attendance, complete with billeting lists and within a short time boys were allocated to homes. I was put together with a boy called Graham Froome and we were taken to an address in Gilbert Road, to a house called "Netherlea" - the home of Mr
Archibald Yearsley and his daugther May. They had requested two Methodists if possible and ended up with one Methodist and one C of E! The WVS lady took us to this home and introduced us and started to take some details. She asked my name and I told her and then she asked my age and I said I was 11 and "Your date of birth?". "7 July" I replied. , "Oh" she said "You are 11 today" and I said, "No I have been 11 for a long time". "Well" she said, "You are 12 today, Happy Birthday!"

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