大象传媒

By August 1939 it become fairly clear that war would be inevitable, so my parents decided that it would be wise to send me to a place in the countryside that would probably escape the air raids that were predicted for the larger cities. So one morning I was taken to school, from where we went to Bourneville railway station where we boarded a train. We were told we were heading to a place called Bitton near Bristol, which took about 3 hours to reach. After gathering at the platform with our teachers, we set off on the half mile walk to Bitton School. There we were given sandwiches and a drink, and then allocated to our various adoptive homes. The lucky ones managed to get a place in the village; others, such as myself and my friend Keith were sent to outlying farms.

Our farm was about 2.5 miles outside Bitton. The farmer's wife wasn't too pleased to see us because she had asked for girls as she already had a daughter. However she agreed to have us for a trial period - which prompted the WVS lady who was with us to warn us to be on our best behaviour!

The farmer's wife introduced her daughter and another girl who had arrived before us. To my horror I discovered it was Sheila who I didn't like and she didn't like me much either! I was sharing a room with Keith, and after refreshing we were shown round the farm to see the livestock and meet the farmer. The facilities were fairly basic - no electric light, no gas, no bathroom and no inside toilet. The toilet proved to be in a shed at the top of the garden. This was a shock to us city boys who were used to all the mod cons! I cried myself to sleep that night because I was so homesick.

The next day we were shown odd tasks we had to do to help out round the farm, and told what we were prohibited from doing. Later we were taken to school in the farmer's horse and cart, which would have been nice had it not been raining; we got soaked! The other children made fun of us. After the first day we had to walk to school and back.

Keith was a bit more adventurous then me, so it wasn't long before he got into trouble. He went into a prohibited field, where there was a cow and her calf. He went right up to it and it charged at him, he ran away and just made it back to the gate but managed to tear his trousers at the same time! More of this sort of thing went on so when the officials came to the farm to check up on us several complaints were made against us, and Keith in particular. So at the end of October Keith's dad came to collect him. As a result Sheila and I agreed to get on, but I was still homesick and unhappy.

By February Sheila also left and so life became even lonelier. My mother would visit every month but I hadn't seen my father since evacuation. In May he came and stayed with us for a long weekend, and I was allowed a day off school. We spent the Monday at Weston-Super-Mare which was fantastic.

In September 1940 The Germans began bombing Bristol so my mother decided I should return to Birmingham which I was very happy about. I think the fitness I gained from my stay in the countryside was probably the only good thing about it!

"This story was submitted to the Peoples War Site by Keith Ruffles of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Kenneth Moore and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

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