大象传媒

On September the third, 1939 along with thousands of other children I was evacuated. Our school at Lawrence Road (Liverpool) was taken over by the fire service and later by the army. Our shop, a greengrocers stood on the opposite side of the road to Wavertree Station, the entrance to the station was under the railway bridge.

Around about nine am in the morning I remember seeing lots of children with their parents, carrying gasmasks and packed lunches. The gasmasks were in cardboard boxes with string to hold them across the shoulder; some of the younger children wore labels attached to their coat buttons. It seemed like a Sunday school outing, my sardine sandwiches (my favourite) had their crusts cut off; unusual as I was normally made to eat them, with an iced bun packed in a cardboard box. I remember my packed lunch vividly yet I have forgotten so much.

We arrived at Waverton Station, in a small village about three miles from Chester and were herded down to the village hall where the village ladies were waiting for us. We stood around in groups, while waiting to be chosen by prospective carers.I was taken with five other little girls and a school teacher whose name I no longer remember by the local vicar鈥檚 wife Mrs Elwood.

Life at the vicarage

The vicarage was a large red bricked house with a wide lawn in front of the house and a shrubbery. At the side of the house there was a vegetable garden and an orchard with chicken鈥檚 and pigs foraging around.

Our bedroom had two double beds adjacently placed; we slept three to a bed. The windows were boarded up for blackout purposes, and never taken down, so the room was permanently in darkness. We were told we were never to go into the front part of the house, but use the kitchen and back stairs; we were also banned from the orchard and the vegetable garden.

We rarely saw the vicar, a heavily built man, who seemed to read a lot. Mrs Elwood was a tall very thin lady, I thought she must be very old, but she had two children. Ruth who I suppose was about twenty and lived at home and Patrick who was at a public school aged about thirteen I suppose.

We evacuees were a very heavy cross for Mrs Elwood to bear; she never spoke to us kindly and never smiled at us. Ruth her daughter gave us our meals, and though she was always pleasant and kind, she was always very remote.

When Patrick was home from school he tried to teach me to ride his bike and constantly corrected my speech and just about everything I did. We played sliding down the haystack at the back of the house and I almost knocked my teeth out landing on my knees. The shrubbery was a good place for all of us to play hide and seek. I think Patrick enjoyed having us to stay and he loved bossing us about.

After about a week three of the younger children went home leaving Barbara who was about nine, with straight blonde hair, Dorothy who was eight with dark curly hair and myself - there was more room in the beds.

On Sunday nights we were not taken to church for the evening service, we were left in the house alone. We were able to make lots of noise and we played on the kitchen table singing and dancing until the Elwood family and the teacher came back, then we went to bed.

Dorothy and Barbara鈥檚 mothers visited rarely, they were younger than my parents, and they wore lots of make up and always came together when they visited the girls. My father used to cycle from Liverpool to see me on Sundays. It was possible to cycle through the tunnel in those days. It must have been a fifty mile round trip.

We spent half a day in the afternoon in school, the village children were taught in the mornings. I don鈥檛 think we learnt very much, but it seemed a lovely long summer and autumn. The sun seemed to shine all the time. I learned about horse chestnuts, playing conkers and about animals at a nearby farm. A large turkey at the farm used to chase us. I used to visit a very ancient grey horse out to graze in a remote field and tell him my troubles.

A house near the church had a lot of apple trees with branches over hanging the road. The owner must have had apples stolen so she left a message at the school to say if we wanted apples would we please knock at the door and ask for them. Dorothy, Barbara and I had not thought about apples but we filed down the path with the rest of the class to ask for apples.

Getting into Trouble

I heard my friend Edna from Liverpool was in Tarvin and my father gave me her address. Tarvin was about five miles from Waverton, across a Roman road through fields with no hedges. About half way across a tiny stone bridge went over a stream. It was a long walk. I decided to visit her one Saturday morning, little realising how much trouble I would cause. I was away a long time and I didn鈥檛 tell anyone where I was going. It caused a lot of worry and anxiety. I was severely reprimanded by the Elwood鈥檚, the teacher and the school.

Sometime later, when playing in the garden the two other girls became very rough and held a blanket over my head and I felt I couldn鈥檛 breath. I was so angry I grabbed Dorothy and shook her. She of course screamed the place down and once again I was severely chastised. Feeling very miserable and misunderstood I decided to run away home after school. I walked about two miles along the main Chester to Liverpool road when it started to get dark. I had not expected that so I thought I had better go back to the vicarage.

Going home to Liverpool

It was after this episode Mrs Elwood decided we had to go. She made arrangements for us to be placed with a widow who lived up the top area of the village near a place called Egg Bridge and who also took in male lodgers. I wrote to my parents to tell them. Barbara and Dorothy stayed on there after I went home sometime in November.

First hand account written by Audrey Edwards (nee Palin)in the late 1990's

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