大象传媒

This story has been added to The People鈥檚 War Website by CSV Volunteer Olivia Davey on behalf of the author Susan Stockwell who understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

In the last year of the war my mother, Jeanette Elliot, had her house in South London bombed. My Grandfather Edward Elliot, somehow found a farm cottage for my mother and Grandmother (Doris Elliot) at Mr Willy鈥檚 farm at Predannack. My Grandfather got hold of enough petrol to drive his wife and daughter down, talking his way through all the road blocks to safety in Cornwall. He went back to London and my mother and Grandmother stayed in the Cottage on the farm. Later, my Grandmother鈥檚 sister Aunty Ena Southwick joined them in another cottage with her son Jack Southwick. My mother was at school in Mullion. She remembers collecting eggs and how good the chickens were at hiding them. I was married on 8th May, which she of course remembers as Furry Day, because she joined the village children dancing in the front of the houses and out of the back, through their village, with flower garlands in their hair. Everyone had to work on the farm. My Grandmother whitewashed the Cottage, but coloured the lime with yellow dye to make the Cottage feel warmer and softer. She also remembers my Grandmother making pasties with the traditional handle of thick hard crust.

It was on the farm that she learnt the meaning of the phrase 鈥渞unning about like a headless chicken鈥� because after the chickens were killed, you could watch them still running or at least twitching.

I was taken back to Mr Willy鈥檚 farm as a child and would be interested to know if his family is still local.

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