大象传媒

Dame Allan鈥檚 Girls School: Ambleside Evacuation October 1940 鈥� July 1943

I was awarded a scholarship to Dame Allan鈥檚 in 1940 and should have started at the school in September 1940. Unfortunately my home in Newcastle upon Tyne was bombed on 3rd September and I was obliged to stay with my sister at our grandmother鈥檚 cottage in Swaledale while my parents went to stay with friends in Newcastle. It was not until the end of October 1940 that I was able to join the school at Ambleside where the girls were evacuated, the younger pupils to a hostel (the Smallwood Private Hotel) and most of the older girls into digs.
We shared school facilities at Kelsick Grammar School with local pupils, but had our own teachers and our own canteen in the town for lunches. Two of our teachers lived in the hostel and the rest lived in a local hotel.
Miss Nobbs (French teacher) and Miss Goodman (Maths teacher) were the first two hostel residents for the first year then two different teachers took their place for each of the next two years. Our Matron was a Mrs Hilling from Uttoxeter who was new to the school but ran the hostel and also held embroidery and craft classes for the pupils in the hostel, which were very popular, since we did not have radios 鈥� nor, of course, television!
We slept, mainly in double beds, up to six pupils in a room and used the wash basin in the room for a daily strip wash. We had a weekly bath rota: there were only 2 bathrooms in the hotel 鈥� my time was 4.30 pm on a Friday!
There were no laundry facilities so each week we packed up our dirty washing and posted it home, at a cost of 7d (or 3陆p) for our mothers to wash on a Monday and return to us on Wednesdays, usually with a little 鈥榚xtra鈥� enclosed! Each week we also had to write a letter home, usually at the weekend after our homework was finished, in the dining room.
Our parents paid a fixed amount into an account each term from which we were paid weekly pocket money of one shilling (5p) plus any expenses we needed to claim, such as writing paper, soap, shampoo. Not surprisingly, some pupils managed to think of a lot of expenses to claim, to supplement their pocket money!
At weekends we were expected to be out of the hostel on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and had to inform the teacher on duty at lunch time where we intended to go that afternoon, so that if anyone failed to return for supper the staff would know where to send a search party. I do not remember this ever happening! Later a few of us acquired bicycles which widened the scope of our travels, but we were always forbidden to go beyond Troutbeck Bridge 鈥� because the boys were at Windermere, and 鈥渘ever the twain shall meet鈥�!
On Sunday mornings we all went to church 鈥� a choice of either Church of England or Methodist. Some of us were confirmed in St Mary鈥檚 Church on 19th March 1943 by H.A. Thompson, vicar, and our parents came for the weekend.
During the school holidays a special train took us back to Newcastle, the assumption being that there would be no air raids at that time 鈥� but I had to go to Swaledale at first as I had nowhere in Newcastle to live. The house was repaired by the summer of 1941 but my sister was still in Yorkshire and it was not until September 1942 that she joined me in the hostel and spent the final year of evacuation there.
I do not remember any playing fields at Kelsick Grammar School, but we did go swimming in the summer 鈥� in Lake Windermere! The changing huts were at Waterhead, and consisted of 2 wooden huts covered in spiders鈥� webs, and one of them open to the atmosphere. The water was very cold, barely 3 feet deep, with pebbles underfoot. The teacher stood on the jetty (keeping warm and dry) and we had a rope tied round our waists which she used to pull us along, in an attempt to teach us to swim. I don鈥檛 think anyone actually learned to swim until we got back home to a proper heated indoor pool at Fenham Baths.
The school had a rather primitive gymnasium combined with an assembly hall, with wall bars and climbing ropes attached to the balcony upstairs, and vaulting horse pushed into one corner when not in use. I think we must have changed into our gym kit in the cloakrooms at the end of the corridor.
During the last year of our stay a Girl Guide troupe was formed and we used to go to Sweden Bridge, a local beauty spot, with our leader together with food for a picnic. There we lit camp fires and cooked sausages on the end of sticks, which usually turned out half raw and half burned but which were always enjoyed just the same.
On Saturday evenings the girls from Charlotte Mason College invited us to join them for a social evening: dancing for the older girls and indoor games for the younger ones, then we all got together again to be escorted back to the hostel by a member of staff.
On the whole we enjoyed ourselves, although quite a few pupils gradually drifted home until eventually, after nearly three years, it was decided to return to Newcastle since the number had dwindled and there were very few air raids in the North of England, although the V1 and V2 bombing in London was a very different story. So we returned home in July 1943 and rejoined the rest of the school in September 1943, both pupils and teachers, at Fenham, after the summer holidays.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer Carol Corney on behalf of Mrs Jean Ward and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Ward fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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