大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Pat Yates of Age Concern Shropshire Telford & Wrekin on behalf of Marian Morton (Pastfield) and has been added with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms & conditions.

Marian was thirteen years old and living in Southend in 1939. She was evacuated at the start of the war because of the immediate fear of invasion. Her stay in Mansfield Woodhouse near Mansfield was a much happier time for her as until then she had been living with her grandmother who had already brought up twelve children of her own and at the age of sixty had done her share of child rearing.

Mansfield Woodhouse was a village on the Nottinghamshire coalfield and the father of the family she lived with was a local pit Deputy. They had two children of their own - Dorothy and Norman - and Marian remembers very well that young Norman used to play on the slack fields by the pit where all the coal fines were dumped. She often had the job of bathing him when he came home black from head to toe. The three children all did their share of household chores: dusting, ironing and washing-up. Because the evacuees had to share the Queen Elizabeth High school with the local children, Marian went to school in the afternoons from 1-6pm with games on Saturday mornings, so she did her housework on weekday mornings.

Back in Southend her grandparents owned a grocery shop and so they all ate very well. Things were rather different in Mansfield and she didn't much enjoy eating bread and jam for breakfast. But there was always a good Sunday roast lunch with Yorkshire pudding. Although the rest of the family ate their Yorkshire pud as a separate course with jam, she was allowed to have hers with her meat and gravy.

The high point of Marian's week was Social Club night from 7-9pm on Saturday and this was the place where she learned to dance. She had strict orders to be back home for 9 o'clock and as they lived one mile away at the top of a hill, it was an uphill run all the way to be sure of getting home on time. To be allowed to go to the social club you had to do an hour's knitting for the forces every week. The club provided the wool and the knitting was done at home. Marian was a good knitter and made socks and balaclavas and scarves. Often she did her friends' knitting for them so they could have their night out. She must have been very popular!

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