大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Rebecca Hood of the People's War Team in Wales on behalf of Margaret Morris and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The story was gathered at an event held in Abergavenny in May 2005, to mark the 60th anniversary of VE day.

I was ten on 26th August and we were evacuated the first week of September. We went from our school Canning Street school, the buses came and the mothers came to see us off. I remember my mum being there with her sister Alice 鈥� who wasn鈥檛 married so she didn鈥檛 have any children 鈥� and I went off quite happily. I wasn鈥檛 worried about leaving home, or leaving my mum behind and my mum was trying not to cry, and my Auntie Alice started to cry and my mum said 鈥淣ow our Alice I told you you weren鈥檛 to come if you were going to cry鈥� and that鈥檚 the last thing I remember hearing from my Mum before I got on the bus and went. They took us down to the Central Station in Newcastle to get the train and we ended up just outside Carlisle and our group went to a church hall outside of Wigton鈥ot Wigtown there鈥檚 two places in Cumbria鈥igton, and we sat in the church hall we were given a brown paper bag with a tin of corned beef in it, bar of Cadburys chocolate, an apple and an orange; and that was to was to see us through till we got to wherever鈥ou know鈥� home we were going to鈥� And we had a little haversack with a change of clothes and things in. We went and sat in the church hall and people came round the church hall and sort of said, 鈥淥h I鈥檒l have that one, or that one, or the other one鈥�, and we sat , a friend and I (she wasn鈥檛 really a friend but we pal'd up on the train and said we were going to stick together).

Nobody wanted two, they only wanted one evacuee, so we were rather there a long time鈥early to the end. Then this lady who had come round a couple of times and asked me whether I鈥檇 like to go with her, and I said, 鈥淥h well, this is my friend, I鈥檇 like to stay with my friend鈥濃�� towards the end more or less everybody had gone and there was only the two of us left and this lady and she said, 鈥淚s this your friend?鈥� And I said 鈥測es it is鈥�, and she said, 鈥渙h come on I鈥檒l take the two of you鈥�. So we went out and there was this big Ford car鈥ovely car, with this gentleman driving it鈥� so all the way we were thinking, I wonder if its her husband, he seems awful old, but when you got there it was her father鈥� and his wife was the lady of the farm and she was standing by the kitchen door, it was a lovely farm house鈥ouble fronted, with cow byres down the one end and orchards all down the road, chickens down the back, it was great.

We stuck together Irene and I鈥e had a bedroom, which Mary, the daughter who was going to look after us, shared with us. We were in the double bed and she was in the single, I think originally she was going to be in the double bed and the one evacuee would single. We were together. And then鈥ome Saturdays, they used to take the produce, the eggs, butter, cheese and stuff from the farm to Carlisle market, and we would take it in turns to go, Irene go one week and I would go the next week. It was lovely. I had a lovely pair of clogs made in the market, I watched the man making them鈥nd I clonked around in those and really took to farm life鈥� it was great鈥� didn鈥檛 want to come home. I was quite happy鈥�. They were the happiest time of my childhood really. I had so much space, I mean living in Newcastle we were living in an upstairs flat and only a back lane or a back yard to play in, so all this farm was lovely. I tried to milk cows and I fed the calves with buckets of milk鈥hey had dogs on the farm, the one sheep dog was called Help and I always used to think it would be funny if Mr Guardhouse was shouting 鈥淗elp!鈥� for the dog and somebody would go to rush and help him, that quite tickled me! And there was another little dog in the barns but he was blind so he stayed and looked after the rats and mice in the barns, you know, saw them off. I played about the farm house, we went to school in the village school, and that was an experience as well because all the children were in one big room. You had a class of the younger ones at the one end and the juniors at the other end鈥� it was lovely. We did singing, we went outside and had drawing lessons and drew the church, steeple and all and that kind of thing, because it was all around the village, where I lived of course was so built up that there was nothing like that鈥� it was really great.

I can still now picture the farm house鈥f I can鈥檛 sleep at night I go for a walk around the farm, where the pears were, where the apples were, where the chickens were, where the cows were鈥�.you had to go through the barn to get to the milking sheds and the farmhouse itself had an outside loo鈥� a double hole loo, and I went in there once and there was a huge black furry caterpillar there and it nearly frightened the life out of me. There was the separating parlour for separating the milk and cream and there was another parlour where they had a big churn for churning it into butter, I used to try and help to churn, and they had a farm labourer who lived on the farm up in the attic, he had a pair of ladders that went up from the dairy up to where he slept, Jack his name was. Lovely big kitchen, we had lovely meals. My parents came up sort of every fortnight and Irene鈥檚 parents came the other fortnight, so all in all we were only there six weeks, but it seemed like months and months and months to me. It was really happy, but unfortunately Mary decided to get married and she was the one who looked after us, her parents were rather older鈥�.so we would have had to find another billet, but my father didn鈥檛 want that because we鈥檇 had heard stories of other children not being so lucky, so we were brought home. So I spent the rest of the war in Newcastle.

My mother was scared I remember...and living in a Newcastle flat upstairs鈥� she used to want us to rush out in the night if there was an air ride siren. But I got to the stage where I said 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want that, if I鈥檓 going to die I鈥檇 rather die in my bed cause I do love my bed.鈥� So she would come in and lie on top of me in the bed, sort of cwtch me up and if the bomb was to come it would get the both of us, or it would get her first or something, but I was very sure I didn鈥檛 want to go out in the cold, in the shelter. If I was going to die I wanted to die comfortable!

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