´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Valerie Mason, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was two and a half when World War Two started and I was evacuated together with my Mother to Little Sailing near Braintree in Essex. We were first billeted at a farm just outside Great Sailing and then one of the workers, Mr Gibbs offered us a place with him and his wife. I remember incendiary bombs dropping in the field behind the house and near the house, a lucky miss. I remember Mrs Gibbs died about two years after we went to stay there and I was left with the neighbours across the road a Mr and Mrs Byford while the funeral took place. All the toilets in the country were at the bottom of the garden and I remember Mrs Byford singing ‘Run Rabbit Run’ to me when ever I needed to go.

We continued to stay with Mr Gibbs and my Mother looked after him. My Mother worked on the fields, and I used to help her potato picking, pea picking and sugar beet singling when these jobs were in season. My father who had stayed in Edmonton North London with his elderly parents joined the Home Guard. When he had a spare moment he would cycle all the way from Edmonton to Little Saling to see us. He used to cycle back in the blackout through Epping Forest, which must have been scary. I remember the blitz in 1940 my Mother and I were travelling back to Saling after visiting my Father and Grandparents. We caught the bus at Lordship Lane in Tottenham, everything was inky black outside but we could see this red glow in the sky out towards London.
My Father used to work in London then at Ryland’s clothing factory. The next morning he found it had been bombed. He then found a job in a clothing shop in Edmonton called ‘Fred Wades’. One weekend when my father was visiting I was out walking with him when we heard an aeroplane diving, he grabbed me and threw me in the ditch and lay on top of me. It was a German Plane trying to shoot us. After it had passed we went into a friend’s house to recover from the shock.
I remember the birth of my sister in 1943 and I had to stay with a friend of my Mothers over night while another friend helped my Mother. The next morning I was taken back to see my new baby sister. She was named Diane May.

When the Americans arrived they built two airfields near us, one at Wethersfield and one at Great Saling called Saint Andrews Field. Part of this is still there today and used by a private flying club. We had two more bombs fall not long after the Americans came. One was a Rocket and the other was a doodlebug. The Germans were probably trying to hit the Air Field. I remember going to a Christmas party in one of the big hangers and the Americans made a big fuss of us, and all the children were given a big bag of sweets to take home. Another Christmas party I remember was given by one of the farmers. I believe he was a squire because he had a big house and owned a lot of land. There was a big Christmas tree in the hall way and his daughter had a lovely big rocking horse which we were allowed to ride. I remember my Mother trying to learn to ride a bicycle and falling in a ditch of stinging nettles. She never tried again. When I was five I went to the village school in Little Saling. It only had two classrooms, one for five to seven year olds and the other for the older children. I enjoyed school but not the dinners. I was always last and was made to sit there until I had finished. The worst vegetables were greens and butter beans. My Mother was severely reprimanded for sending me to school with ‘Pink Eye’ otherwise know as conjunctivitis. When the war was over we returned to my Father in Edmonton. My Grandfather had died and my Grandmother died just before we returned so I never got to know them very much although I do remember going back to stay with them for a weekend and my Grandmother giving me a dish of pineapple to eat how she got it I do not know. I was eventually sent to the local school in Edmonton called Houndsfield School and started in the juniors.

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