大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People's War website by Tim Ford on behalf of Laura Harrison and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the 大象传媒 Peoples War Project and it's aim to create the largest online archive of stories of a nation at war.

Evacuation was not compulsory but children were sent to country locations away from the bombs. They went to farms, camps or private houses and my sister and I went to Bellingham North Tyne at Brownrigg Girls School Camp. My brother went to Dukes Housewood Camp in Hexham.

Camps consisted of long wooden dormitories raised on concrete supports. "Ablution Blocks" and classrooms were all built in the same style. There was a huge dining hall and kitchens, tuck shop, social hall with stage and green room. There was also a hospital block.

My favourite spot on a sunny day was a small lily pond. In my garden I still grow flowers that I loved there - Aquilegia. Instead of fences inside the camp we had close clipped hedges and a turf wall shaped like a long high-backed bench seat. Handy on sports day we could sit on either level. There was a wild rabbit patch, we looked after the goats. On the fells around the camp we used to go on nature walks among the heather bracken and ferns, but we had to watch out for snakes - adders - which we did see.

When the sheep broke through the fence I had to help the camp handyman to get them backout. We were allowed to cut little garden plots in the grass between dormitories to plant salad seeds or small flowers to brighten up the place.

I remember lying in long grass on staw mats on lovely warm days looking up into blue skies. In groups we'd visit local farms at lambing time, or go for long country walk; sometimes picnic by the river where we'd paddle or swim. There were few buses or cars in the country we walked everywhere for miles.

It was a mile from the camp to the village where went if a film was being shown at the Town Hall, and again for church on Sundays. There was a bluebell wood on the way there beyond the Catholic Church beside the bridge and across the river. We also went to the Bellingham Show, which still continues each year, where farmers show their livestock and produce, local crafts, sideshows, roundabouts and competitions. We learned the value of wildlife, birds and trees.

In a nearby dene called Hareshaw Linn,(like Jesmond Dene), we found wild primroses and hazelnuts which always remind of Bellingham. I passed my Scholarship there and had to leave to go to High School.

These are my best memories during the war.

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