大象传媒

I remember waiting in the playground with all the other children from Raglan Infants School, Bush Hill Park, on Friday, September 1st 1939, and tearful parents looking on through the school railings. Our teachers took us to Bush Hill Park station, complete with name tags and cardboard boxes containing our gas masks, and we went by train to Bressingham in Norfolk. I remember on the journey one of the teachers carefully wiping my hands and face clean and then my asking if I could have an orange. I can still see the look on her face! I also remember that the train must have stopped half way to our destination because we were all taken to a large hall that was full of buckets - and there we all went to the toilet.
The next thing I recall is that my sister and I were taken to a house called "The Moorings" in Bressingham village and there we lodged with an elderly spinster, Edith Kenyon, and her middle-aged spinster niece, Sybil. They were very strict, and on Sundays we were only allowed to play with a certain set of building bricks and wear our best clothes. On one occasion after dinner, I had left on my plate a large piece of gristle. I was told to eat it, but said I didn't want to. Sybil was determined that I should, and stood over me until I was forced to put it in my mouth and swallow it. Ugh! Perhaps this is why I never liked fat!
I was very homesick and cried a lot, and can remember to this day standing outside the garden gate desperately wanting to see my mother. We did have a week of bliss, though, when the two ladies went on holiday and deposited us with a nearby farmer and his wife. At mealtimes all the family and farm workers ate round a huge table - and on one occasion we were given green jelly, something I had never seen before. The farmer's wife also taught me to ride a bicycle.

Fifty years later I spent Christmas in Thetford, and went on a nostalgic car trip to see if I could find "The Moorings" and the farm. I did find them both, and although "The Moorings" is very different now (having been modernised). The farm was exactly as I remembered it.

Whilst in Bressingham we went to the village school, sharing the day with the local children. One day the evacuees were taken for a country walk through a field which had only recently had cows in it. Although I was not normally a mischievous child, I was obviously very upset at being away from home, and I can see myself now, coming up to the newly-planted cow pat - and pushing the boy in front of me right in it! I don't remember the punishment I got, but I certainly deserved it. However, after only ten weeks away, we were sent back to London at the beginning of November.

One of my most treasured possessions is a leather-bound Bible given to us by Miss Kenyon, which has helped to keep their memory alive.

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