大象传媒

In 1940 I was 9 years old and lived with my family in a tenement next to the docks in Liverpool. Apart from my mum and dad I had 3 brothers and 3 sisters.Before the first bombs fell on Liverpool at the end of July, my family and many others in the area, responded to the rumours of imminent bombing and evacuated of their own accord to North Wales,some 30 miles away. We travelled to the new home on our coal merchants lorry, the "new home "turned out to be some derelict cottages but to us younger children coming from a tenement it was very exciting to live in a house with an "upstairs".Whilst this was very exciting for the children, imagine the the stress on the parents, how did they manage without counselling in those days and worse was to come!
We lasted a few weeks in Wales before the conditions became intolerable and we moved back to Liverpool and the bombing which was to start on August 1st 1940.
When the German's started bombing the dock's we had to go into the communal air raid shelters which had been built on the "garden" in the centre of the tenement block. We would grab a blanket or an eiderdown and run to the shelter with bombs dropping close by on the dock's.One night the bombers machine gunned the area as they dropped their bombs. Once inside, the conditions were so bad that some people chose to stay in their homes and risk the bombing. Our house was so close to the fires raging on the dock's that our windows cracked with the heat. One of the bombs dropped only 200 yards from our house in the tenement, (I have a photo from the Liverpool Echo showing our house and the bomb crater)
A total of 2,716 people were killed and 2,393 seriously injured in Liverpool during the period from August 1940 t0 May 1941.
At some stage during the bombing it was decided to carry out an official evacuation of all children who were considered of suitable age to live away from their family.
In my family only myself an an older brother Mike were eligible, my other brothers an sisters were too old or too young.
One day we were assembled in the school and labelled like so much luggage and put on a train to Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, far from the bombing. We were all assembled in the town hall under the direction of billeting officers whose unenviable task was to match children to vacant accomodation in the town. Some times people would want a boy others a girl depending on their own family suitability. More difficult to place were two or more brothers and sisters.
Why? I don't know but my brother and I were last to be placed, did we look that daunting.(My Husband reckon's they could tell I was an awkward cutomer even then)As we stood alone in the now deserted town hall we started to feel very homesick. At this point one of the lady Billetting Officers took us over to a lady called Mrs Fox, we didn't realise what was ahead.
We went by car with Mrs Fox on a journey to the outskirts of the town through leafy lanes to a grand house on the edge of Uttoxeter racecourse. She took us into the house through the servants quarters! Here I was a little girl from a tenement in Liverpool about to spend the next year in the home of a millionaire!
Mrs Fox was The companion of the owner of the house, a lady called Mrs Bunting, I believe she was the owner of Staffordshire Breweries. after we we entered the house we were taken to our rooms.
I was to share a room with the senior housemaid Margaret Hopkins while Mike had a room of his own. From the start the staff treated us like family, from then on I don't remember ever feeling homesick.
After we had settled in we were taken to be enrolled at St Joseph's the local Catholic school. We soon adapted to the country life and enjoyed the walk to school every day where we made friends with the soldiers guarding the Prisoner of War camp on the racecourse.Most days we would pass other school children who wore a bright green uniform, and because they seemed a bit snooty we christened them the walking cabbages.
Some time after we arrived we were taken to be fitted out with new clothes at Orme's the ladies and gent's outfitters where the Bunting's had an account. The best was good enough for us. I had dresses, cardigan, shoes etc and a "straw hat" and Mike had a suit.
One day we took a walk into town and forgot to tell anyone, our poor guardians were frantic with worry, and we finished up being brought home in a police car.
Once a week on Saturday morning, we were taken to meet Mrs Bunting, she was an old lady in poor health but she was always kind and wanted to know if we had any problems and if we needed anything, we never did as we were always well looked after.
One day after we had been at the house for about a year, Mrs Fox came to talk to us and said she was very sorry but Mrs Bunting had become very ill and had to go into a nursing home, the house would have to be closed and all the staff would have to leave. We would have to be relocated with other families in the town. It was a sad time, but all good things come to an end. I was placed with one family and Mike with another. Mike went back to Liverpool soon after as he wasn't happy with the people he was placed with. I stayed with a family who I called Auntie Lil and Uncle John they were very nice but as the bombing had finished it was time to go back to reality.

Epilogue
I am now married and have three children and four grandchildren and by a strange quirk of fate, my son took a job in Staffordshire and bought a house in Uttoxeter.
My two grandchildren grew up in Uttoxeter talk about history repeating itself.

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