大象传媒

At the age of 7 I was evacuated from Brighton to Yorkshire. I remember leaving with hundreds of other children at 6am at Brighton station and going by steam train. We stayed overnight in a large hospital in Leeds, which I think was the currently famous Jimmy's. Men in blue uniforms were being moved out to make room for us to stay there.

The following day we arrived in New Shelstone at the Chapel and stood in line waiting to be picked, entirely by the way we looked. I was very apprehensive about this. Suddenly this giant of a man stood in front of me and put his hand on my head, saying 'I'll take thee, lad'. I think there was a pool of water at my feet, I was so anxious. Bill Gittings was a huge coal miner, towering over me. He and his wife already had 3 of their own children, Norman, Mary and Ruth and we all lived in a small terraced property facing the Chapel.

I remember my foster mother cooking home made bread and cakes every Friday. We had Yorkshire pudding before the dinner, on its own and filled with gravy to fill us up first and Parkin cake and spice (sweets).

I remember the tin bath in front of the fire where my foster father took his nightly bath after coming home filthy from work. He sat in it and was given a good scrubbing down by his wife to get rid of the coal dust.

I remember being taken to Doncaster for my first pair of clogs; they had a wooden base and a type of metal horseshoe on the bottom which had to be renewed regularly. We had to walk miles to school every day.

I stayed with the family for 3 1/2 yrs and only saw my father once during that time, when he came to visit. I recall feeling really hurt when I had a letter from my mother to say she had taken in 2 evacuees from Croydon, I remember thinking why couldn't I stay home if she could take them in.

Although I enjoyed my time in Yorkshire with the Gittings family I found it very difficult to settle when I eventually returned home. I think being taken from my mother at such a young age had a resounding effect on me that caused me many problems in later life.

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