“There was no chance to say goodbye to my parents, the buses arrived and we were off to London Road Station and three months in the country as evacuees.”
This almost throwaway comment by Bevan Taylor will have been replicated thousands of times across Britain during the early September of 1939.
Since Guernica in the Spanish Civil War there was that powerful idea that the “bomber would always get through” and so even before the outbreak of war preparations had been made for the mass removal of children and expectant mothers out of the danger areas.
The evacuations began in early September, experienced a lull during the Phoney War when some children returned home and picked up again after the Fall of France and the beginning of the Blitz.
But there were enormous regional variations with cities like Manchester and Liverpool evacuating large numbers of children while other urban areas sent fewer to neighbouring towns and villages.
Bev and his friends from Burnage High School were sent to two villages outside Leek in Staffordshire.
It had begun in the spring of 1939 when his parents attended a meeting at the school “which they assumed was about Air Raid Precautions, and while there signed a form which it became clear gave permission for me to be evacuated.
There were approximately 450 other lads whose parents had done the same, and we were all told to arrive at school with a packed bag.
Now I turned up with one of those fibre suitcases while my friends had rucksacks, and I did envy them those rucksacks.
We didn’t know what to expect but perhaps not just to be put in the school playing field under the supervision of some prefects.
There was nothing to do except play cards.
At the end of the school day we were sent home, only to return the following day for more of the same.
In all we had four days on the playing field and I can say I’d had my fill of playing cards by the end of it.
And then on that fifth day, Friday September 11th some double-decker buses drew up outside the school
We were told we weren’t going home and with that we trooped aboard the buses and went off to the station and from there by train to Leek and on again by bus to the village of Longsdon.
There wasn’t much to the village. I remember the church,the corner shop, a telephone kiosk and a hall belonging to the Women’s Institute.
I had teamed up with my friend and we reckoned that we would accept the first person who offered to take us because we didn’t fancy being there all day.
As it was we didn’t have to wait long because about half an hour after we arrived a severe looking man with dark eyes, wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella walked up to us and said ‘Would you like to come with me?
He gave my mate his briefcase and umbrella and me the bowler hat and then with us on either side of him we walked off out of the hall and up the road to a house opposite to Salt’s farm."
Next; three months with the Peacock family
In conversation with Bevan Taylor May 8 2015
Picture; Don’t do it Mother, Ministry of Health, 1940, and was scanned and released by the Imperial War Museum on the IWM Non Commercial Licence, Evacuation of School Children on a Bus, 1940 m09910 and North Manchester Grammar School Boys off to Bakewell, 1940, m09927 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
.jpg) |
| Poster, 1940 |
Since Guernica in the Spanish Civil War there was that powerful idea that the “bomber would always get through” and so even before the outbreak of war preparations had been made for the mass removal of children and expectant mothers out of the danger areas.
The evacuations began in early September, experienced a lull during the Phoney War when some children returned home and picked up again after the Fall of France and the beginning of the Blitz.
But there were enormous regional variations with cities like Manchester and Liverpool evacuating large numbers of children while other urban areas sent fewer to neighbouring towns and villages.
Bev and his friends from Burnage High School were sent to two villages outside Leek in Staffordshire.
It had begun in the spring of 1939 when his parents attended a meeting at the school “which they assumed was about Air Raid Precautions, and while there signed a form which it became clear gave permission for me to be evacuated.
.jpg) |
| Children evacuees on a bus, 1940 |
Now I turned up with one of those fibre suitcases while my friends had rucksacks, and I did envy them those rucksacks.
We didn’t know what to expect but perhaps not just to be put in the school playing field under the supervision of some prefects.
There was nothing to do except play cards.
At the end of the school day we were sent home, only to return the following day for more of the same.
 |
| North Manchester Grammar School Boys, 1940 |
And then on that fifth day, Friday September 11th some double-decker buses drew up outside the school
We were told we weren’t going home and with that we trooped aboard the buses and went off to the station and from there by train to Leek and on again by bus to the village of Longsdon.
There wasn’t much to the village. I remember the church,the corner shop, a telephone kiosk and a hall belonging to the Women’s Institute.
I had teamed up with my friend and we reckoned that we would accept the first person who offered to take us because we didn’t fancy being there all day.
As it was we didn’t have to wait long because about half an hour after we arrived a severe looking man with dark eyes, wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella walked up to us and said ‘Would you like to come with me?
He gave my mate his briefcase and umbrella and me the bowler hat and then with us on either side of him we walked off out of the hall and up the road to a house opposite to Salt’s farm."
Next; three months with the Peacock family
In conversation with Bevan Taylor May 8 2015
Picture; Don’t do it Mother, Ministry of Health, 1940, and was scanned and released by the Imperial War Museum on the IWM Non Commercial Licence, Evacuation of School Children on a Bus, 1940 m09910 and North Manchester Grammar School Boys off to Bakewell, 1940, m09927 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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