Kathleen Eames

In July of 1940 my sister and I were evacuated with our Down School to Letchworth, at the time Betty was 10 years old and I was 12 years old.

Our first billet was with Mr & Mrs Sydney White and their daughter Joyce of Rushby Mead. We were kindly welcomed and became 'family' and so spent 2 happy years with Aunty and Uncle and Joyce.

Uncle served with the Post Office and Home Guard, Aunty with the W.V.S and Joyce a telephonist at Letchworth Exchange

Uncle and Aunty kept chickens at the bottom of the garden. Betty and I used to help feed them, which we enjoyed, except the attacks from the fierce cockerel but great delight when the baby chicks arrived. One day we had roast chicken but to our dismay found it was our favourite hen, Brownie!

Betty and I enjoyed the freedom of exploring the fields across to Willian and scrumping in a nearby apple orchard.

We attended Pixmore School and soon made friends with the local children. Pixmore School provided new facilities to us, a gymnasium where we enjoyed the modern equipment, and a kitchen where we were taught many of the wartime recipes.

Due to "Aunty White" becoming unwell, we moved to our second billet with Mr & Mrs Luckwell of Rushby Mead, once again welcomed as 'family' enjoying many happy times with Aunty at the local Swimming Pool and after Sunday tea, playing many games of Monopoly and Totopoloy.

Betty returned with Down School in 1943 and I stayed on working in an office of a local engineering factory till 1944.

We often meet up with evacuees and recall the many times at Letchworth and so very grateful to the local people of the town who so kindly welcomed us.

Nellie Angel

Imagine being told by my mother I was going on a lovely holiday with my sister and two brothers in a train with the school. I had never been on a train or on holiday in all my nine years, this was 1939 when war had just began. There were many preparations, new clothes and shoes, our gas masks and identity tags to be put on very exciting. Mother went to the Station with us, and all the school were there, the teachers, and even our head master was there.

Mother told me I was to look after my youngest brother Bert, and my sister Jean who was 7 years was to look after my other brother Sid of 5 years. We all got on the train with our sandwiches and off we went. I felt very important as I was in charge of my siblings. We waved to my mother as the train pulled out of the station, all the mothers were waving and crying. We settled down to enjoy the novelty of the journey, and passing countryside. At last we arrived in a town called Letchworth very tired and a little apprehensive as we realised we were on our own in a strange place and we missed our mother.

A lot of people were there to meet the train and we were lined up for people to choose us. I never saw my sister go, she was very pretty with white blond hair and big blue eyes. I was left with my two brothers and I would not be parted from them so we were the very last to be chosen. A young woman took us home with her, it was evening by the time we were given something to eat, and then I got the boys ready for bed. We were given a room with a double bed that we all shared. I did not care for the family or the house they gave me the creeps. I don't know how long we were there, it seemed years, but it could not have been more than a few weeks. It was the most unhappiest time I have ever experienced in my life. I protected my brothers as best I could. I was beaten almost every night by the man sometimes for just doing cartwheels on the lawn.

One day when I was at school I was called to the head masters room and there were two women there who said they had another family who would take me in and she was a very nice lady and they were going to take me to see her straight away. They had been to the house and had packed our bags that morning. Someone had reported their behaviour to the authorities.

My two brothers were to stay with a family who were related to the person I was to stay with and I could visit them any time I wanted to. I was not happy about this, as I had promised my mother that I would never leave them, but I had no say in the matter.

I was taken to the other family with great trepidation, and when the door opened there was this lovely person who said "is this my little evacuee?" I warmed to her immediately, she looked so friendly and had such a lovely smile, she invited me in and showed me where to hang my coat and also to my own bedroom that used to be her daughters when she was small. It was a lovely little room with a small bed and lots of dolls I could play with, as long as I looked after them and kept the room tidy, that was not hard to do as my mother brought me up to be tidy and keep myself clean.

I was very nervous at first, but she soon put me at ease by asking me if I would lay the table for her, she was very pleased with the way I laid the table. She, who I later called Auntie, told me that she had had an evacuee from the East End of London who when asked to lay the table threw all the cutlery into the middle of the table, we had quite a laugh about that which broke the ice. Her husband and daughter came home from work that evening and also welcomed me very warmly. I soon settled down there and I was so very happy.

Auntie liked to go to church on a Sunday morning and I would go with her as I liked to sing hymns when we went to the Free Church, and I loved it and in the afternoon would visit my brothers but in the end they were sent back to my mother as the youngest Bert, who was just 4 years old, pined for his mother and was ill.

I had, for the first time, the most happiest time I have ever had in my life and all the love I could ever have wanted. I was treated like a daughter, I even shared the same birthday as my Auntie, and she would make a very special party for us both with a cake and I would have my sister come to tea. My heart swells when I think of her and Uncle and their daughter Nora.

After living with them for 5 years I was called back to my mother when I was nearly 14 years old. I did not want to go back but had no choice.

I kept in touch with Auntie until her death when she was 94 years old and still keep in touch at Christmas with her daughter. Uncle died long before Auntie - so sad.

I will never forget their love and kindness, and it warms me still, they are with me in all I do as they are all I am today and I always will be a very happy person and content through knowing them.

Sidney Moore

I was one of the children with my brother Peter to be evacuated to Letchworth in 1940 from the Downs School.

We stayed with Mr and Mrs Prince of Pixmore Way. They had two daughters the youngest being Marjorie, and the eldest one Dorothy who was married to Tom. The family cat, black and white, was called Bo, and Bob their dog, a retriever, died while we were there.

Mr Prince, who was in the Home Guard, was employed by a large publishers in London. He was very popular with us boys as he brought home an assortment of comics every week.

The children from Bexhill went to a nearby school, the headmaster, Mr Bullock, was a friend of the family.

We enjoyed our stay in Letchworth the Prince's were very kind to two bewildered little boys and made us feel very much at home. We must have been there for about two years. Unfortunately we lost touch many years ago, I am now 73 years of age!

Gwen Huggins

On a Summer's morning in July 1940, we boarded buses outside the Down School to convey us to Bexhill Central Station. None of the children, nor their parents knew where we were to be evacuated. After what seemed to me (a child of nine with my brother aged seven) an interminable journey, we arrived in Letchworth. I doubt at that time I knew where Letchworth was on the map of England.

My next memory is of being in a car with one or two ladies, possilbly W.V.S. literally being hawked around the streets, where people came out of their homes offering billets. We eventually arrived in Broughton Hill and a young woman offered to take me but not my brother as she had only one bed available. My mother had firmly instructed me not to be separated from him and I gave voice to her instruction. The lady relented and we shared the bed.

The lady had a six month old baby and although she was kind, her husband was not so welcoming and we were not very happy. We were sent out to play in a small orchard at the bottom of the garden and were also introduced to the paddling pool.

My mother and a younger brother arrived in Letchworth two weeks later and eventually the lady where she was billeted at The Ridge, made room for us too.

Many of our school teachers came to Letchworth and temporary classes were set up in the Free Church Hall. I can remember being very bored as our normal classes were disrupted. We were there for a few months, then still with our own teacher, we transferred to Pixmore School.

After some months in The Ridge billet we were allocated rooms in Jackmans Place sharing the house with an extended family from London. All our worldly goods were crammed into two rooms and here we lived for 2½ years; my mother and us three children. My father was in the army.

By the end of 1941, many children had returned to Bexhill or joined their parents in other safer parts of the country. The remaining children were absorbed into the local schools.

As a family we never returned to Bexhill and lived in Letchworth until emigrating to Australia, some in the early fifties and my husband and I and our two children in 1963.

We still have close links with friends in Letchworth and have returned to visit on several occasions. I also still correspond with three friends who were evacuated to Letchworth.

Jean Maynard

I was evacuated from the Downs School, Bexhill-on-Sea in July 1940 at the age of eleven. My friend Irene and I were each taken to different houses in Campers Avenue. My hosts were a Mr & Mrs Milton, he was a schoolmaster and she a secretary at the Herts and Beds Bacon Factory in Hitchin. Also staying in the house were Mrs Milton's mother and Aunt from London.

We attended Pixmore School, which was reached by going down Campers Avenue, Spring Avenue, and Pixmore Avenue. I believe the headmaster was a Mr Grundy, but I do not recall the other teachers. I do remember the domestic science department where, if we weren't cooking, we cleaned the flat. I also remember that we once made Squab Pie, which was pigeon meat and apples under a pastry lid. I wouldn't eat it today, but with wartime shortages it was quite nice. We also went to Norton Free Church Hall opposite Norton Common for some of our lessons.

Apart from school, I have memories of the Rose Garden planted in memory of Ebenezer Howard, founder of Letchworth Garden City, which was in front of the Council Offices. Across the road on one side was located the Letchworth Grammar School, where, I believe, pupils from Bexhill Grammar School attended, and on the other side was the Public Library, and a Cinema called, I think, 'The Broadway'. There was also the museum. If I remember correctly, the cost of a first class ticket at the Library was 2d, and after that it was free unless the ticket was lost or a book overdue in which case you had to pay again. I also went to the Cinema to see Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland and Shirley Temple films.

One other clear memory is of the road which ran between Leys Avenue and Station Road 'The Wynd' where we used to buy washed raw carrots for 1d. They were delicious, very sweet and juicy. I can still see those little shops now, run mostly, I think, by people from London.

Other features I remember are the wide, tree-lined roads, the Spirella Corset Factory which I think was near a bridge, and the Roman Camp in Icknield Way. My brother, who was in Letchworth for six months, remembers a raid of incendiary bombs at Willian Village, and a party given at Christmas by the people of Letchworth for all the evacuees.

Although I missed my parents, I feel that I was quite happy during my two years at Letchworth.

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