End of the war
The only reason anyone from my group left the area now, was when they became 14 and could leave school. But 2 girls obtained employment in Coleford and stayed there. I remember taking 2 boys the 20 miles to Gloucester to put them on the London bound train. This was in 1941 so they probably joined the forces before the war was over. I also recollected escorting a younger boy with his pet canary. He was bound for a new home in Rutland where his mother had been evacuated. He was able to reach his destination by travelling on the Midland Line over Lickey Bark. The summer of the Battle of Britain passed into a delightful autumn and then to a really cold winter, where we were cut off by deep snow for many weeks. The children were sometimes visited by their parents and other people came to take refugee in our community when Coventry and Bristol were badly bombed.
By September 1941, I was able to return to my own school where things were much more normal there for many months. The upper floor had been opened and we had all usual lessons and even our summer sports day. Concrete air raid shelters had been built and we moved into them if the alert sounded, taking our work along too! Our school filled up because children from the East of London, who had been bombed out of their homes, moved in until their houses were repaired.
In the spring of 1944 we expected that we should soon reach D-Day. It came in June and so did a new danger to S.E. England – flying bombs. More evacuation for anyone who required safety and peace! Teachers volunteered to go with each party and returned home immediately. Four of us and about 8 children were taken by bus to Euston Station and directly to a train. Once again an unknown destination but a very different journey! A corridor train for a start; cheerful experienced children calling from the windows whenever another train stopped near us. "Got any gum, chum?" This as the time when there were gum chewing Amemians everywhere. We arrived at Southport on the coast of Lancashire. The hour was late so we spent the night on the floor of a church hall on paliesses, lying in rows. The children tired enough to sleep on any thing! In the morning a few children were taken away to billets but it soon became apparent that few people wanted us. The days of the flying bomb were unknown here and perhaps people had become indifferent. We decided something drastic must be done so we selected some of the most charming children, tidied them up and took them for walks among the shoppers. Some stopped for a chat; we stopped others telling them who we were and of the need for homes. It had the required result and people went to the hall with their offers so that by early evening we 4 teachers were ready for a train back to Essex. As there were none until the morning we strolled along the seafront where there was no sign of the war; no barbed wire and people on the beaches. We spent the night in a hostel for seamen – now empty – on wooden mattress beds (no springs) but we slept well without hearing an ‘alert’ and were ready for our long journey home. Most of the children stayed in the north and were very happy until the war ended the following year. They not only escaped the sleepless nights, spent shells from the V1 but also the danger which followed from the V2 (Rockets) which just arrived unannounced.
People talk about the evacuation but from 1939 to 1945 there were many. I took part in 3 of them.
Alma L. Hewitt 1912-1987 née Fakes; teacher at Rayleigh and written in 1980. She taught at Churchfields School 1933-1937 and then at St. Barnabus Road School (=Woodford High School) when it opened for 12 to 14 age pupils from the other schools. Both were near east London but in Woodford, Essex.
She omits a related story in which she was walking outside the St. Barnabus Road School in Woodford, before or after the third evacuation of only some of the children there and saw a doddlebug (=V1, an early cruise missile made in Germany) heading for the school until it was caught by power lines near the playing fields. Around that time my Aunt Joyce F. Hewitt was teaching in another Essex school, near railway tracks at Dagenham. She had a large part of one tail go through the ceiling over the children's heads and 20 yeards back out into the school yard via the window.
By September 1941, I was able to return to my own school where things were much more normal there for many months. The upper floor had been opened and we had all usual lessons and even our summer sports day. Concrete air raid shelters had been built and we moved into them if the alert sounded, taking our work along too! Our school filled up because children from the East of London, who had been bombed out of their homes, moved in until their houses were repaired.
In the spring of 1944 we expected that we should soon reach D-Day. It came in June and so did a new danger to S.E. England – flying bombs. More evacuation for anyone who required safety and peace! Teachers volunteered to go with each party and returned home immediately. Four of us and about 8 children were taken by bus to Euston Station and directly to a train. Once again an unknown destination but a very different journey! A corridor train for a start; cheerful experienced children calling from the windows whenever another train stopped near us. "Got any gum, chum?" This as the time when there were gum chewing Amemians everywhere. We arrived at Southport on the coast of Lancashire. The hour was late so we spent the night on the floor of a church hall on paliesses, lying in rows. The children tired enough to sleep on any thing! In the morning a few children were taken away to billets but it soon became apparent that few people wanted us. The days of the flying bomb were unknown here and perhaps people had become indifferent. We decided something drastic must be done so we selected some of the most charming children, tidied them up and took them for walks among the shoppers. Some stopped for a chat; we stopped others telling them who we were and of the need for homes. It had the required result and people went to the hall with their offers so that by early evening we 4 teachers were ready for a train back to Essex. As there were none until the morning we strolled along the seafront where there was no sign of the war; no barbed wire and people on the beaches. We spent the night in a hostel for seamen – now empty – on wooden mattress beds (no springs) but we slept well without hearing an ‘alert’ and were ready for our long journey home. Most of the children stayed in the north and were very happy until the war ended the following year. They not only escaped the sleepless nights, spent shells from the V1 but also the danger which followed from the V2 (Rockets) which just arrived unannounced.
People talk about the evacuation but from 1939 to 1945 there were many. I took part in 3 of them.
Alma L. Hewitt 1912-1987 née Fakes; teacher at Rayleigh and written in 1980. She taught at Churchfields School 1933-1937 and then at St. Barnabus Road School (=Woodford High School) when it opened for 12 to 14 age pupils from the other schools. Both were near east London but in Woodford, Essex.
She omits a related story in which she was walking outside the St. Barnabus Road School in Woodford, before or after the third evacuation of only some of the children there and saw a doddlebug (=V1, an early cruise missile made in Germany) heading for the school until it was caught by power lines near the playing fields. Around that time my Aunt Joyce F. Hewitt was teaching in another Essex school, near railway tracks at Dagenham. She had a large part of one tail go through the ceiling over the children's heads and 20 yeards back out into the school yard via the window.
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