My time as an evacuee in Leicester

My time as an evacuee in Leicestershire

I was born in Hove in April 1935, and remember the start of the war when there were some enemy raids in the area.
I believe it must have been during 1940 I was taken by bus to Brighton Station, where I was put on the train along with a large number of children, and a few teachers to look after us on the journey. Each child had gas mask, as well as a large label.
The train took us to non stop to Leicester, and during the trip I remember we where given a cardboard carton of milk, this I managed spill trying to poke the hole in the top for the straw.
At Leicester we were taken to a big hall, [the De Montfort Hall I believe] and here we stayed the night on the floor sleeping head to tail.
The next day we were lined up to wait for someone to pick us out to take home. Nobody seemed to want to pick me for along time I must have been one of the last to be picked.
I was lucky however to go and live with Mr.and Mrs. Coombes who were very good to me, unlike some of the others including my elder sister who was not treated as well.
I had a great time living in Birstall a fairly large village about three miles from Leicester until the end of 1944.
At first all the evacuees where taught together in an old wooden hut in the school grounds by two teachers who came with us. These teachers were a bit worried we would pick up some Leicester accent. The hut was very cold, the only heat was from one round stove in the middle of the room, and the chilblains used to drive me mad.
As time went by a lot of the evacuees drifted back home, including my sister, and we where integrated with the main school.
Mr.and Mrs. Coombes [who I called uncle and auntie] kept chickens, ducks, and geese on a plot backing on to their back garden, so we were all right for eggs and an occasional bird for the table. I enjoyed helping to look after birds. They also had another plot to grow vegetables and two plum trees, so food seemed plentiful.
We were able to explore the area around the village, the fields, the river, and other hamlets and villages nearby. Mrs. Coombes worked part time as cleaner at the school, so I was able to play around the school after hours, watching the caretaker stoke the boilers or changing the accumulators in the air raid shelters etc. That was the only time I went into the shelters, as I do not recall any air raids whilst I was there.
When I eventually came home towards the end of 1944 I found it as traumatic or more so than being evacuated in the first place. Things were more austere back home than I was used to, and I believe my younger brother who had stayed at home resented me a little. I never did get on with him too well, and I felt a bit of an outsider.
I did persuade my mother to by some chickens, and looked after them for a few years.
Each year whilst at school I would take the train and spend my summer holidays in Birstall, I enjoyed this greatly. When I was 16 years old I rode my cycle the 150 miles to Birstall, to spend a week there.
I stayed in touch until 1966, but the sadly lost contact, I was probably too busy with my own family.
I have always felt to be an outsider and do not like changes. Whether this is because I was evacuated or just the way I am, I do not know.

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