Home on the Farm

This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Peter Quinn of the Lancs Home Guard on behalf of Gerry Stevenson and has been added to the site with his permission…

In March 1941, at the age of four, my parents decided that we would evacuate, as a family, from Wallasey to N Wales. We were set up on a distant relative’s farm. Everything was amazingly different for me — for example, the turkey cock used to chase me around the farmyard and the farmer’s wife fended it off by hitting it with a shovel.
An orphaned lamb had to be fed with a bottle — called Larry, after the BBC Childrens’ Hour “Toytown” hero. The local lads used to scare us by telling us that if you slept with the hens, you’d get Chicken pox.
I was fascinated by the anti-tank concrete blocks, which were ideal for spinning my top on. Unfortunately, one day my favourite top went down the hole in the centre; I was devastated!
I had my own patch of garden and was amazed when my radish seeds flowered — it was like a miracle.

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