May 1941

I lived with my parents in Bootle, Merseyside through the worst of the Blitz, experiencing heavy bombing as the docks were not far away and we spent most nights in Air Raid shelters in the garden. In May 1941, it was decided that my brother and I would be safer in the countryside, so we went off with the last batch of evacuees to Herefordshire.
We travelled by train from Ford Station (now non-existent) to Abergavenny and were temporarily billeted with Mrs Head, an elderly widow who lived with a cook and a maid in a large house in Wormbridge. After a week, we were moved to Kilpeck Vicarage and then to more permanent accommodation with Mr and Mrs Addis, Woodbine Cottage in the hamlet of Marlas, Kilpeck. We shared sleeping accommodation with their two children still at home, Barbara and Desmond.
We adapted to the country life and enjoyed collecting firewood in the woods, bringing water from a standpipe tap at the top of the lane, and feeding the poultry. There was no mains electricity in the hamlet; lighting was by oil lamp and cooking on the kitchen range fire. We gathered firewood in the nearby woods each weekend. We slept two to a single bed, but we were well fed and looked after. Each friday we had a 'proper' bath in a galvanised bath borrowed from neighbours, and the water heated in a copper boiler.
Sadly, Mr Morgan who lived in the next cottage with his sister, was killed on the railway. We were all very upset about this. One night a stray German plane (probably off course from bombing an industrial target) jettisoned its remaining bomb into a nearby field and killed seven cows. We all went to view the crater!
Our hens were kept in an old wooden railway carriage and it was a thrill to us 'townies' to gather fresh warm eggs each day. We picked fruit in the orchards and gathered potatoes into sacks on the farm nearby.
I remember how completely the local children accepted us and we made many friends. We attended Sunday School in Kilpeck Church which is a very famous old Norman building.
We returned to Bootle at Christmas as I was required to start the next term at Bootle Grammar School, having received my scholarship results. I was very sad to leave and have revisited many times since, and am still in touch with Barbara.

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