Ferndown

I was born in a cottage called Oak Cottage on the Ringwood Road between the Angel Inn and the Rambler Garage as it was then. I was 9 when the Second World War started and remember the Southampton buses bringin the evacuee childen to stay in Longham and Ferndown. We went to Ferndown school in Church Road which has now been demolished and is now council offices. The school now is at the back on the land where the trenches were dug during the war which were to keep us safe. The Village Hall is still there and the British Legion is a nice modern building next door were we play skittles once a month. I remember when the evacuees came we went to school in the mornings and they went in the afternoons untill things got sorted out. My best friend at school was Eddy Grubb whose whole family came down from Southampton and lived near us and went back after the war, but we are still friends today.