Evacuated To Hele....

A Memory of Hele.

I am guessing the year would have been 1944.... I would have been 6 and my brother would have been 5. I dont know how we were evacuated exactly...because we didnt go through the School system, we went with our Mother and our Grandmother who was also staying in Chamberlain Road ? Ilfracombe at the same time. We stayed with a family called Walden in Hele village in a 3 storey house with lots of Hydrangea bushes in the back garden. It was a narrow street with houses on both sides and the cows would come through it twice a day (I think) to the Farm at the other end of the village for milking...I believe there were 2 other children evacuees in the village but I cant remember names. Both my brother and I went to the little School/Chapel on Old Berryarbour Road. It had a curtain dividing the main hall into two classrooms and there were two teachers Miss Needle and Miss Channing.... Playtime we would march around the playground doing a straight arm salute with one finger held underneath our noses shouting out "Heil Hitler".... We had nature study classes and sometimes we would be taken into the fields and ferns and grasses explained to us. it was very different to our lives in east London. I remember in the spring primroses and violets were everywhere and we would pick them for my Mum to send back home to Family not so fortunate as us... We had visits to Combe Martin and Woolacombe with its exciting "sinking sands" as i remember it being called. Plus treks across Hillsborough Hill to Ilfracombe (Capstan Harbour?}.... Sometimes a number of children would meet in a Barn at the far end of the village where the Farm was and would act out made up plays while others would watch, all good fun, I did so enjoy it. On my reckoning I think we must have been in Hele for about 9 months I am certain we were there for Christmas of 1944 because I can just remember a Nativity Play that we went to see. I am guessing that we returned to London about February/March of 45 shortly before the end of the war. Over the years I have visited Devon and Hele a number of times and it continues to hold a fond place in my memories.... The area has changed so much with caravans everywhere... but looking at the old photos took me back to that earlier gentler time, thank you for those ....

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