Evacuation

A Memory of Swimbridge.

We were evacuated to North Molton during the Second World War, I remember going to the school and being billeted in various homes, one on the hill near a baker's shop - what lovely smells. I also remember the Lysander plane that crashed into the church, and the bullets exploding. I remember going picking blueberries on Exmoor for people from London and getting paid, and wild strawberries near a railway station, skinny dipping in the river with lads from London and girls from the village close to Swimbridge Bridge. Going shoping in South Molton Woolworths? Watching the farmer milk his cows and having milk squirted into our mouths, building dens with the local lads and playing Cowboys and Indians, listening to the planes going overhead on their way to bomb Plymouth and many more wonderful memories. To a 10 year old boy the war, even the bombing of Bristol, was a great adventure. Thank for the memories North Molton, from a boy from Knowle West, Bristol.
Dennis Broad