c1955, Wetley Rocks

Evacuation

My brother and I, aged six and a half and five, were evacuated to Wetley Rocks at the outbreak of war in 1939.  We only stayed for six weeks but the time is imprinted on my mind.  We were billeted in a farmhouse which belonged to, I believe, the Ridgway family who lived in a grander house nearby, now demolished.  Miss Ridgway lived there with her brother.  Their father was a pottery manufacturer.  The farmhouse had a room with a large table, covered in white crockery, and glass-fronted cupboards containing the same.  There was a cowman who I think was conscripted but I was told that his name was Mr Moss and he was still alive in 1991.  We attended the village school - mornings one week and afternoons the next.  Arriving in Wetley Rocks we were deposited in the school and given beakers of tea and a banana.  On arrival at the farmhouse we went to see the cows being milked and coming out I slipped in a fresh... Read more