Wartime Memories

A Memory of Dacre Banks.

My mother and I were evacuated to Dacre Banks in 1941 when I was only 1 year old. We stayed until I was 4 and my first memories are at Dacre Banks. We lived on a farm just outside the village, where we had to walk up to the railway line, cross the line and then the farm with two houses was on the right. We lived in the first house and my first memories are of the farm. The kitchen had a 'stable' door where an old horse used to come to collect his daily apple, a great delight to a toddler. I used to roam the farmyard, watching cows being milked, wandering into the fields (and getting lost, although I was oblivious to the concerns of the adults who found me cheerfully singing as I sat under a huge tree). The village folk were really kind to my mother and me. The Browns often had us for dinner in their village home. I remember they served Yorkshire Pudding and gravy before the first course. Needless to say Yorkshire Pudding has been a lifetime favourite with me. The lovely people who owned the house we stayed in were business folk from Leeds. They would visit at weekends with their little daughter who was the same age as me. The little girl had a nanny who often accompanied them, and I remember going to Church with them and she and I sang Baa Black Sheep while the hymn was being sung!! We were only 3 1/2 years old after all! There was a lady who used to make windmills and we were treated to a bright coloured windmill. There was a lady in the village who kept pigs next to her cottage. My mother told me the lady had been quite a celebrity in her day having been a dancer, and she was always very kind to me. She was a somewhat eccentric lady who dressed very showily with make and jewellery all the time. Lovely memories and now I live in Australia and have done for 46 years there's no hope of returning to Dacre Banks, but the memory lives on. Thank you for reading my memory of a beautiful place away from all the bombing and carnage in London. Joyce (Briley) Sarahs

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