Evacuation From London To Harpley

A Memory of Harpley.

I remember Harpley as a four-year-old, when it had no running water, electricity or gas.  I was evacuated there when first born, in 1939 during the war years and stayed in a cottage opposite to the village pub.  At that time we had to cross the road to draw drinking water from the well.  Washing and bathing water was supplied by rainwater tanks kept at the back of the cottage.  There was a large bungalow bath hung on the side of the cottage which was used by the adults for bath days.  The couple who looked after us used to place every receptacle possible on top of the stove to heat the water for the bath.  Washing clothes was a considerable chore, and always carried out on a Monday. I remember that once washed they were put through a mangle and then hung up to dry if the weather permitted.  Ironing was carried out by using flat irons heated on top of the wood/coal-burning stove, and when hot, fitted with a stainless steel baseplate to prevent coal dust soiling the clothes.   As one iron cooled down, the baseplate was removed and attached to another freshly heated iron.  There was a red telephone box near the cottage with the old manual telephone number of Great Massingham 27.  It suggested that only 27 phones were in existence in the village at that time!  We used to watch old black and white movies in the village hall on Saturday evenings, something as a four-year-old, I loved. The other excitement came when warplanes from the American Airforce Base across counry would fly over at low altitude making a tremendous noise.  I think the base was Finningley.  

On Sundays, at that time, my mother practised the Catholic Faith, so we had to fulfill our Sunday mass obligation. We were able to attend mass in a house in the next village, as we were too far away from the nearest Catholic church, which was in Kings Lynn.   Some of the villagers didn't like us too much because of this, as most of them were low-church, and went to a local chapel.  However, I had mostly good memories of my evacuation, but left there before the war ended at the end of 1944, to return with my mother to our house in Streatham, South London.  I kept in touch with the couple who looked after us, and paid them visits years later after I'd grown up and could drive there, first by motorbike, then by car. Does anyone out there remember the residents, Elsie and Albert Moore, and their live-in lodger Dereck Darlow?  What about the village well, the old pub, and the film shows in the hall during those war years, and even perhaps the mass house in nearby Rudham which we attended?

I recently 'Googled' the part of Nethergate Street where I was evacuated.  The outside of the cottage has not changed much, but there is now a white fence and gate to gain access to the rear of the cottage, whereas during the war years this was just open.  

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