An Evacuees Memory

A Memory of Over Stowey.

I was evacuated to Over Stowey in 1939 at the start of the Second World War. I was lucky becauseIi was with my mother and brother and sister, who was a babe in arms. I was ten years old and my brother was eight. Two ladies were owners of the house where we stayed, which is the house next to the church in the photograph. We were with another family from the same street in London and one of the children was my playmate in London. We were evacuated from Canning Town in east London. We were only there for four days because we had bread and jam for breakfast, tea and supper for 3 days running. When my mother asked if they ever had meat, the lady said they thought that's all we had in London. She said we would have a special meal the next day. It was called Jugged Hare, which was hung in the orchard for a week until there were thousands of maggots in it and then it was boiled. Needless to say we were not able to eat it as the smell when the lid was taken off was more than we could stomach. So we went back to London. My mother phoned her father in London to send a taxi for us. I remember that the fare from London to Stowey and back was something like seven pounds and and a few shillings which was a lot of money in 1939.

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