A Warm Time Evacuee In Kingsbury

A Memory of Kingsbury.

I was evacuated from London (via Norfolk) to Kingsbury in 1940 and lived in a lane called "Sunnyside" and went to Kingsbury School. The headmaster was a Mr Leonard Brain and I sang in the choir at Kingsbury Church. Behind the church the land dropped away which gave a good view of the river and the water meadows. The river seemingly was one large sewer and given to overflowing in the winter time which mean that anyone wishing to cross the meadows (children going to and from school) had to walk on a raised walkboards.
Some time in 1942 (I think) a German plane dropped a bomb on a row of houses in which a number of people were killed and were subsequently buried in a mass grave in Kingsbury churchyard.

It was not an uncommon sight to see Kingsbury men walking to work in the colliery. These men were given an allowance of coal which was delivered to their homes by horse and cart.

The village must have appeared to be very crowded to the local population as a result of the considerably large number of evacuess from both London and Birmingham during the war years, but never the less I remember the local people as being both warm and friendly.

---

---