My Father Bob Barnard Lived In Overton As A Boy. His Words Are Below:

A Memory of Overton.

I was born on 29th November 1928, and lived in Southsea in 1939, and during August my parents, little sister, and I went for a short holiday by coach to stay with an Aunt and Uncle at Overton in Hampshire. The threat of war was very imminent, and as we lived near a big Naval port, my parents decided to arrange for me to be privately evacuated with the relatives.

I was taken to the outskirts of the village, to a place called 'The Lynch', where I stayed with my Aunt's Mum and Dad. It was a very old house with no running water, gas or electricity and no flush toilets. At the bottom of the garden was the River Test, and we used to get our daily water out of the river, in a bucket. For cooking and heat we had an old kitchen range, and lighting was with oil lamps, and the toilet was a little hut, over a hole in the ground.

As a ten year old, life was not too bad, and I chummed up with a lad a few doors away. I went to junior school in the centre of the village, and I joined the church choir, and made many friends. I didn't like meat or vegetables, and I would only eat sausage and chips for dinner, every day. When we were not at school, my friend Tony and I used to roam the fields and woods. I think I had my own room with my own bed.

After a while, I began to miss my Mum and Dad quite a lot, and so my Dad came and took me home for a holiday, which must have been by coach, as there were not many cars then.

Whilst on holiday, I believe Mr & Mrs Brown, who I was staying with, died, and I eventually went back to live with the lady in the next house called a Mrs Kimber. Mr & Mrs Kimber both went to work, and I, now eleven, had to catch the bus and go to school in Whitchurch.

Because of the threat of bombing, my Gran and Grandad, who lived at Southsea, also came to live in Overton. After a while I grew homesick again, and I wrote and asked if I could come home. Mum said 'when you have enough money', thinking I could earn some.

So I went to my Grandad and borrowed a half a crown and then I went to Whitchurch to see if I could go by coach, but they were not running any more because of the War. So I came away crying, and a man stopped me, and asked me what was the matter, so I told him. So he said 'be back here by Noon and I will take you to Portsmouth', and so he did. I didn't go back any more, and this was in 1940.