Wartime evacuation

There must be something special about Sutton Coldfield, apart from my husband and sister in law being evacuated to Sutton Coldfield during the war, I had a number of friends who were also. I only went as far as under the stairs and wondered where else any of the other forum members, if and where, were evacuated to.

My husband, together with his mum and brother, were evacuated to Wales in 1942. I was born in 1943 and mum was evacuated to Shipston-on-Stour for my birth.

Too young too! Parents, married in August 1940, were evacuated to Church Lawford - and they cycled each working day to and from Standard (Canley) and Daimler (Radford)! One night, in total darkness near Binley, my mum thought she was being followed and pedalled as fast as she could, only to be caught up - by my dad! Always thought I was fortunate not to have experienced WWII - but I'm not sure how safe we all are in 2014

Thanks everyone, it looks as if a good majority were sent far and wide. Also a good few sent to Australia, more was the pity for some, never to be heard of until years later, but that is another story. I was amused by your Mum's incident MR , must have been during a blackout. I try not to think about the present day crisis - live for today and make sure it's near the best fish n' chip shop. !

Not just Australia, Dreamtime.. Canada too. It saved having to pair up kids to parents, and widened the gene pool in the colonies..

Coventry evacuees were also sent to Tamworth. I have been told tales of my mother in law taking in a family. Her house must have been crowded as she already had 7 children at home and a half sister living with them.

I mentioned in another post that my inlaws took in evacuees in Tamworth. Have now managed to get some names for this picture. The 4 boys and the girl on the left are all Williscrofts, the eldest son not on the picture was in the navy and was sadly killed in 1944 on HMS Kite. The lady on the back row, the man on the left and one of the girls are Mr and Mrs Lamb and daughter Jean who who were from Coventry. The other little girl was from Birmingham. There was also another family at the same time, Mr and Mrs Bateman and their daughter Sheila who were from Wyken. The other man is my father in law who passed away before Roy and I met. This meant there were 7 in the house already and they took in 7 people in a 3 bedroom house!

My mother-in-law left Coventry with her five young children to live with relatives in Wigan in 1940 as she was expecting twins (my wife was one of them), her husband was away in the war so you can say they were evacuated in a way, they only moved back when the bombing had stopped at the end of 1941, so you can see my link with Coventry

I found that there were different ways of looking at evacuation. Classes of thirty or more dropped overnight to 6/7. Kids you had played with and went to school with all your life suddenly dropped out of your life. Football, netball sides depleted. Even barbers cut their hours. It made a lot of alterations and heartache in some lives for those that stayed behind. Village kids resented the 'townies' in some places, lost places in sports teams, 'scrumping' places taken over, Sat morning jobs shared, girls stolen, lot of jealousy and bad feeling. London sent train loads of evacuees to Brighton and Sussex, only to find they were in the front line. They had to re-evacuate them to Yorkshire.

I've known Fred for over 30 years. He was born in 1932, the youngest of 12 children, and grew up with his brothers and sisters in a two-up two-down in Willesden. There was a communal bath in the kitchen, his parents had a double bed in the sitting room, and the children shared one bedroom upstairs. One morning in 1939, his mother got Fred and two sisters out of bed at seven o'clock, and after a breakfast of bread and jam, they were walked down to Willesden Junction station. At ten o'clock, a train rolled in, and their mother kissed them goodbye, telling the girls to look after Fred as they set off with many other children on an unknown adventure. The train arrived at Rugby Midland, and the children were walked to Rugby Cattle Market - given a bag of sandwiches, Fred and the two girls were put on a Midland Red bus which took them to Brinklow School, where they were met by the women of the village. Not wanting to be parted, it meant that someone would have to be willing to take all three of them, but eventually they were taken to two neighbouring houses, Fred went to one and the sisters next door. The girls couldn't settle and after 12 weeks they returned to London, leaving Fred with the family on a farm in Brinklow, where he stayed for the duration of the war. When the war ended, Fred had not heard from any family member after the sisters had left, and therefore he took the decision to stay where he was. The Brinklow family adopted Fred and he took their surname in place of his family name. Times were not easy, but Fred met, and married a local girl, and they settled down to raise a family of their own. Fred was employed at Binley Colliery, whilst his wife built up a successful hairdressing business in and around Coventry, and happily life became a lot better for the lad evacuated at the start of the war from London to a village in Warwickshire. They've been good and generous friends to all who have come to know them. But there is much more to this story! Fred always wanted to find out what happened to his 'real' family. The home in Willesden was destroyed in the war and he believed that his sisters were further evacuated to Merthyr Tydfil, but more than that he did not know. A casual conversation was to change all this. Fred and his wife were enjoying a Mediterranean cruise about ten years ago, and were sitting next to a lady, who in conversation said she was from Merthyr Tydfil. She listened to Fred's story about his sisters, and she said she thought that one of the sisters could be a neighbour of hers. This she checked out, and got back to Fred, who rang his 'sister'. He asked to speak to 'Maggie' - apparently Fred was the only person who ever called her that, so she instantly knew it was her brother who was calling. Fred met up with Maggie and his other sister in South Wales, and the women were able to tell Fred that a brother was still alive and living in Bournemouth, so there was another emotional reunion for Fred with his 93 year old brother. Further afield, it came to light that there was another sister in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Fred and his wife travelled down under to meet him. It's a great story and lovely outcome for Fred and his family.

My siblings and I were evacuated to a two up two down cottage next to the Greyhound at Sutton Stop. The inhabitants of the cottage were Ma Beales, sister Jean, brother Mick, myself and thousands of cockroaches and hundreds of mice. That was Jan 1940. Mick and I lasted about a week then did a runner back home while Jean, afraid of the consequences, stayed with Ma Beales for two years. I visited the cottage for several years as Ma Beales and I had a nice little earner with coal filched off the narrowboats. Ma Beales died 1943ish but before the cottage was re let it had to be fumigated and loads of Derris Dust was scattered about.

LesMac, how strange, you moved about two miles, to the side of the power station - a bomb landed not a dozen yards from the house you went to. While at the same time I was evacuated from the other side of the power station to near Ansty where a bomb fell not a dozen yards from the house we were sent to. And so I and my brother went home.

LesMac, I can't help thinking your evacuation had to be a private undertaking and not a school thing, but I don't want to offend you but surely that was a great mistake. Everyone thought if the bombers got to Coventry then the first target would be the power station. Now Sutton Stop was a t-junction between two canals, the Oxford one being higher and running almost parallel to the Coventry Canal they had to have a lock and a turning basin, and with the rail track meeting over the top, but the railway then ran one side, the power station and the canal round the other side. The house you went to and the Greyhound stood on the only flat bit of land next to the canal, in the perimeter of the power station, making the area the prime target for a bomber. And yes, they scored a direct hit in Aldermans Green Road, one side of the power station, and several hits in Grange Road, the other side of the power station, and a direct hit on the lock and canal less than dozen yards from the house you evacuated to. They also put the big gun near the power station so you was nearer to the noise of that too. Hey, you were nearer Foxford School too.

As I said above I only stayed there for two weeks maximum. Mick and I crunched our way across the carpet of cockroaches at about 5am sometime about New Years Day 1940. It was bitterly cold that winter, the canal was solid ice as we tried to walk along the towpath in total darkness to Tusses Bridge. When we got home to Hall Green Rd mum was getting ready for work, she was a nurse at Cov and Warwickshire hospital. Mum wasn't happy about our return home but as it was school holiday we were allowed to stay until something was sorted out for us. Nothing was ever sorted out. Mick and I remained at Hall Green Rd. As for bombs at Sutton Stop I cannot recall any but that doesn't mean that there were none. My sister remained at Sutton for about two years after I left, will ask her next time I visit. I visited Jean frequently during her stay at Sutton but she said nothing to me about bombs. The only local bombs that I recall were a stick that stitched their way across Kay's farm narrowly missing the community shelter, then onto the Bell Hotel car park, couple in Old Church Rd and Gayer St area. Same night I was told that some fell into Wyken Slough without exploding so suppose they are still there. They would have sunk 30ft or more in the soft mud so would be very difficult to recover. Bombs falling from high up were always a problem, suppose there are several unexploded bombs buried deep in and around Coventry. There was what we called a Bread Basket (parachute bomb) that fell in Taylors farm just about 200 yards from our house that did some damage to our roof. At Windmill Rd school, after a raid, some of us children were sent to search the school grounds looking for signs of unexploded bombs. Can't see that sort of thing happening today. The cottage by the car is where we were sent to. Except for the door and windows nothing has changed since 1940. Our evacuation was not a school or Government placing. Ma Beales was just a friend of my parents.