Shropshire Routes to Roots

Children in wartime: An evacuee's description of a cow

Description of a cow [Shropshire Archives]

The Cow

From an essay on "Birds and Beasts" by an East London boy evacuated in Berkshire. It was quoted in London on Wednesday by Mr. Earnest Brown, Minister of Health:-

"The cow is a mamel," he wrote, "it has six sides, right, left, an upper and below. At the back it has a tail, on which hangs a brush. With this it sends the flies away, so that they do not fall into the milk. The head is for the purpose of growing horns and so that the mouth can be somewhere.

Under the cow hangs the milk. It is arranged for milking. When people milk, the milk comes and there is never an end to the supply. How the cow does it I have not yet realised, but it makes more and more.

"The cow has a fine sense of smell, one can smell it far away. This is the reason for fresh air in the country.

"The men-cow is called an ox."