Shropshire Routes to Roots

Worksheet: An evacuee's diary

Look at the sources (pictures and words) below. These give you some idea of what life was like as an evacuee during World War Two.

Imagine you arrived in Oswestry from Liverpool on 21st November, 1939, just one week ago. Write a diary entry for the seventh day of your stay in the country. Things you might like to think about include:

• What the host family you live with are like
• What it feels like to have left your family in Liverpool, where the bombing is happening
• The new things you have seen in the country
• What you have to eat

Sources

"We were herded like cattle around the streets of Oswestry, officials knocking on the doors of those who had put their names down as wanting an evacuee. That person come out of his house and chose whom they like the look of. It was total chaos. Some children were still being walked around the streets at midnight".

(from Our evacuees, Oswestry Heritage Centre)

MY IMPRESSIONS OF LIFE IN THE COUNTRY

Life in the country impresses me as being very peaceful. One can sit in a field under a shady tree in complete quietness except for the singing of the birds and the rustle of the swaying boughs overhead. In the country there is not the smoky atmosphere of the city and it is much pleasanter to walk in fields with cows mooing and grazing on each side, than to walk along a grey dirty looking street, with litter thrown about the ground, and smoky houses for surroundings. It is lovely to wake up in the morning to feel the cool keen fresh air on one's face. In the autumn it is such fun to gather in the harvests and it is interesting to see the trees changing into their autumn dresses. There are not many heavy motor vehicles and speeding motor cars in the country and one can walk freely along the country roads without any cars hooting behind. The countryside population is very scattered but the people work very hard in order to produce vegetables, fruit and all kinds of other foodstuffs which they take to town and sell on market days.

- Sent by ELLEN HOWARD, aged 13 years.
39, Ivy Street, Birkenhead billeted
at 37, Orchard Street, Oswestry.

[Oswestry and Border Counties Advertiser]

"I remember going over to the farm for some milk in a can. I was frightened by the cows and on the way back I ran to get over the stile quickly, because they were getting a bit close and I dropped the milk can and cut my finger and I've still got the scar to this day".

[Compiled by Oswestry Heritage Centre]

"I used to look forward to my parents visiting every 4-6 weeks. Sometimes it was my mother sometimes my father. They couldn't both come together as there was still some family living at home".

['Our Evacuee', Oswestry Heritage Centre]

An Evacuee's Diary

28th November, 1939