An Interview with 3 Evacuees from Hull

Dennis: There was a bungalow about 3/4 of a mile along the road to Pocklington, where the Barkers lived. Opposite them was Mr West's allotment, and I used to go there a lot of times. He'd just say, "Go and weed the garden", and it's a long way there you know, wheeling an enormous wooden Council barrow. I used to go there and fill it up with taties and beetroot and goodness knows what, and bring it back. I used to enjoy it, so it wasn't work but once I pulled up all his parsnips because I thought they were Dead Nettles! He went mad!

At the top of Worsendale there was a quarry, and opposite there on the right hand side were all walnut trees. And a bit lower down, above the village, there was a spring - that was our picnic area. Every Sunday we would walk along towards Garrowby Lane end, and that's where I hopped over into a field and milked a cow - we must have been very cheeky little bairns. I've been kicked in the stomach with a cow, by both legs. I wouldn't mind betting that the person who was milking the cow at the time did it on purpose. Probably only a youth who thought it would be fun, down at Jebsons’ that was. Can't remember the name. While we were there, they laid some drainpipes right at the end of the village, just near Jebsons’ farm, and we used to play there, running along the pipes. To me they were real big things, but probably not so big really, and I split my head open. I went home and tried to stop them trying to find out. But it started bleeding again, so I had to have a couple of stitches in it. I got taken into Pocklington. I can remember the Doctor's car number - BBT 666.

Billy: Ken Sissons' Dad used to keep a couple of cows, and used to take them down Youlthorpe Lane, grazing on the grass verge and I sometimes used to go with Ken, a good excuse to disappear for half a day. I tell you what was a good dodge for the big lads - the school had a garden over behind the Co-op on the corner and Mr Rhodes used to be quite happy to take them down because he got all the produce. Mrs Rhodes had a well-stocked larder with all the fresh veggies out of the school allotment.
Dennis: The garden was near Alan Ripley's. He used to open up on Sunday afternoon, it was a collecting place for people to go.
Billy: He was a bit of a lad, was Mr Rhodes. He used to dish the cane out quite regularly. But if you were well in with him, you were appointed Chief Stoker because there was a stove in the classroom and you used to take the clinkers out every morning. But I didn't want the job and I never got to the garden - that was only the big lads.
Dennis: You know if you go down the lane and up past Ripley's shop, a bit further up you used to be able to go up the hill and there were all gooseberry bushes up there. We used to go goosegogging up there. Wild gooseberry bushes - some of them were real sour, but some of them were all right. Also, we used to go sticking up there [the Park], for firewood. They didn't used to like you breaking branches off trees, you had to collect the ones that had been blown down. And we went mushrooming up there.
Billy: There used to be some goosegog bushes down the side of the moat opposite the school.

Kate: Do you remember any of the Sunderland evacuees?
Billy: I remember one called Herbert Marsden who came from Middlesbrough, and he stayed with Mr and Mrs Longhorn; I think they were related. That was next door to Wilton Lodge. The house was split into 2 and there were 2 farms there.
Kate: Do you remember Hilda Dent?
Margaret: Well, I do, because she talked different.
Kate: She stayed near you at the Cooks’, next to Butcher Smith.
Billy: Butcher Smith - I remember him. He used to kill the pigs. They all used to fiddle you know, you were only allowed to kill a certain number of pigs by the Ministry of Food, so if a sow had 6 in a litter the farmer would say only 5, and Mr Smith used to come round with his knives and everything to kill the pig. I can remember the meat being salted to lay it down, then all the hams hanging up.

Dennis: Has anybody ever mentioned the plane crash? I think it was a Wellington bomber, on his return trip, but I don't know if anybody got killed. We collected the perspex and made rings and that. That was down beyond Jebsons’ farm, where that plane crashed. Somebody said that it was on the hill, but that's not what I remember. It was in a field.

[Joan Marwood confirmed that there was a plane crash beyond Jebsons’ by High Belthorpe where she lived with her family. Joan’s mother was one of the first on the scene of the crash and she rendered first aid to the crew. Joan provided a copy of a letter her mother received, dated 29 May 1943, from the Wing Commander of No. 77 Squadron of the RAF stationed at Elvington. The letter thanked Mrs Marwood for her “self-sacrifice” and went on to say that, “Without question the aid you were able to give at the time you did saved the lads a deal of suffering and you will be pleased to know they are all making splendid headway with every prospect of little or no after effects.”]

Billy: One thing I do remember, the Showfield used to be behind W L Fisher's, and right opposite there was a fishpond with a stand of elm trees, absolute beauties, used to be full of rooks, and that was all part of the atmosphere. I notice every one of them's gone. They used to tell us not to go near that pond. The story was it was that dangerous that "A coo went in one day and drooned". And we used to believe it. It was thick mud in the bottom. There were some lovely frogs, weren't there, Dennis?
Dennis: We used to blow them up, you know.
Billy: A lot of lads used to.
Dennis: Harry Fussey was saying that Barry Trotter lost his hat in that pond, and he went looking for him because he thought he'd drowned. I sort of remember that too.
Billy: A lot of lads wore caps in those days.

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