Wartime evacuee children from Liverpool
A world of surprises in the Cheshire countryside

Thousands of evacuees found their way to the Cheshire countryside during the Second World and the following is a fascinating first-hand account of the traumers faced by a child suddenly uprooted from her Liverpool home:

August 1939 - What was all the commotion about? Loud voices could be heard coming through the open window. Someone was going to gas us all - they are going to kill us!

Who would do that? Who are THEY?

In two weeks’ time I shall be eight years old and back to school after the summer holidays. Little did I know that next week I wouldn’t even be in Liverpool... and England would be at war with Germany.

My Mam and Dad have five sons and two daughters and we lived in a two-bedroomed tenement flat; cottages they were called. I don’t know why. Whoever heard of cottages being on top of one another?

I never heard any more about being gassed, killed or THEM.

First day back at school. As we were leaving my Mam said: “Take this bag to school with you.”
It was quite heavy but I managed to get it to the top of the street into school. I never thought to ask why. It did seem a bit daft to take a big bag of clothes to school when I would be home at noon for dinner.

As soon as we went into school the teacher gave us all a yellow band. We all put one arm and our head through them so they went across our chests. I thought we were going to have games and I was in the yellow team.

But when I looked around everyone had the same colour band on and had bags and boxes. I didn’t understand what was happening. Shortly after the infants were brought into our classroom.
My sister and brother were amongst them. They were twins and five years old. They were told to sit by me and even they had to put yellow bands on. Our teacher had a clipboard with a list of names on it and a pocketful of labels and wrote on each one and tied them through the buttonholes of our coats.

When I looked around all the children had labels. But some of the girls who were in my class hadn’t come to school that day. Where were they? Everyone should be here.
Something was happening and they were going to miss it. I wanted to run out of school and ask my Mam if she knew.

We all marched up the street to the main road, all in twos behind each other. There were lots of tram-cars all lined up along Scotland Road. Each tram had a different coloured card in the window by the door. All our school was on the tram with the yellow card because we had yellow bands on.

Where are going? Out for the day? On a holiday? All these questions were going around in my head but I didn’t know the answers. There was a lot of noise when the tram started to move. Somebody shouted: “Look out for your Man and Dad and wave goodbye because they can’t come.”

COME where?

I looked at all the people who lined the pavement on both sides of the road, but I didn’t see them. I did see the woman next door waving, crying and wiping her eyes on her black shawl.
Perhaps we will never see our Mam and Dad again. Us three must have done something very bad. Why didn’t Mam come to say goodbye, or tell us about it this morning?

THEY might come and everyone will be gassed or killed by the time we get back.
The tram was going fast now, clanging away. I started to cry and so did the twins. A lady came around and gave us a handful of animal crackers and everyone on the tram started singing a song.

We got off the tram at the railway station and we put on a train that was waiting for us.

We all settled down in our seats. The train gathered speed, further and further away from Liverpool. We didn’t even know our destination. We had never been further than the Pier Head before.

We were passing green fields and trees everywhere looked as though they had been washed. When the train stopped we were taken into a building.

A man came around looking at our labels and then wrote something on the back of them. I had read what was on the twins’ labels when we were on the train. It was our name and school.
When he went I had a look at what he had written on the back.

It said: DORFOLD HALL, ACTON, CHESHIRE.

It said the same on my label, so I was glad because I could stay with the twins all the time. A girl asked me if I could read her label and she was going to the same place. Very soon I was reading a lot of labels and everyone was going to Dorfold Hall.

We were passing green fields and trees everywhere looked as though they had been washed. When the train stopped we were taken into a building.


We were all taken into this room for something to eat. Before we left the table we were given a carrier bag - grown with string handles. In it was a large blue bag, corned beef and several small blue bags, perhaps sugar, tea etc.

There we were, the three of us, standing together. At our feet was the red bag full of all our clothes and three brown paper carrier bags. That was when I found out we were Vacuees. A boy with a cub's cap on told me. Before I knew what happened I'd hit him across the ear shouting "We are girls and he's a boy not Vacuees."

One minute we were rolling on the floor, the next we were yanked to our feet. What was happening to us? Yesterday was lovely! Am I still asleep and will I soon wake up?
A lady was talking to us. All I heard was "You are not expected for another week, so you will have to wait until we find you a BILLET".

What was a BILLET? Perhaps in this country we have come to they call a bullet a billet!
Well, whoever they are, they are not going to shoot us with a bullet, or a billet. So being the eldest I told the twins to stand behind me. I felt in charge. I thought if they can't seem them then they can't shoot them.

All the children that had Dorfold Hall on their label had to stay together. The rest were taken out of the room. Some of the children's mums came with them and they had all left for the billets. There was about twenty of us left.

What is a vacuee? What do grown-ups do with vacuees? Was Dorfold Hall a home where they tied your ears back (Mam always threatened to send us to one).

Later the man with the list came back in, called out some names in a loud voice. This happened lots of time and gradually the number in the room was going smaller. The boy in the cub's cap said "They've all gone to get a billet."

I couldn't figure it out. We hadn't heard any bullets being fired. Well, we will just have to wait our turn and see what happens. Why should our Mam and Dad send us all the way to this country, wherever it is, to get shot?

Our names were called next and we three just stood there. He called again, so I thought he's going to find us, so I pushed the twins forward. There was a big black car outside the door. Our bags were put in and the three of us sat on the back seat. We had never been in a car before (plenty of horses and carts). So off we went to get the billet.

The car travelled through the town and then turned up a, country lane. For a while we were looking at trees and fields. Everywhere was all different shades of green. The only grass I had seen before was the bowling green in the next street to us, by the play area.

The car stopped outside a house with a gate and garden. As we were getting the bags out of the car I realised it was getting dark and I was very hungry.

We were ushered into a small, warm room and the first thing I saw was a huge black kettle sitting and spitting on the fire. The lady was standing by the table looking red, fat and bonny with a wrap-over pinny on. Her hair was tied back very tight. She told us to go into the kitchen and wash our hands and face. I head he lady who brought us say"

"A week or a few days. Yes. Goodnight."

After we had something to eat we were taken upstairs to bed. In the bedroom there were two mattresses on the floor, one single, one double. My sister and I were in the double and my brother slept in the single. He couldn't believe that the bed was all for him.

I remember lying there looking at the back of the door and wondered what would tomorrow bring and in three day I will be eight and next month the twins will be six.

We were at that little house - Mrs Burroughs - for a week. My birthday came and went. Nobody spoke about it, only when I told the chickens in a very loud voice. I couldn't say we were unhappy, just strange, new things we didn't know about.

The lady expected us to understand country ways.

We used to leave the back gate open. Not on purpose. We just didn't see it was open. Come to think of it we didn't even see when it was shut.

My brother used to run around the chicken run trying to catch a chicken. He wanted to put a piece of string around its neck and take it for a walk. I knew he couldn't do that because my Nin had hens in the backyard and they wouldn't let you touch them. We were always getting told off.
I wish we could have been the children she wanted us to be. We did try.

I bet she was delighted when the lady with the big black car came to take us away.
"You're going to Dorfold Hall."

In those five days I had asked many questions. I'm sure Mrs Burroughs had a headache, but she did give me a lot of answers.

All of this moving about was because England was at war with Germany and children who lived in ports were evacuated inland, or across country to save lives.

Billets were places to stay and live and we were evacuees, not vacuees. Now we were on our way to Dorfold Hall to say until the war was over. Everyone said "Soon, very soon."

On arriving at the Hall we really weren't old enough to be impressed by its grounds, size or name. To us it was the place that was written on our labels and here we were ready to stay until the war was over.

The two big lions that stood on pillars at each side of the large main gates were supposed to swop places at midnight - each night - but we just thought that's what happens.

The Hall was owned by Lady Roundell. Her sister-in-law Mrs Herbert also stayed there. Her husband was in the RAF. We didn't seem them all the time. We had staff to look after us. Margery was cook and Betty was one of the maids. We had a nursery, playroom, dormitories, dining room and library.


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