This article has been provided in a collection by Bob Blastock, who died in 2021, and given to the Lanman Museum by his widow Doreen.

Friday, September 1st 1939

At last we have been told we are leaving today, after taking our cases to school each day since Monday.  We each had to take a change of clothes, Army blanket, gas mask and labels attached to our coats with our name and address and School on it.  We were taken to Goodmays Station where after saying a tearful goodbye to our Mums we boarded this great long train. 

After several hours we arrived at Saxmundham.  We were marched to the School and given a paper carrier bag which contained a tin of Nestle’s milk, bar of chocolate and an apple.  We were then bused to Framlingham College, where we stayed for two weeks. 

No-one knew where we had gone, but it was posted up outside the School the next morning.  Dad then told Mum he had been stationed at Framlingham during the First World War. 

Sunday, September 3rd.  War was declared – being not quite twelve years old, it didn’t mean a great deal at the time. 

After a couple of weeks at the College we were then sent to the villages.  From our School Goodmays we went to Kettleburgh and Brandeston.  We three children were billeted in Brandeston.  My sister and I were together and stayed with a family who had two children of their own, a boy of thirteen and a girl of nine.  My brother Ray went with some more boys to Brandeston Hall, in the servants quarters as it was a private house at the time. 

The facilities in the house of the family we stayed with were quite a shock to us at the time – the lavatory was down the garden, and seven of us used it (as Mum was staying with us at the time); it was a pail with a wooden seat and only emptied when it was right full.  Cold water from an outside pump – you washed in cold water first thing in the morning – and oil lamps for lighting. 

We had come from a three bedroomed house with gas lighting, inside flush toilet and a bathroom. 

My sister Joyce and I went to Earl Soham to school.  We had been issued with brand new bicycles paid for by Ilford Education Authority.  It was a very severe winter, and we had never seen such snow.  When it was too bad to cycle we used to walk.  We liked being in the village, we seemed to mix very well. 

In June 1940 the children were moved to the Midlands in case of an Invasion by the Germans.  Mum said we may as well go back home as so far nothing had happened.  I think there were very few of us evacuees left in the area.  Most children didn’t like the country.  I suppose having Mum still with us made a difference. 

In September and October 1940 the air-raids started on London.  October 1940 my Mum lost her mum, dad, brother and sister in an air-raid; their house was completely gone. 

The people we had been living with in Brandeston invited us back for a holiday.  While we were there, my Dad had got to know some of the local men.  One told Dad there was a vacancy at Framlingham Station which Dad applied for and got a transfer, as he worked at Liverpool Street Station in London as a porter.  Someone else told him of a cottage becoming vacant in the village.  Brother Ray and Dad went back to Chadwell Heath and packed up the home, and we moved into the village. 

Dad had to learn to ride a bike again so he could travel backwards and forwards to work.  Half our furniture was packed into the outside shed as the cottage was only two up and two down rooms.  Mum had to learn to cook by oil and do her washing with pond water, which was just by the cottage.  The drinking water was fetched by pail from a pump in the middle of the village.  I learned to carry a pail of water while riding my bike.  One winter when the roads were very icy, Dad was carrying two pails of water, got to the corner of our lane, slipped over and lost the lot. 

My brother Ray was now 14.  Mr.  Read who had a small farm on the corner of our lane asked Ray if he would like to work for him, which he did for several years.  In the meantime Joyce and I were now cycling to Framlingham to school.  We joined the local Girl Guides and the local Youth Group.  We collected waste paper, jam jars and tins on Saturday mornings to help the War effort. 

We moved to College Road, Framlingham, in 1941. 

These memories from an evacuee from Goodmays School under the Ilford Education Authority, were kindly supplied by Mrs.  Brenda Rogers (nee Skipper).  Mrs.  Rogers married a local man, and stayed in Suffolk.  She lives in Saxmundham. 

15th November 2004