Evacuees

Allerford; Mrs Lucy Harris (centre) with an evacuee.

Wychanger Cottage, Luccombe; the billeting officer Mrs Molly Clarke brings an evacuee to the home of Mrs Mary Rowlands.

In the first week of September 1939, more than one and a half million children and adults were evacuated from London and other urban centres to the comparative safety of the countryside. For weeks, the Williton Rural District Council had liaised locally with the Women’s Voluntary Service and others to arrange accommodation for the evacuees.

The first train arrived in West Somerset on Friday 1st September, bringing 800 evacuees, just two days before the formal declaration of war. They disembarked at Watchet and Minehead. Later that evening, the first 80 children and their teachers arrived in Porlock from West Ham. The wife of the village postmaster, Mrs Harold Rawles, was in charge of the billeting arrangements, assisted by the local Red Cross Commandant, Mrs Wilson.

After refreshments in the Village Hall, they were collected and taken to their new homes. Two days later, another party of children and some of their mothers arrived. Plans were laid for the children to join the local schools.

For many evacuees, this was a welcome respite, but for some the quiet life of the countryside was too much; within two weeks several had returned to London, complaining about the lack of shops and, especially, of cinemas. In April 1940, Thomas Rawle, who had six evacuees billeted at Court Place Farm, told the council that one mother had taken her children back to London because she was in the habit of going out five nights a week and she missed the city life.

Six months later, after the Luftwaffe’s Blitz on British cities began, more evacuees came to the Porlock district. This time, many more stayed. By October, families in the area were housing almost 150 evacuees. The village school was packed to capacity and extra classes were held in the Methodist Church Hall and the Victoria Reading Room in Parsons Street.

By 1941, several big houses in the area (Doverhay Place, Holnicote House, and Ashley Combe) had been taken over as nurseries to care for vulnerable children.