Belmont's Evacuee Children

Belmont’s Evacuee Children George Skinner George Belmont’s Evacuee Children The story of how Belmont Villagers and their Primary School gave a home to war-time Evacuee Children. George Skinner November 2019 1 Contents Introduction 3 1. The National Evacuation Programme 5 2. Belmont’s Evacuee Children 9 3. School must go on 29 4. Stories from the War Years 33 5. Belmont Primary School Remembers 51 6. Acknowledgements & Further Information 55 Notes & References 57 (Linked to “footnote” numbers in the main text) 2 Introduction On the 25th August 1939, the small elementary school1 in the Lancashire village of Belmont closed for its usual late summer works holidays. The Headteacher, Mr Vincent Hill, wrote up the school Log Book2 before leaving for home, noting the closure and adding on the next line, “Sept 11 Re-open”. But during the holiday Britain declared war on Germany and on his return to school Mr Hill had to amend the ‘re-open’ entry by adding, “- not done because war broke out on Sunday September 3rd at 11 o’clock”. The cause of what turned out to be a three-day delay in starting the new term is given simply as “for War Emergency,” popular code for the mass evacuation of children from British cities. What it meant in practice for the village was the arrival of 80 new children, more than doubling the number of pupils already in its tiny school. The events which followed this unusual start to the new school year may be traced from two official Belmont Primary School record books. The school Admissions Register, which lists all arrivals and departures of children, reveals the unusual comings and goings of many children, mainly from Salford and Manchester, over the next five years. The School Log Book, a diary of significant events in the life of the school kept by the Headteacher (Mr Vincent Hill in 1939 and Mr Edward Hodson from October 1943), provides clues as to what took place as the school faced the changing circumstances brought about by the war. Entries are spasmodic and frustratingly short on detail but the main pattern can be deduced. Our story draws mainly on these official records but is supplemented with information from external reports, public information sheets, records of Temple School in North Manchester (from which many of the evacuee children came), contemporary newspapers and stories recounted by villagers and evacuees. It describes the ambitious national campaign to evacuate children from vulnerable cities to the relative safety of the countryside and Belmont School’s part in this project, and provides a picture of how the war impacted on the day-to-day running of the school. Finally, it records how in 2018, Belmont Primary School took steps to learn more about these events and to create a lasting memorial for future generations of pupils and the wider village community. 3 4 1 The National Evacuation Programme Long before Britain’s declaration of war against Germany in September 1939, the Government had been working on plans to evacuate children and vulnerable adults from cities and towns thought to be at risk from enemy bombing attacks. In World War I, bombing raids on Britain had resulted in 1,400 civilian deaths and since the 1920s, precautions against air raids had been foremost in the defence plans for the country.1 The tactic of bombing civilians used in the Spanish Civil War, especially the infamous attack on Guernica in 1937, convinced the British government that evacuation would be necessary should hostilities with Germany come to a head. During the year preceding the declaration of war, the Government surveyed available housing in safe areas and appointed billeting officers to administer an ambitious programme to house the evacuees.2 The evacuation project was code-named Operation Pied Piper, perhaps an unfortunate choice bearing in mind that in the original story the piper leads the children of Hamelin away from the town, never to return! The exodus of children began just before the declaration of war on 3rd September 1939. In three days, 1,473,000 people from the cities of Britain were transferred, often with teachers and escorts, to safer areas, mainly in the countryside. In Manchester it had been estimated that there were 190,000 children and priority adults that might be at risk from air raids.3 By April 1939, meetings had already taken place between teachers and parents resulting in 71,000 schoolchildren, 58,000 pre-school children and 4,000 expectant mothers in the area being registered to be evacuated should the need arise. Manchester schools were sent regular memos by the Education Office describing the steps they should take to make evacuation as successful as possible. With limited space available on trains and buses the amount of luggage children could take was a central issue and detailed instructions about what could be taken were sent to parents. Rehearsals for evacuation were ordered during the summer holidays. Teachers who might be involved had been required to give details of their holiday address to their Headteacher and on Wednesday 23rd of August they received telegrams informing them that they must return to Manchester.4 5 On August 31st 1939, evacuation was officially announced by the Ministry for Health. The Telegraph for 2nd September reported that over 100 trains had left Manchester and Salford with 120,000 schoolchildren to be evacuated to areas in Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire. Special ambulance trains took children on stretchers from Manchester hospitals to the countryside. Evacuated schools were closed and many of their buildings allocated for other war-related uses. Turton Urban District Belmont was part of Turton Urban District which was confirmed as a reception area and given an allocation of 1,600 women and children to billet. The process was directed from County Office in Preston but overseen locally by John William Rostron, a well-known businessman and politician who was Chairman of Turton Urban District Council. Although parents in vulnerable areas were not obliged to evacuate their children, designated safe areas were required to provide billets for evacuees and fines could be imposed on any household which refused.5 In 1938, Billeting Officers were formally appointed and, having been empowered to require householders to provide information about their homes, went out to survey the Turton District. Belmont Village returned a total of 829 “habitable rooms”. The Billeting Officer was asked to endeavour to find accommodation with households who were willing6, but “in the event of failure to provide in this way for those under his charge should use the compulsory powers conferred upon him, leaving the question of appeal to be dealt with subsequently.” The initial evacuation plan was to move pupils in school groups accompanied, where possible, by their teachers. Following this, mothers with under five-year-olds would be transported. In addition to this carefully planned project, the Government provided support for other groups and individuals who made private arrangements to evacuate children to safe places, resulting in the movement of many thousands more children at various times during the war. In 1939 the Government had expected widespread bombing of towns, especially London, the Midlands and Manchester. In the event, no bombs fell on England until the summer of 1940 and not until September, a whole year into the war, did the systematic bombing of London begin. As a result of this “phoney war” many parents decided to bring their evacuated children home and schools in evacuated areas began to re-open. But when the war 6 escalated and the threat of bombing increased in late 1940, many children were returned and were joined by new, private evacuees. This privately organised exodus was mainly composed of individuals and family groups who left vulnerable areas, often moving into the same districts used for the initial evacuation. Over the whole period of the war, about thirty such private evacuees registered at Belmont School in addition to school groups.7 Accounts by evacuees of how well the national scheme worked and what emotional reaction it evoked reveal a complex picture. The following story from the BBC’s People’s War Project8, was told by someone who, as a child, was moved from Manchester to nearby Tockholes. I was 11 years old when the war started. I had been at the Crumpsall Lane Junior School in Manchester but had just started at Elementary school. We had only been there three days when the war began. We were given gas masks and labels and loaded onto double decker buses outside the school and driven to the station. No one knew where we were going but my dad worked for the railway and he found out that we were going to Darwen. We all landed up at St George's Hall in Blackburn and then everyone from our school was put on another bus and taken out to the village of Tockholes where we were delivered to the schoolroom. I sat there with three of my friends - we were determined that we were going to stick together. We were told we would be sent to stay with Mrs Whittle. Her house turned out to be a little cottage and we had to walk through three fields to get there. There was no bed for us when we got there but she found us some mattresses and we slept in her front room. We used to go the village school - it was very small compared with what we were used to - there was only one classroom. We collected eggs every morning and went to bed early. There was no bath - but we managed.

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