Bill Heynes’ Evacuee Experience

Bill and his elder sister lived in a comfortable house with, as for then, all mod cons in Ilford, Essex. With the approach of an imminent war situation Bill and Rachel were, like thousands of other children, evacuated to places considered to be safer from bombing raids than their home areas. So three days before the declaration of war, and after a train journey they found themselves in a little village called Framsden, about 11 miles from Ipswich in the heart of the countryside. Villagers were waiting to make their choice of the arrivals but Bill and Rachel were last to be selected .and eventually he was picked by a Mr Robinson and was billeted with Mr and Mrs Robinson and his sister with Mr Robinson's sister and her mother who lived in an adjoining property;  Rachael was very unhappy and cried a lot. The cottage they were to live in was about 250—300years old and had no mains water, no drainage, no electricity or gas. It had a privy in the rear garden. There was a bath, the water for which had to be brought from the communal pump close by and had to be heated in the copper which was heated by wood and coal. Cooking was by a brick bread oven and a Valor oil fired cooker. Somewhat of a shock after their proper home! Bill recalled the Friday bath routine where they followed each other in to the bath water, topped up now and again with hot water. He spoke about Mr Robinson being a man of many talents, a Thatcher, a roadman, a carpenter, bee-keeper, a barber and a Baptist lay-preacher at the local church. Sunday was meals between services and Sunday School. School was about a mile away and Bill remembered school dinner being served by the head master. Winter that year was harsh with a lot of snow and Mr Robinson as the village road man manned the snow plough, a v-shaped piece of wood pulled by a horse; Bill and Rachael had to sit on the plough to keep it down. They were cold, their warm clothes kept as Sunday best and Bill’s boots were getting too small.

Bill and Rachael’s parents came to see them and were unhappy about the conditions they were living in so they returned home after about eight months. The children then attended school in Wanstead, near to their home.

Although the evacuation experience at the age was a shock to the system Bill considers that he withstood it pretty well and learnt a great deal about the countryside and from Mr Robinson in particular.