Primary History KS2: WW2 Clips. Interviews with evacuated children

We took our recording van last week to a small, Lancashire mill town about 15 miles from Manchester and found, almost without exception, that the children there were happy, excited by their new life and pleased with the new friends they were making.

When we arrived the streets were given over to children: the high school girls sauntering arm-in-arm up the main street in their tidy, brown uniforms; children playing football in the steep, cobbled, side-streets; children going shopping for their new mothers; children making friends with policemen and ARP wardens. We finally fixed on a crowd of children from one of Manchester's central schools, who were leaning over a wall hopefully looking for fish in a very dirty mill-stream. They were very ready to talk to us, but a little shy of the microphone at first...

'Now what about you two...what's your name?'
'Cynthia Green.'
'And you're...?'
'Francis Ravenscroft.'
'And you were both evacuated on...?'
'September the first.'
'You know about all that! How are you liking it? What do you think of it all?'
'I think it's very nice, we've been taken into the homes of the people and made very homely on the first night...'
'Everybody speaks to you.'
'Is it very different from town life do you think?'
'Oh yes, oh yes, it's a lot nicer than the town life...the country air's a lot different than the town air and...a lot nicer in the country than in town...especially Manchester!'
'You don't feel homesick or anything?'
'No! Not got a chance for that!'

'Hello Mum and Dad. Don't get worried about us...we're all very happy here and I don't think anybody wants to go home yet. We go on the moors nearly every night and watch all the cows...and sheep...grazing...and the river flowing...we're quite near it now. And we go playing football on the football pitch...and watch the colliery. Last week the boys and girls had a match of netball...and there was 14 girls and three boys...but the girls won us!'