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After Christmas 1939, after returning [to Birmingham] from evacuation in Henley-in-Arden I went to Tilton Road Senior Girls鈥� School where the headmistress was Miss Evans Rose.

I was now 11. During the Spring Term, Miss Evans Rose told us about a new school being prepared at Blithbury in Staffordshire. She would be going to this new school with some of her staff and she hoped some of the girls would go with her. It would be like a Boarding School.

Joyce, a girl I walked home from school with, was very enthusiastic. I was reading the 鈥淟ife at St Dominic鈥檚鈥� type of books 鈥� larks and midnight feasts and thought I鈥檇 go with her.

Joyce never came to Pipewood Camp Boarding School but I, with Miss Evans Rose, went on 7th June 1940. We were the first people there, with others from our school. Pipewood log books 1940-1944 are in the Archives Department of Birmingham Central Library.

鈥淭he Pipewood site, originally administered by the National Camps Corporation, was acquired by Birmingham Education Authority in 1940 as a place in the country away from the expected air raid attacks in Birmingham, where girls between the ages of 10 and 15 years could continue their education in a calm and settled environment.鈥�

June 7th 1940 was a beautiful summer day. 176 girls, Miss Evans Rose and 8 teachers boarded buses outside Bristol Street School. We drove to Blithbury near Rugeley and the countryside looked idyllic. Sheep in green fields, hedges in blossom, blue sky.

The school was a series of huts placed around a quadrangle: 4 dormitories, a hall, classroom, small hospital. There were also huts for domestic staff.

The girls were placed in a dormitory holding 48 beds, double bunks in groups of 12. There was a small room at each end where a Mistress lived.

We were always organised to be doing something to prevent home sickness. We had lessons and walks and at weekends we had film shows, dances, treasure hunts and concerts.

On Sunday we went to church in Hamstall Ridware, 1录 miles away, where we always walked to and from. The church was also the basis for history lessons, art lessons, nature lessons.

When we were in bed one of the Mistresses would read a chapter of a book. That way I first heard 鈥淎nne of Green Gables鈥�.

We looked after hens, ducks and rabbits, gathering food in a bag on our walks. In Domestic Science we prepared chickens and ducks, plucking and cleaning them, also we were shown how to kill a chicken. I never did, but one of the girls did and we plucked it.

One day, several girls were loaned out to a farm and several hens were hung. We spent the time plucking the birds.

As a school we went picking summer beans on a farm. By the end of the day my hands were covered in blisters. I only remember doing that once.

We worked picking potatoes for local farmers in the autumn. It was cold back-breaking hard work, lifting the potatoes and dragging them along in wooden lattice basket. We wore gloves but our fingers were frozen and our toes. Many of us had chilblains on hands and feet and it was painful. A machine went round and flung up the potatoes to the surface. The area had to be cleared quickly before it came round again.

There was a film made of life at Pipewood on 10th and 11th December. Further films were made in 1943 but cannot be traced.

As a group we were very supported of each other. The older girls looked after the younger people and there were always girls showing off their gymnastics and tap dancing which was new to me.

Rugeley was 4 miles from Pipewood. Occasionally, we would walk there and back to shop, or to the cinema. The only things not on ration to buy were Oxos or peanut butter.

If our parents were prepared to pay a little extra, we could walk into Rugeley on a Saturday morning to shorthand lessons. I enjoyed the walk and the lessons and we could ride back on the bus. I used my shorthand all my working life.

[see Evacuation to Henley-in-Arden 1939 for this contributor's account of her first evacuation from Birmingham]

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This story was contributed by Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service, Solihull Libraries by kind permission of the original contributor. It was originally contributed to Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service's collection in 2005 (Ref: NC Solihull Historical: Reminiscences 2005/28).

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