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‘This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Rick Allden of the CSV Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Eva Foster and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions’.

Due to the fact that we were unable to go to school (they had closed as daytime air raids began) and we were unable to sleep at night, it was decided that we should be evacuated into the countryside. On November 6th 1940, I, with my two cousins Alma and Alan, went to stay with relatives of our friend, Betty Ollis, at Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, some twenty-two miles away.

After about ten days, Betty joined us, as she wasn’t happy at her relatives in another village. My aunt (Alma’s mother) and Mrs. Ollis took us by Midland Red bus. We took with us our gas masks, a doll under our arms and a small suitcase with our clothes in. We thought that we were only going away for a short time but it was three and a half years later before we came home. I am pleased we had the opportunity to live in the countryside and play in the fields around, to build dams in the brook and climb trees. We also went for long walks, picked blackberries and watched the haymaking. My mother and aunt used to visit once a month. They would come by bus in the winter months, and on their bicycles in the summer. This was after delivering milk in the morning. It was usually on a Sunday, as Saturday was the day for collecting the money. In those days the milk was delivered every day as very few people had a refrigerator. Mother delivered milk on her bicycle with a milk bucket on both handlebars, with a measure in each bucket, one half-pint and one pint. In frosty weather she would wear woollen socks over her shoes to prevent slipping. You couldn’t buy the kinds of boots we wear today and coupons were needed to buy shoes.

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