Evacuation from Liverpool to Skelmersdale – SEPTEMBER 1939

 

Evacuation from Liverpool to Skelmersdale – SEPTEMBER 1939

My father: John Hamilton, his brother Tom Hamilton, and their sister Margaret were all evacuated to Skelmersdale in September 1939.  These are some of my father’s memories, from that time.

The following extract came from an email received a couple of years ago, from the bursar at Crow Orchard School.   I had contacted the school, asking whether there was any information pertaining to the evacuees, held in the school archives.  I received the following information:-

“ I have had a look through our historical records and although I cannot find them by name we do have an entry in the school log book from Sept 1st 1939 that the school was closed for the day to prepare for the 73 evacuees from St John the evangelist school in Walton. When they came to the school they were taught by their own teachers until the next January when the school “absorbed” the new pupils. The school was closed until further notice on the 3rd of Sept on the outbreak of war but re opened on the 14th. The children still went on school trips to look at nature and how bricks were made at the local quarry and for a good 6 months endured up to 3 air raids warnings a day sheltering in corridors and under tables until shelters were built in the school grounds. School opened late at 9.45am when there were air raids at night. During this time the school was also used as a “refuge centre for bombed out Liverpudlians” overnight, which caused much disruption to the school time table.

I am pleased to report there were no entries for your family members in the school punishment book for those years.”

All the schools in Liverpool closed during the war,  as most of the teachers had been called up.  At the beginning of September 1939, John and his brother and sister were all evacuated to Skelmersdale from St. Johns school, in Walton.   The children took the train, from Orrell Park station to Ormskirk, with their gas masks, and a small bag containing some essential clothing.  From Ormskirk station the children were taken by coach to a centre in Skelmersdale, to be handed over to the families who would be caring for them.

Skelmersdale was just a small village at the time, with most of the villagers still wearing clogs. My Dad John, and his brother had never seen this before.   Apparently there were at least two clog shops in the village, which sold and repaired clogs.

There were a lot of farms in Skelmersdale, as it was very agricultural, and there were also coal mines and a big cotton factory there.

John and his brother lived at a couple of different houses, before going to live at a farm called School Farm, which John liked a lot.  He used to feed the animals, and the water would come from a well.  John  especially loved the horses.  The name of the farmer was Dick Gardner. He and his wife did not have any children, it was just John and Tom.  Their sister, Margaret, stayed with another family.  She was very happy there.

The farmer used to bring the horses home, for the holidays, because he had a contract with the Council to empty all the toilets.   Presumably these toilets were earth closets, and the waste would be used to fertilise the fields.

The farmer’s wife looked after the boys very well. The boys were very well fed, as the farmer and his wife grew a lot of their own produce.  They also kept hens, and the children would enjoy fresh milk and eggs.

The children attended the Endowed School every day, for half a day, and got a good education.  They especially enjoyed going on school outings, such as nature walks to Ashurst Beacon.

At night there were often air raid warnings, and the siren would go off.  The farmer’s wife used to take the boys out into the open fields, as she felt they would be safer there.  My father recalled seeing Liverpool burning, the skies red with fire.  It must have been very distressing for the children to see, knowing that their parents, and the rest of the family, were back in Liverpool.

John, and his brother Tom were very enterprising, always looking for ways to make a few pennies.

The boys used to pick pea pods for the farmer and got paid 1/2d per hamper.  It took a long time to fill the hamper.  The peas went to Hartleys to be canned, and Hartleys paid the farmer.   The boys also would collect  fish heads in their knapsacks as swill for the pigs, which they would sell for a halfpenny, until the farmer’s wife complained about the smell from their clothes.

The boys would also Pick beets – it took the whole day to fill a hamper for which they were paid 10 old pence.   One day, some friends came up from Liverpool, to visit for the day.  The four boys turned up at the farm, and the farmer gave them a large hamper, shared between two,  to fill with beets.  The boys went off with their hampers.

The two scallies from Liverpool decided to put large rocks and stones in the bottom of the hamper so that it would fill up faster.  What they hadn’t realised was that, in order to weigh the beets, the farmer would empty the hamper onto his scales.  Imagine his surprise when his scales filled up with a load of rocks.   Needless to say, the two friends from Liverpool were sent off with a flea in the ear.

Couple of Liverpool entrepreneurs taking advantage of the situation. 

In the winter the snow would be very heavy.  John and his brother, Tom, made a sledge, with the help of a friend who had been in Canada.  The friend’s father had returned to England from Canada, to work in the mines at Clockface, near Wigan.

The boys would go to the station with their sledge to collect coal as the Coal Man couldn’t get round due to the heavy snow.  They would also use their sledge to deliver the milk for the farmer at Slade Farm, as the farmer was unable to get through the snow.  The farmer’s name was Wilkinson, and the boys were friendly with the farmer’s daughter Ellen Wilkinson.

Another name, from the past, was Jim Ritson.  Jim was a baker, and would make wonderful meat pasties. The farmer who grew the spuds would leave them in the ground for Jim to dig up for his meat pies.

One time, Jim Ritson took John and Tom to the Regal cinema in Ormskirk for being such good lads.  The saw the film “Diana Steps Out, with Diana Churchill.

In later years Tom went to visit the Wilkinson family, who were still at Slade Farm, although the father had died.  By this time, the daughter Ellen had married, as had another daughter called Esther.  There was also a son, called Bernard, who had died.

Death of their father – boys return to Liverpool:

John’s father would come and visit the boys from time to time.   Unfortunately whilst the boys were still away their father died back in Liverpool and they never saw him again.  Tom went home, as he was homesick,  and eventually John returned to Liverpool having been away for over two years.

My Dad recalled that in the early 1950s the Council started to build the new town, and the face of Skelmersdale would change for ever.

For many years my family kept in touch with the Wilkinsons, at Slade Farm.  My grandmother,  Maggie Hamilton, would often go to visit them, and many years later my father, John, returned to Skelmersdale to see Ellen Wilkinson.  She still recognized him, after many years, due to his mop of dark curly hair.