Farewell … a wave from youngsters being evacuated to the country (Photograph courtesy Gloucestershire Echo)  


Don’t push! There’s room for all of you! Young evacuees board the train at Winchcombe (Photograph courtesy Gloucestershire Echo)  

Youngsters crowded on the platform.  Just a few belongings and luggage labels around their necks.  So started a new life for many youngsters being evacuated from Britain's cities to safer communities in the country, like Winchcombe.

Recently, several schools in Gloucestershire got a little taste of what it would be like to be an evacuee.  But while during the war such youngsters were stepping into the unknown, perhaps frightened; perhaps tearful, perhaps even excited but certainly apprehensive about what was happening to them and their unknown destinations, the school children who gathered at the GWR recently thoroughly enjoyed their experience.  At least these youngsters knew they were going home again after their train journey on The Honeybourne Line!

The Gloucestershire Echo printed a wonderful spread of pictures in a recent issue.  As the local daily reported, the event was organised by Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum in partnership with the GWR. 

Museum education and outreach officer Virginia Adsett told the Echo: "Pictures in a book or downloaded from the internet have their place … but they're nothing like taking part in a memorable experience like this that involves all the senses."

The Museum had put on a range of wartime effects - including blackout materials, gas masks, wardens' helmets, wartime torches and they learned about communications during the war - well before the internet!  They were also shown what their food rations would have been.

Malcolm Temple, chairman of the GWR says: "This was a remarkable experience for the youngsters and for our volunteers who took part.  It was a very real reminder of what their grandparents might have gone through. 

"70 years ago, the GWR certainly played its part in bringing youngsters from Birmingham or London to temporary new homes in Gloucestershire."

The children taking part - all dressed for the occasion - were from Hatherop Castle School near Cirencester and Belmont School in Cheltenham and similar experiences are expected to be organised on the GWR next year.

The pictures are reproduced with grateful thanks to the Gloucestershire Echo.