Evacuees

Happy Times of a Birmingham boy in Shrawley

Tom Brown’s school days were joyous and idyllic amid a Worcestershire wonderland largely untouched by the world war raging at the time.  Clearly, I am not referring to the fictional character of the renowned children’s novel, but to a real-life personality – Thomas Brown, who was sent as a boy evacuee from Birmingham in 1939.

Within weeks of war being declared, Tom, then aged nine, his 11 year old brother Fred and their friend Ken Gill were evacuated from Victorian city housing in Winson Green, to the wide open spaces and pastoral beauty of Shrawley.  “We came by train to Stourport and were then taken by bus to Shrawley, where all evacuees were assembled in the village hall”, recalls Tom.  “Fred, Ken and I were determined to stay together, but nobody would initially accept us as a threesome. We were therefore taken first to Dr Mills’ house (Bridge Farm) by Dick Brook and, within a short time, a home was found for us with the Bettridge family at Bettridge Farm (Eastgrove Farm), Sankyns Green”.  “It was a lovely place with a big walled garden and I can vividly remember the three of us all sleeping in a large comfortable bed looking out each night through the windows at the starlit sky. We would sometimes spot shooting stars, and it all seemed like paradise to us”.  “We were taught how to catch rabbits and took to country life very much as an adventure. However, we were obviously expected to help out every day on the farm and worked hard but enjoyed it”.

Some months later the boys were transferred from Bettridge Farm to the home of the Halford family at Court Farm, Shrawley.  “This was another super place. It was by the side of Shrawley Wood and ran down to the lakes and I remember once going out in the Vicar’s punt”.  “Again we were expected to work on the farm from early morning and would fetch in the cows from the riverside meadows for milking and also muck out. We did potato picking too and other farm work, but it was fun.”

Not long after arriving in Shrawley, Tom, Fred and Ken were enrolled into the village school. This was only small and had just two classrooms, so the influx of Birmingham evacuee children caused a bit of a problem initially until things could be sorted out.  “For some weeks we could only go to school for half the day. Local children would be taught in the mornings and we would go to school in the afternoons. Boys and girls were also put together for all lessons so it meant us boys being taught to knit, embroider and sew. I suppose it was unusual for boys to learn how to cast on and off knitting needles, but it all stood us in good stead in later life,” says Tom.

Another of his enduring memories is of the day in the terrible winter of 1940 when he, Fred and Ken went to the Picture House in Stourport.  “When we came out we found that everything was frozen solid and covered with ice. We went to the bus terminus but a Midland Red man told us no services at all were running so we started walking back to Shrawley”.  The roads and paths were covered with thick ice and we hadn’t gone far when it started to snow and we found ourselves walking through a blizzard, only able to see a few feet in front of us. Trees were also crashing down under the weight of snow and ice”.  “It was the only time during our evacuation that I was very frightened, and how long it took us to get back to Court Farm I don’t know, though it was certainly hours. When we thankfully arrived at the door, Mr and Mrs Halford had clearly been very anxious and concerned about us and immediately boiled up hot water so could chill out in baths”.

Tom also remembers when the evacuee children were invited to a tea party at Shrawley House, then the home of the aristocratic Vernon family.  “It was the only time I ever saw a butler and servants all in proper dress” says Tom.

The idyllic Shrawley days for Tom, Fred and Ken suddenly came to an end in the summer of 1941 when they were returned home permanently to their families in Birmingham.  “I still don’t know to this day why it all came to such an abrupt end, and we very much missed the country life at Shrawley. We had enjoyed marvellous times.”

Tom Brown was to be reminded of his Shrawley schooldays sometime after moving to his present home in Edgbaston, Birmingham.  “I was doing some gardening when a new neighbour said the flowers I was planting reminded her of the time she was a wartime evacuee. To our great mutual surprise it turned out she had been at Shrawley and in its village school at the very same time as us. What a small world! She was then Eileen Cutforth, but is now Mrs South.  It was from her that Tom Brown received a now treasured copy of a photograph taken of pupils and staff at Shrawley School in 1939.

The Bettridge family lived at Eastgrove Farm, Sankyns Green which prior to 1920 belonged to The Earl of Dudley.  It was put up for auction in that year at the Public Hall in Worcester and was not sold at £4,000.

The Bettridges lived there from about 1921-1962 when it was sold to the Headleys.  In June 1967 the farm was bought by the Warrington family.

Court Farm was part of the Vernon Estate when the Halford family as tenants farmed it.  They were followed by W. Parslow in 1957 who farmed it for eight years until 1965.  In 1966 James Powick took over the farm again farming it for the estate until the death of Ruth Horton and then farming it for himself.