Some of the children came to stay with families around Mawbray. At Easter, the Methodist Sunday School used to organise an open air service on the Sea Banks. The picture below was taken around 1943 and, as well as the local children, includes many who were evacuated to the farms and cottages around the village.

One family in Mawbray played host to a young mother and her two children from London. However, after two weeks she returned home. She said her husband was having a ‘good time’ during the absence of his family.

One host family has commented on getting a bit more than extra mouths to feed with the arrival of the evacuees. They got ‘nits’ or head lice! It could have been coincidence but, apparently, some of the children were in a bit of a state when they arrived.

One little boy who obviously didn’t know what an evacuee was, often remarked – “I isn’t a bacuee is ah?”

A previous resident of the village recalls several families who took in evacuees. Three boys, with the surname Arthur, stayed with a family at Hailforth. Another family who lived at the bottom of Mawbray village had in total six boys, all looked after by two women. Mr and Mrs Storey of Mid Town Farm took in the three brothers: Cyril aged 5, Alan aged 7 and Ronnie aged 9.

Dougie Hunt

Dougie Hunt, aged seven, was billeted at Edderside. On his first morning there, he insisted that he wrote down and sent his new address to his parents. They had provided him with a brand new pencil and paper. The following weekend Dougie’s father arrived on a motorbike to see where his son was located. By this time Dougie had settled in and was quite happy to wave his father off. Dougie returned to Newcastle after the war, but soon came back to Cumberland and spent the rest of his life in the area working in the farming industry.

Violet McFarlane came from South Shields. Her Mum sent her six eldest children to the country, keeping the youngest three at home. Violet, aged 6, and her sister Joan, 10, were sent to Westnewton and billeted with Mr and Mrs Reay at Brookside Cottage. Country life suited the girls and Violet looks back on these years as the happiest time of her life.

Violet and Joan at Brookside Cottage

Jimmy and Lizzie Wilson of Croft Farm, Mawbray took in a bewildered seven-year-old, Ronnie Embleton from South Shields. Two of his brothers also found new homes in Mawbray. Harry, 5, went to Miss Osborn, the schoolteacher, and Walter, 11, lived with Miss Nattrass. Ronnie came back to visit the Wilsons, after the war, when he spent a holiday with his young family at Silloth Lido.

Ronnie Embleton and his wife (on the left) with the Wilsons when he returned,
 with his children, during a holiday at Silloth.

During the war, our member, Winnie Bell, was a Billeting Officer and arranged local accommodation for both evacuees and servicemen. This was her official pass.