Reminiscences of an Erdington Evacuee
Audrey Green (later to become Audrey Armitage after her marriage to Bill) was about to enter the Fifth Form at Erdington Grammar School when war with Germany was imminent.
Because of the school's proximity to the industrial areas of Birmingham, the Erdington girls were evacuated to Ashby Girls' Grammar School (AGGS). They travelled to Ashby on 1 September 1939 before war had been formally declared.
Audrey remembers assembling with her fellow pupils on the north side of Stechford railway station (now buried under the concrete of Spaghetti Junction), each of them clutching a gas mask and a tuck box filled with chocolate to sustain them on the journey.
Their headmistress, who accompanied the girls to Ashby, along with her staff, pronounced that the best cure for thirst on the journey was 'a glass of cold tea', although she did not suggest how they could get this.
On arrival at Ashby, the girls were allocated to billets. Audrey and two other girls were sent to join the Lewis-Jones family, who lived in a Victorian semi-detached house on Burton Road.
Mr Lewis-Jones was a commercial traveller and Mrs Lewis-Jones was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis. They had one daughter, Josephine (known as Dodo), who was a pupil at AGGS.
The family employed a maid called Evelyn, from Swadlincote, who was undoubtedly needed because of Mrs Lewis-Jones's infirmity.
Audrey remembers that the family was very kind and took the girls Christmas shopping in Burton at the end of term, and to visit Mount St Bernard's Abbey in the Charnwood Forest.
Despite her hands being deformed by arthritis, Mrs Lewis-Jones taught Audrey to embroider, introducing her to a lifelong hobby. Audrey has since produced some beautiful framed pieces, which now hang on the walls of her bungalow.
When Audrey returned to Ashby after the Christmas holiday, the Lewis-Joneses had decided that housing three evacuees was too much for them. They decided to keep only one.
As a result, Audrey was moved to a new billet with Miss Champion, the headmistress of AGGS, where she stayed for six weeks. Audrey liked Miss Champion but thought her housekeeper was rather snobbish. Audrey was told very firmly that the brown bread and butter served at tea time was for Miss Champion only! The housekeeper also made disparaging remarks about the Erdington girls who were regarded as inferior to Ashby pupils.
However, Miss Champion was always kind and thoughtful. When she noticed that Audrey was not good at socialising, she encouraged her to bring friends home for tea.
One unusual anecdote concerned Miss Champion's hair. Audrey believes the headmistress's hair was very long although she always wore it pinned up. On hair-washing nights, when Miss Champion dried her hair in front of the fire, Audrey was asked to retire early to bed as it was thought inappropriate that the headmistress should be seen letting her hair down.
As her stay with Miss Champion was only a stopgap, Audrey moved on to her next billet. This was also at Burton Road, further up the hill in a detached house with a turret owned by the James family.
Mr James was a businessman who owned a big car – quite a rarity in wartime Ashby. The family had two daughters. One was away at boarding school but Audrey became friendly with the other, Angie, who was a pupil at AGGS.
Audrey remembers enjoying picnics with Angie in the field behind the house although these usually coincided with a business lunch hosted by Mr and Mrs James, when the girls were best kept out of the way.
The girls from the two schools had little chance to mix, as the AGGS pupils used the Nottingham Road buildings in the morning, while the Erdington girls had lessons in the Assembly Rooms at the Bath Grounds. At lunchtimes, the two groups swapped over.
Audrey noted that even the grass of the Bath Grounds was pressed into wartime service as a grazing pasture for sheep – producing an interesting surface for the girls' hockey lessons! Each school retained its own teaching staff, and there were few opportunities to socialise.
The parents of the Erdington girls visited them at Ashby at weekends.
Audrey remembers getting out and about as much as she could, partly as a result of borrowing a bicycle. With her friend Dorothy, she cycled to Repton – possibly attracted by the boys at the summer school there. Being very thirsty on the way (during the long, hot summer of 1940), they called at a farm and asked for a glass of milk, which was duly provided straight from the cow and rather warm.
Audrey also remembers that a Jewish girl from Erdington in her class was excused RE lessons. One day, the girl decided to sit in on an RE lesson. Before the teacher came into the classroom, she climbed on to one of the wide windowsills and hid there behind the drawn curtains, to the amazement and stifled giggles of the rest of the class.
Audrey sang alto in the school choir which practised in the Assembly Rooms. The two girls from Erdington that she remembers by name are her best friends, Enid Newcombe, who was a great mathematician, and Pauline Hadley. She thinks that Pauline continued at AGGS in her Sixth Form years before going on to university.
The girls returned to Erdington for the summer holidays and, in September 1940, they were given a choice – to return to Ashby or to resume their studies at their old school. Audrey chose to remain at Erdington but, after only two days, the bombing of the city began in earnest.
Audrey's family lived near the Dunlop factory which was a target for bombing. When their house was damaged by rocks thrown up from a neighbour's rockery, they decided to move out to Shirley. This meant the Audrey was no longer able to attend her old school so she abandoned her studies and joined the Civil Service where she worked for the next 12 years, until her marriage.
Audrey is now in her 80s and lives in Bude, Cornwall. It was by coincidence that she and Joan Rand, of the Old Ashbeians Association, met at a U3A singing group that both attend. When Audrey told Joan that she originally came from Erdington, Joan informed her that a small hall at AGGS was always referred to as Erdington Hall, because of the clock on the wall in memory of the wartime evacuation. At this point, the two women realised their mutual connection with Ashby.
Anyone who would like to contact Audrey about her days at Ashby can do so through Joan. Her email address is joan@rand.org.uk
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