Nostalgia Saturday OCTOBER 19 – Pages 4 to 5 - Use 9 pic 300 word template

Text for Saturday Spread on Haverigg School evacuees

Headline: Tears and smiles as pupils try out the Second World War evacuee experience

Strapline:  Youngsters said an emotional farewell to parents and had a chance to speak to people willing to share their experiences of coping with conflict

The Mail, on Friday, May 12 in 1995, noted: "An air raid siren sounds and children look fearful, wondering where the next bomb will fall.

"They dive under their desks and take cover until the all-clear sounds.

"But a traumatic day for Haverigg schoolchildren was not over yet.

"Labels with their addresses and ages were hung round the children's necks and they carried their gas masks, suitcases and teddy bears ready for evacuation to safer places.

"For one day the primary schoolchildren relived the experiences of wartime pupils who faced evacuation in the face of German air raids.

"The Haverigg children had said goodbye to their parents, not knowing when they would see them again.

"They marched in a crocodile to the village hall, where women waited to pick them out and take them home.

"Some of the reception class pupils became tearful when they were told they would not see their mothers and fathers until after the war but most of the youngsters took to the role-playing with enthusiasm."

Acting headteacher, Janice Brockbank, said: "Everyone has put a lot of thought into it.

"We thought, rather than just celebrate 50 years of peace, we would make it a history project."

After trying out the evacuee experience, the pupils were able to chat to villagers who lived through the war years.

Rosemary Bullock, from Haverigg, said: "I was only a little girl at the time but I remember my mother going for evacuees.

"She brought back a girl and a boy from South Shields.

"Some of them were in a really bad state. They were broken-hearted at leaving their parents."

Pupil Mark Tyson, 10, said: "It is really good getting evacuated. It is exciting.

"But I think it would be very, very sad to leave your parents."

In August 2005 Haverigg experienced a different aspect of the conflict as Operation Bombard was staged at the former RAF airfield on the outskirts of the village to mark 60 years since the end of the war.

A Mustang aircraft and hoards of re-enactors in German and Allied uniforms did battle around the airfield’s surviving pill boxes and bunkers.