Bishop Wilton in the 1940s

Bishop Wilton Local History Group Special Publication

February 2011

Village Householders &

Evacuees During

World War II

With special remembrance of the late Ruth Walker without whom this might never have been attempted.

Householders & Evacuees during WWII

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Introduction The list that follows was prepared for the Evacuee Day that was held in July 2001 as a replacement for the Bishop Wilton Show which had to be cancelled due to Foot and Mouth disease. The starting point was a similar list produced by the late Ruth Walker for 1946. In consultation with numerous people we modified Ruth’s list for the war years and we identified where evacuees lived. The resulting list became the basis for a display that was mounted in a disused barn at Cliff Farm with the help of Mike Tanner and the late Kath Nevens. Photographs of house frontages were taken from old postcards and annotated with house numbers. The list and the photographs were combined to recreate the Main Street of Bishop Wilton. The resulting display allowed people to walk round and discuss the contents as if they were in a gallery (see the photographs of the display which follow). With all the material having been stored away it was possible to reconstruct the display at a War Years event we had in the old Village Hall early in 2009. This event was the Local History Group’s way of recognising the part that the Village Hall (formerly the Men’s Institute) had played in the life of the village, in anticipation of its eventual replacement by a new Hall. As a permanent record, the photographs of the house frontages have been copied and merged with the list of households that follows. Comments that Ruth Walker made that apply to the post-war years are provided as footnotes; they have not been verified.

The Main Street Display at Cliff Farm

The display just after completion, before the crowds.

February 2011

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From top left, clockwise: Ruth Walker, Malcolm Burgess and one of the Lofts are deep in discussion; Jim Sissons reminisces; the crowded barn with a former evacuee, Beaty

Coulman, facing the camera in the foreground. The display was hung from the rafters. Some people came back on the day and on the following day to walk down memory lane.


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House Number/Name

Householders + children. With evacuees in bold italics. - with historical notes and quotes in shaded boxes.

1 Mr & Mrs W. L. Fisher + Herris. Blacksmith etc.

2 Mr & Mrs James Garforth. Retired butcher & local chapel preacher.

Henry, Eric & Walter Wise (Hull)

During the war the firemen kept their Trailer Pump in Mr Garforth’s garage.

Beaty Coulman remembers:

“... the firemen ... used to do the drilling up at the other half of the village. I can remember once and it was double summer time so it was light real late and they were doing their drill and a lad rode right through on a bike and they knew that if they carried on they’d blow him off the bike so they turned it round and we all got soaked. I got into trouble that day.”

Men’s Institute (then became the Village Hall) From the School Log for Sept 11 1939: “School reopened after midsummer a week later than arranged because of the outbreak of war. Children to attend school with respirators. Numerous children evacuees in the village from Hull and Sunderland etc. The 30 Sunderland children are being taught in the Men’s Institute as a temporary school at present.”

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3 Mr & Mrs Harold Bailey + Stan (who was a joiner & undertaker).

Mrs Edna Leonard + Dickie & Anthea also here for the war years. Edna was Stan’s sister. Dickie stayed on.

Wesleyan Chapel Margaret Galloway remembers “Our mother and father were Chapel so I suppose we had to go to a Chapel family. We nearly lived in the Church and Chapel! We used to go to Chapel first, to the Sunday School, then go up to the Church, come back and have our dinner, and go to Church in the afternoon.”

4 Sherwood House1

Mr & Mrs Herbert Hick.

: Mr & Mrs Maurice Braithewaite, followed by

1 This and following quotes are from Ruth Walker’s notes: “The house belonged to W. L. Fisher, bought for his son, Herris, when he married, but it was rented out to Mr & Mrs Herbert Hick. The court said the house was large enough to be shared by 2 families. Herbert Hick died there.”


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5 Mr & Mrs Arthur West + Arthur, Joan & Judith

Margaret & Dennis Galloway (Hull) 6 Mr & Mrs Charlie Wilson

George, Evelyn & Renee Watson (Sunderland) Beaty Coulman (Hull)

Maureen Brown (Hull) 7 Mr & Mrs Sim Flint + Brent followed by

Mr & Mrs John Cooper2

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Mr & Mrs George Barker

9 Mr & Mrs Walter Brent3

Beaty Coulman (Hull)

+ Shirley, Sylvia & Leslie

Barbara Hill (Hull) 10 Mr & Mrs Henry Cook

Hilda & Eddie Dent (Sunderland) John Dent (Sunderland)

Ken Bowler

2 Mr & Mrs Cooper “owned High Belthorpe”. After the Coopers: “Mr & Mrs J. Jebson, retired farmer, from No. 21”. 3 Mr & Mrs Walter Brent “until July 1946 when we moved there [Ruth & Ted Cook], having been married in Beverley on 10 April 1946”.

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11 Mr ‘Butcher’ Smith & Mrs Smith + Bessy

12 Mr & Mrs John Calam followed by

James, Mary & Thomas Hutchinson (brothers & sister)

13 Mr & Mrs Jim Burgess + Malcolm & Ken

Diana Robinson (Hull)

Billy King remembers “… the Burgesses because Jim used to ring the bells at the church. It sounded like ‘Jim-Burg-ess, Jim-Burg-ess’” The late Joan Goy remembers even more of the chant: “ Jim-Burg-ess Ma-Mal-cy Our-Ken-ny” Rowland, Joan’s husband, said, “No one could ring the bells like Jim”.

14 Mr Willy Walkington

21 West End Farm: Mr & Mrs James Jebson + Billy

John Lumb (Hull)


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15 Mr & Mrs Arthur Pinkney followed by

Mr & Mrs Robinson4

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Mr & Mrs Guy Flint5

Edith & Hilda Charlton (Sunderland)

Geoffrey Lumb (Hull) Bryan Robinson (Hull)

Carl ???? (Hull) Bobby Treweek (Hull) – surname supplied at Evacuee Day

17 Mr Charlie Serginson, Boot & Shoe Maker & Cobbler

18 Miss Elizabeth Slater6

Doreen, Lily & Audrey Hildrew (Sunderland)

(sister to Walter next door)

19 Mr & Mrs Walter Slater7

June Medforth

20 Mr & Mrs Alfred Flint (parents of Sim & Guy Flint)

21 See previous sheet.

4 Mrs Robinson was “widowed by 1946 and their son, Joe, and his wife moved in soon after with Owen”. 5 Mr & Mrs Guy Flint “moved to No.20 in 1950”. 6 Elizabeth Slater “died in February 1953”. 7 Mr & Mrs Walter Slater: “he died in June 1953, she died in May 1967”.

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22 Highfield House: Mr & Mrs Bill Lawson + grandson Billy

Lawson

23 Limetree House: Mr & Mrs J. H. Newby + Henry & Nancy

David & Barry Wilkinson (Hull) Cathy Elliot (Hull)

Jimmy Pollard with his mother (London) – Mr Pollard was in the RAF stationed at Full Sutton

24 Mr & Mrs Robert Farrow8

There was a travellers’ caravan in the back [of No 24]. They used to travel during the summer months.

+ Annie & Charlie (twins)

25 Mr & Mrs Harry Smith9

Norman & Neville Long (Hull)

+ Gordon & Cliff

Keith & Audrey Pygas (Hull) 26 Mr & Mrs Frank West + Lawrence & Nancy

27 Mr & Mrs Donald Turner + Don & Dennis

Maureen Kay (Hull) David Kay (Hull)

28 Mr & Mrs Billy Downham + Doreen, Cynthia & Dennis 8 “Mrs Farrow (Robert’s second wife) was a gipsy. John Farrow moved in later”. 9 “… followed by Mr & Mrs Bill Loft. Mr & Mrs Don Turner came in later”.


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Barbara Hill (Hull) followed by Mr & Mrs Arthur Smith10

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+ Christopher & Kenneth

Mrs Wilson + Norman11

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The Chestnuts: Mr & Mrs Herbert Hick followed by

Mr & Mrs Charles Denton + Kenneth

10 Mrs Nora Smith “nee Foster”. 11 Norman Wilson was “brother of Flora Brigham”.

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31 Mr & Mrs Charlie Fugill (or Fugel, or Fuguel?)12

Charlie Fugill collected the rubbish with a horse and cart and took it to the village dump. The children sang: “Charlie Fugill blows his bugle to the dump on Wednesdays.”

32 Mrs Tom Foster & Harold Lacy

33 Mr & Mrs Tom Smith + Len, Walter, Frank & Peter Long

34 Mr & Mrs Toes + Joan, Nancy, Brian & Valerie

35 Mr & Mrs Kelly Barnes

Mrs Cawthorne (Gran) & Vincent Chapman

36 Mr & Mrs George Wilson + Sheila13

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Old Mr Jack Barnes

The Black Cottages, Back Lane:

106 Mrs Smith & Jim followed by

Mrs Johnson (Army Officer’s wife) + Grace, also Rena Hartwell (niece) followed by

12 The Fugills were “followed by Mrs Fisher and her son who married and his wife became a teacher at Bishop Wilton School”. 13 George Wilson was “brother to Norman and Flora”. Sheila is now Sheila Sherwood.


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Mr & Mrs Paddy Brigham + Mike, Ann & Barry

Douglas Heseltine (Hull) 107 Mr & Mrs (Dog) Harry Smith & family followed by Eric & Lilian

Foster

108 Madge Loft + Gerald also Granny Loft & Uncle Jack Loft

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38 Mr & Mrs Walter Smith + Harry & Ella

39 Mr & Mrs John Deighton

40 Shields Farm: Mr & Mrs Bob Horner14

Land Girl here before John Neary

+ Rita, Ronnie, Janet & Christine. Also John Neary, farm worker.

John Robinson (Hull)

14 The Horners “arrived around 1940 from Haxby”.


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41 Manor Farm: Mr & Mrs Norman Salmon & Miss Bradley

Avril Gibson remembers:

“I used to go and clean the chickens out at the bottom end of the village, on the left-hand side. But I can’t remember their name. My brother did it and when he returned to Hull they asked me if I’d do it. I got sixpence a week.

There were 2 chicken sheds and you used to open the door – I was scared stiff – they all used to fly out at you. I used to have to collect the eggs first and there was always the stray one that was left in, and they used to jump out at you.”

42 Mary Wilstrop

43 Bridge View: Kate Banks

44 Mr DeCluey (?), hairdresser & sportsman followed by

John & Elizabeth Easton

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45 Fleece Inn: Harry Holgate, Chief Air Raid Warden Harry Holgate used a whistle before the siren was installed on the pub roof. “Get yoursens inside, that’s him up there!”, he used to shout.

According to the official World War II Invasion Scheme for the village, “The Bishop Wilton Civil Defence Post is known as “F2” and the Senior Warden is Mr H. Holgate, Fleece Inn, Bishop Wilton, (tel B.W. 251). The total Warden’s strength of the Post is 6. The other wardens being Messrs J.R. Frank, C.R. Denton, S. Fielder, Arthur Sissons, J. Butterworth.

46 Post Office: Mr & Mrs Charles Stott + Michael. Mr Henry Cook lived with them.

47 The Co-op Shop.

The Home Guard met in an upstairs room here. It was completely removed (the shop and the dwelling next door, to the corner) for road widening later on in the 1960s (?).


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48 Mr & Mrs Sydney Fielder + Doreen & Hilary. Sydney managed

the Co-op shop and Doreen worked there.

49 Allan Ripley, his sister, Florence and his father Matt.

Allan had the bike shop, called Wembley Garage (see photo below), on the corner of the back lane and Pocklington lane.

50 Mr & Mrs Foster + Pat followed by

Mrs Tindall (Gran) & Jack Tindall (Hull) followed by

Mr & Mrs (Dog) Harry Smith + Henry & Les.

Chapel

Used by the Home Guard. Evacuees received here early in the war. Later used by the Co-op as a store.

51 Mr & Mrs Bert Craggs + Gordon, Brian & Ivan

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52 Mr Albert Foster + Gordon, Bryan & Nora.

53 Mr Robinson & Miss Robinson (brother & sister)

Harry Fussey (Hull) 54 Hendersons followed by

Ernest & Elsie Eastwood

55 Jimmy Keep followed by

Philip & Violet Fisher

56 Mr & Mrs Wilf Cook followed by

Mrs King (mother) + Billy, Arthur & Alan also Dolly King (sister-in-law, Land Army)

57 Waldgate House: Mrs Drury with Kath15

Robert Treweek (Hull) – also stayed at No 16

(Mrs Drury’s daughter) & Jack Prentice

Malcolm Taylor (Hull) Malcolm remembers arriving in Bishop Wilton:

“… the bus drawing up and looking at this house and thinking, ‘Isn’t that bonny’. It was because of the garden and all the big flowers and I finished up living there, at No. 57. We were sitting in the coach and they were telling us where we were going. So we were allotted houses straight off the bus.”

15 “They had a fish shop that stood back from the road”.


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58 Mr & Mrs Colin Campbell + Clive & Lorna. Plus Aunty Laura

Mrs Gagen (mother) + Audrey & Colin

59 Mrs Margaret Newby followed by

Roland & Doreen (nee Pay) Stead

John Pay who stayed at Beechwood Farm remembers:

“Our Doreen [John’s Aunt] lived opposite the Church in a cottage – there’s 3 cottages been knocked into one. In the end one, that’s where she lived with Roland [Stead]. Ask our Shirley [Doreen & Roland’s daughter, Shirley Stead, now Parsons], she was born there – well, she was born at Driffield, but she lived there. We left them there when we came home in ’45. She was born before we came home. I got my finger trapped in the little wicket gate at the side of No 59, that was what I was looking at in the photograph, a little snickle-way…. I remember. I remember all the bad things.”

60 Mrs Bolton, mother of Mrs Dick Johnson

61 Mr & Mrs Wilson England

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62 Mr & Mrs Billy Loft + Ken, & twins, Peter & Pauline

63 Mr & Mrs Pickering + Mollie, Connie, John, Stan, Carol, Mavis, Ivy & Eric

64 Mr Harrison, retired Gamekeeper

65 Mrs Drury + Kath (who later moved to No 57)16

Mr & Mrs Butterworth + Marjorie

followed by

Avril Gibson remembers:

“I’ve even been and rung the bells in the church. And Mr Fawcett was the vicar at the time, I think. We used to have our gowns on, the surplice and the three-cornered hat. We used to go across the road to Mr Butterworth’s to have choir practice.”

66 Mr & Mrs Tommy Loft + Jim, Bob, Gladys, Eva, Aileen, John, Peggy & Barbara

Fred & Dennis Kavanagh (Hull) 67 Mr & Mrs Walter Wilson

68 Mr & Mrs Fred Wilson + June, Harry

16 Mrs Drury and Kath “started here (they came from Leeds), they had a shop selling sweets and drapery (?) and a fish shop via double doors, then they moved to No. 57”.


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Sheila & Alice Hunt (Hull) 69 Mr & Mrs Pottage + Jean

Betty Wharrie (Hull) From the School Register:

“This child [Betty Wharrie] came here as an evacuee but Bishop Wilton is now her home”

Council Houses – behind 66 to 69:

98 Mr & Mrs Barton + Joyce, Wendy & Bill

99 Mrs Tom Foster

100 Mr & Mrs Albert Sissons + Keith & Marion

101 Mr & Mrs Len Boyes

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70 Mr & Mrs Bob Robinson + Jeff, Ken & Joyce

71 Mr Fred Sissons + Jim & Eric

72 Mrs Ware, George Oxtoby


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74 Mr & Mrs Frank Smith (he was blind) + Selina & Grace

75 Mr & Mrs Kirby + Don, Dennis, Jean & Albert17

76

Mr & Mrs William Tipling18

77

Mr & Mrs Jackson + Jeff & Nancy

17 The Kirbys were “followed after the war, by Percy Johnson & family”. 18 William Tipling “died during the war”. The Tiplings were “followed by Mr & Mrs Lamb. He had a shop in York, near King’s Square.”

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73 Mrs Riley, Mary Rowlay (Mrs Riley’s daughter) + Ruth

Rachael & Edith Murtha (Sunderland) Norman & Avril Gibson (Hull)

May Morris (Hull) Leslie East (Hull)

Avril Gibson:

“My first memory is of standing on the wall outside Mrs Riley's, for the first couple of days. Standing there and sort of looking round the village.”

78 - Mill House Mr & Mrs Arthur Sissons + Edith, Ken & David

Ken Sisson remembers:

“... immediately war was declared everyone had to be conscious of the blackout, making sure no light showed at the windows. The wardens were Harry Holgate from the Fleece Inn, and the Vicar, Rev. Fawcett. Mr Holgate who was slightly portly, probably in his late 40s, had a whistle that he had to give 3 blasts on as a warning, running all round the village, then the same again for the all-clear. Eventually the village got a siren, which was mounted on the pub chimney. Anybody past the age of call-up had to do voluntary work — there was the LDV [Local Defence Volunteers which some people joked stood for “Look, Duck and Vanish”] which eventually became the Home Guard, the Fire Service and the Observer Corps. The Fire Service team used to practise with their hoses at the dammed beck — great fun for the kids to watch.”


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Beechwood Farm (now Flat Top)

Mrs & Mrs Stead + Roland

Mrs Pay (mother) + John, Lily, Audrey & Doreen John Pay remembers:

“Our Joan used to look after me at little school, but she obviously went up to big school, so I was left on me own down at the little school. I used to have to go up to top school and wait for the lasses to take me home. I come up round the corner this particular day, and looked towards Worsendale, and there was all these soldiers on the roadside. I remember it now as true as I’m stood here. To me the Germans had come….so I ran across the road, like this – crouched down – through the hedge and all the way home. When I got home, my mother slapped my backside and told me to go back to school because they wouldn’t know where I was. It was the Home Guard I’d seen!” 79 Mr & Mrs Dick Johnson + Mavis

Norman Thackrah (York) 80 Mrs Baxter + Edna & Annie 81 Lily Wilson, Mr & Mrs H. Wilson + Arthur & Joyce School 82 Mr & Mrs Alfred Richard Rhodes followed by

Mr & Mrs Robert Iredale 83 Miss Clara Foster 84 Mr & Mrs Boyes + Cyril, Reg & Len 85 Mr & Mrs Geoff Dring + Hilda

Helena Cades (Hull) 86 Mrs Lily Craggs + Ivor 87 Rose Villa: Jimmy, Connie & May Wadsworth (brother & sisters)

February 2011

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88 Empty cottage belonging to Charlie Cullum but he lived at No 90

with his sister and brother-in-law

Mrs Trotter (mother) + Barry Trotter, also Pauline Drury (niece)

Barry Trotter remembers:

“Keep oot’t beck Barry”, a chirped instruction from Sarah’s pet budgie Peter ‘Boy’ Wilkinson is just one of my treasured memories of four years as an evacuee at Wolds Kennels, Bishop Wilton ... “You two are going to Wilton” I am told were my dad’s words as he, my mam and my four year old self emerged from our Anderson shelter in Hull after the third night of Hitler’s blitz in June 1940. Wilton was where my dad’s uncle Ben Wilkinson and his wife Sarah lived, together with Sarah’s brother Charlie Cullum. Ben was a retired gamekeeper and Charlie a cobbler.

89 Mr & Mrs Tom Clint

Freda Clint (York) 90 Mr & Mrs Benny Wilkinson & Charlie Cullum

Brian, Robert & Geoff Wilkinson (Hull) Barry Trotter (Hull)

91 Mr & Mrs Edgar Cook & family followed by Mr & Mrs Joseph Robinson + Owen

Army Officer’s wife & daughter 92 Mr & Mrs Leonard + Heather


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93 Mr & Mrs Jordan

94 Old Vicarage: Thomas A. Tipling

95 Mrs Raimes (blind)19

Beaty Coulman remembers:

“… there was a blind lady lived at the cottage next to the church and I used to go for her bread on my way home from school and I was allowed to take the money and I used to go to the Co-op for the bread and take it to her on my way back to school.”

96 Mr & Mrs Robinson

97 Mr & Mrs Len Dixon

19 Mrs Raimes “walked with two blind sticks. She used to whistle. She died between April & June 1946. She was followed by Mr & Mrs Morley”.

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The Vicarage Mr Richard Fawcett, Vicar

Mr & Mrs Brigham Snr

Billy King remembers:

“The school in the village was so important during the War, because they had dances and the WI had concerts in there. They had a stage up at the end, and I can always remember how clever it was, because they sang cowboy songs and I was a real cowboy fan. Mr Fawcett [the Vicar] made a turntable out of Meccano with a light in it to turn and shine out as though it was a bonfire. It was very ingenious. That was at the front of the stage, and the cowboys sat there singing, with all the lights out except for this flickering bonfire. Us kids all thought this was marvellous, and it really was.”

Rev. Fawcett was the Chairman of the Bishop Wilton Invasion Committee. This was an official secret committee, known only to those involved, that produced and maintained a scheme for action in the event of German invasion. The last version of this scheme was typed up in February 1944 by Rev. Fawcett. He kept the copy and later handed it over to Mr Hobbs then headmaster of the village school. Mr Hobbs kept it safe until he handed it over to the Local History Group. The original is now lodged with the East Riding Archives at Beverley. Copies are available for purchase.

Documents

Bishop Wilton in the 1940s