These sound files are extracts (short edited pieces) from longer oral history interviews that Northumberland Archives recorded. These interviews were recorded as part of a project to record the memories of people who had been evacuated to Northumberland as children during the Second World War.

For each person there is a short extract where they introduce themselves and one more extracts where they talk about their experience of being an evacuee.

Stan is from Tottenham and was born during the mid-1930s. He is the youngest of 7 children.

Stan was first evacuated to a farm in Cambridgeshire in 1939 with his older brother.

Stan tells a story about being given Yorkshire pudding as a starter by host family during Sunday dinner.

Stan had family friends who lived in Bedlington Station that his parents had met during the First World War.

Stan travelled up with his mother and two sisters who left him to stay with “Uncle Dave” and his second wife at 10 Jubilee Terrace, Bedlington Station.

Stan arrived in 1944 after staying at two other places previously, and time at home in between. He stayed in Bedlington Station until after VE Day.

Stan was treated very well and made friends. He mentions going to school which was near the railway bridge and the cinema. The school was wooden and has since been burned down.

Stan received a school report saying that he settled down very well under difficult circumstances.

Stan had a positive experience of evacuation and described it as “one big barrel of fun”.

Stan mentions life at school, tells an anecdote about the Headmaster calling him a “nincompoop”, mentions that the kids all spoke Geordie. He settled in straight away and got on well with his schoolmates.

Stan talks about his family coming to visit him in Bedlington. His sisters brought him “candies” that they got from American Soldiers.

His sisters went dancing in Whitley Bay at the dance hall when they came to visit.