A closer look at the life of a child growing up in Britain during World War 2...

Created by: Rebecca P , Abbey V.W , Dane D and Tyrone O

Evacuation on the children depended to an extent on which place you were in at the time. The parents who had access to money could make their own arrangements. Children at private schools based in the cities tended to move out to manor houses in the countryside where children at that school could be kept together. 1.9 million children gathered at rail stations in early September not knowing where they were going and if they were going to be split up from their brothers and sisters who gathered with them at the station.

In some kitchens people cooked on a 'stove'

heated by a coal or wood fire. The stove heated

the room and cooked meals. Most kitchens had a

gas cooker though some had electric cookers.

Not many people had a refrigerator. People went

shopping to buy fresh food most days. To keep

flies away from meat, they kept meat in a small

cupboard called a 'meat safe'. They kept bread in

a bread bin and biscuits in tins. Families ate

some tinned foods, such as tinned meat, peas and

baked beans, but hardly any frozen foods.

The children who remained in the areas that were likely

to be bombed they had to be protected. Every school

had its own air raid shelter facilities. At Mayville Road

School in Layton, the headmistress shows the infants

the sandbagged trenches to shelter them in the event of

a raid.

Rationing of food supplies continued for some

years after the war. Some people kept hens,

rabbits pigs or pigeons. Others went fishing,

collected wild berries or mushrooms from the

countryside or shellfish from the sea shore when

these were in season. Fresh eggs were better for a

growing infant than the dried eggs alterative.