Children on the Move Schools Resources

What was it like for children in billet families?

BUT what was life like for children whose families gave a home to evacuees?We have learnt what life was like for evacuees

The Second World War also affected children in the countryside. In Staffordshire, although the majority of children were not evacuated out of the county, they were still aware of the war. Some bombs were dropped in Staffordshire, families experienced rations and they also took in evacuees. What was life like for children whose families gave a home to evacuees?2

What was it like to share your home?What was it like to share your family?What did they think to evacuees?Imagine your family has just given a home to two evacuees from London.

How would you feel about it? What was it like to share your home with strangers?What was it like to share your family with evacuees?What did they think of evacuees?3

Listen to the feelings of real billet family children in Staffordshire.

As you listen, make a list of the feelings they had when they shared their lives and homes with evacuees.

Separate them into positive and negative.Max Reynolds

Lived in Penn near Wolverhampton

His Father fought in the Second World War and was taken prisoner

Max and his Mother took in several evacuees

Max made friends easily with the evacuees. He enjoyed having them to stay.5Rob Weston

Lived with his parents in Alton, Staffordshire during the Second World War

He remembers evacuees coming to the village

He went to school with evacuees and made friends with them

Rob felt sorry for the evacuees that came to stay with them. They did not seem to have as much as he did. He wanted to make them feel happy and safe, so Rob and his sister shared their toys with them. He welcomed them into their family and made friends with them.6Dorothy Chadwick

Lived in Werrington in the Staffordshire Moorlands

She was 1 of 10 children

They lived in a small three-bedroomed house

They took in 5 evacuees

12Dorothy found it hard to share her things with evacuees at first. Her family were quite poor so she did not have many things and felt resentful of sharing the little she did have. She also found the accents of the evacuees funny (the evacuees came from Manchester and London). Dorothy says that evacuees were sometimes bullied at school for being different to local Staffordshire children. They were seen as foreigner(s).Over time, Dorothy became friends with the evacuees who stayed with them and they shared things and played happily together.7Beryl Alderson

Lived with her parents on a farm outside Stafford

Her family looked after two evacuees from Ramsgate, Kent

Beryl loved having evacuees to stay. As an only child, it meant she had someone to play with. It gave her companionship, like having a best friend or siblings.8Frances Cooke

Lived with her family in Leek

They looked after 4 evacuees:2 boys first and then a brother and sister from Manchester

Frances was very aware of the differences between her family and the evacuees that came to stay. She felt the evacuees and their family were unclean. This stereotype of evacuees, city families and city life was common within people living in the countryside. They were often seen as lazy, dirty and full of head lice.Frances was also aware of having to share her toys and her parents with the evacuees. 9Michael Whitebrook

Lived in a cottage near Hoar Cross in Staffordshire

His family took in 4 evacuees during the war

He went to school with evacuees from Ramsgate, Kent

Local children, such as Michael, also had to share their school with evacuees. In some instances this meant changing the school day. Some schools let evacuees and their teachers use the building in the morning and then local children would use the school in the afternoon. Other schools, like Michaels, taught local children and evacuees together. As Michael points out, this sometimes meant over-crowding in small village schools with children sharing tables and chairs.10nullBlues7418.797nullBlues45008.625nullBlues16613.79nullBlues25652.363Blues4806.541nullBlues35683.395nullBlues47019.95