Unforgettable remembers the war

The children in We have been evacuated were enjoying country life

On the week of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Gerald Jackson dedicated Unforgettable to music and tales from that era.

BBC Radio Lancashire's longest serving presenter played a fascinating feature he found in the BBC archives from 1939.

Olive Shapley visited Bacup in We have been evacuated to speak to children from Manchester who were evacuated to Bacup on 1 September 1939.

The feature on the evacuees sparked calls from Unforgettable listeners who shared their wartime stories with Gerald, including a lady who made the same exodus from Manchester to the Lancashire countryside.

Spoilt

Irene recalls the experience of being rounded up at her school in Manchester and taken to a train station and put on a train without knowing what was happening or where she was going. "It was horrible," she said about the uncertainty surrounding the evacuation.

However, once she eventually ended up in Bacup she was placed with a childless couple and loved it. "I was thoroughly spoilt; I have lovely memories."

When things went quiet, she returned home to her parents but never forgot her evacuee family."I have been in touch with them since and thanked them for having me."

The bomb

Blackburn was reputed to be largely unscathed by the bombing but as Gerald discovered at least one bomb fell on the town.

Cathleen, who was ten when the war started, was sleeping a few streets away from where the bomber dropped it's load on Ainsworth Street. She was living on Northgate in a flat above her parents' shop. "We heard the bomb and heard the blast. The bomb came down and it cracked one of our window panes on the side windows of the flat."

Cathleen remembers the courting couple in the back. "The girl screamed and ran for her life when that bomb dropped down I can tell you."

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