Bevois Town School During the War
A personal account by Peter Rodaway
Bevois Town was my first school when I was 5 years old in 1938. Miss Wheeler was my teacher, she was very near retirement and was a lovely lady who was very kind to us all! My first girlfriend was a lovely blond girl in my class called Patricia Whitlock. I have never forgotten her. I wonder what happened to her?
I was very happy at Bevois Town School! Then came the Bombing. One morning in November 1940 we all went to school, as usual, only to find it a smoking ruin when we got there. Most of us cheered “Good Old Jerries” (the Germans) they have destroyed our school.
We thought we would have unlimited holidays, WRONG! My mum got very frightened by the continual air raids, so she took me away for a while to stay with relatives in a village called Ton Mawr in South Wales. There I went to the village school. I was made to learn poetry in the Welsh language and then recite what I had learned. I did not like that at all.
I was very glad when we came home in January 1941, but sad to find that my home at 28 Cedar Road was another heap of smoking brick rubble. My Dad who had stayed home because of his work, had rented us another house at 40 Cedar Road and I went back to Bevois Town School, now just a prefabricated hut on the edge of the old school site in Earls Road. My dad drove a lorry for Cadburys. We went out to the New Forest every night and slept in the back of the lorry (no chocolate left inside unfortunately).
In 1941 we moved to Nursling, near Romsey to get further away from the bombing and to sleep in a bed again! That was a real treat. We rented rooms in a farm house and I went to Nursling village school. I was very happy again!
Peter S. Rodaway
Postscript
I attended a very happy reunion in the rebuilt modern school on Wednesday 26th September 2001. I hoped that I would meet old friends from my own years 1938–1941, but unfortunately none attended. The reunion was organised by Mrs Francis Cude, who left the school in 1935.
Peter S. Rodaway
25th February 2002
I was very happy at Bevois Town School! Then came the Bombing. One morning in November 1940 we all went to school, as usual, only to find it a smoking ruin when we got there. Most of us cheered “Good Old Jerries” (the Germans) they have destroyed our school.
We thought we would have unlimited holidays, WRONG! My mum got very frightened by the continual air raids, so she took me away for a while to stay with relatives in a village called Ton Mawr in South Wales. There I went to the village school. I was made to learn poetry in the Welsh language and then recite what I had learned. I did not like that at all.
I was very glad when we came home in January 1941, but sad to find that my home at 28 Cedar Road was another heap of smoking brick rubble. My Dad who had stayed home because of his work, had rented us another house at 40 Cedar Road and I went back to Bevois Town School, now just a prefabricated hut on the edge of the old school site in Earls Road. My dad drove a lorry for Cadburys. We went out to the New Forest every night and slept in the back of the lorry (no chocolate left inside unfortunately).
In 1941 we moved to Nursling, near Romsey to get further away from the bombing and to sleep in a bed again! That was a real treat. We rented rooms in a farm house and I went to Nursling village school. I was very happy again!
Peter S. Rodaway
Postscript
I attended a very happy reunion in the rebuilt modern school on Wednesday 26th September 2001. I hoped that I would meet old friends from my own years 1938–1941, but unfortunately none attended. The reunion was organised by Mrs Francis Cude, who left the school in 1935.
Peter S. Rodaway
25th February 2002