Yeovil at war
Yeovil at war
The wartime Yeovil recollections of Nigel Giles
"I was 6 years old in 1941 and used to travel daily, by H & C bus, from South Petherton to school at Park School in Yeovil. I remember sheltering under the desk in the classroom as the bombing started. The target was probably the Westland’s aircraft factory which was no more than half a mile from the school. I later understood that in fact the factory was not hit, the bombs falling on the town.
Due to the disruption caused by the raid I was late getting home which prompted the remark by my mother “that I would not be going back to school in Yeovil”.
I was then sent to Street Court School at Barrington Court, near Ilminster, which itself had been evacuated to Barrington from Westgate-on-Sea at the outbreak of war. The school remained there until 1945 and I was almost completely oblivious of what was going on in the world.
My
father
had a
petrol
station
on the
A303,
which
was used
by the
army,
both
American
and
British,
as a
refueling
depot; I
remember
well the
sweets
and
lumps of
sugar we
were
given
particularly
by the
US
troops."
Reproduced from the BBC's "WW2 People's War" under the 'fair dealing' terms.
