1939 to 1945

Everyone who lived through the troubled years of the 1930s saw the inevitable approach of war, only temporarily postponed by the Munich crisis of 1938. In order to safeguard food supplies the government made farm work a reserved occupation though some men such as Leslie Lawrence and John Hehir served in the forces. Before war broke out, the parish records tell us that 6 air raid wardens were appointed and an instructor for anti-gas precautions, followed by a billeting officer and two more air raid wardens. The parish became the owners of a single stirrup pump and Mr Forrest, the vicar, organised a small auxiliary fire service to man it! Mr. Forrest was also arranging the collection of waste paper and scrap iron which was delivered to the vicarage, and probably became a considerable nuisance before it was finally disposed of. There was even a song on the radio at the time called “Up housewives and at ‘em”, one line of which ran “Save your paper, and keep your eye on, rags bones and any old iron” Well we know now that most of that scrap iron was useless and finished at the bottom of the sea.

There now began the great social experiment which seemed so necessary at the time, the evacuation of mothers and children from the cities to the country, to escape the expected bombing. The one thing that became clear was that neither city nor country people had any idea how the other lived. Mrs. Minton wrote, “ When the war broke out, the evacuees came, anyone with a spare bedroom was compelled to take some in. We had a young mother with three children under five years. On arrival the first question they asked was “Where was the pub and the chip shop?” On being told the pub was two miles away, and the ‘chippie’ the other side of the Malvern Hills five miles away, they nearly returned to Birmingham. One day when ours had been with us several weeks, I had to go out, and on returning in the late evening, was surprised to find the house in darkness and not a sound to be heard. On entering the living room I found one terrified lady with three sleeping children huddled in a corner. I had filled and trimmed the oil lamps before leaving but it hadn’t occurred to me that she hadn’t a clue how to light them. The eldest little boy was quite a chatterbox. One morning when I was dishing out the cereals for breakfast, he looked up at me and in his Brummy accent said “Where do ya keep getting the food from, lady? Ya never goes out but ya keep on getting it.” I had to explain that my groceries were only delivered once a fortnight so I had to get a supply in to last”

Being an evacuee was probably hardest on the very young. Some boys who came to the village enjoyed country life. And as for the people who were made to take in unknown women and children we only have to put ourselves in their place to imagine what it must have been like.

When the war ended and the servicemen came home, a public meeting was held to ask what improvements the village people would like to see. Their requirements were modest enough:

1. A fortnightly collection of refuse.
2. The Electricity Board to be asked when they would bring electricity to the village
3. The deep ditch alongside Stockton’s Farm was thought to be dangerous and reflectors were requested.
4. More buses to Malvern were needed.
5. Better lighting was needed in the Village Hall.

Things move slowly in the country and it was many years before these improvements happened.

In July 1939, the parish council in answer to an invitation from the RDC decided to apply for 4 council houses to be built in the village. Suitable sites were discussed, and the vicar offered the glebe land but that was thought to be too damp. The houses were finally built in 1950.