children, mothers with infants and the infirm from towns and cities during the war. Evacuation took place in several waves. The first came on 1 st September 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. Over the course of three days 1.5 million evacuees were sent to rural locations considered to be safe. Evacuation was voluntary, but the fear of bombing, the closure of many urban schools and the organised transportation of school groups helped persuade families to send their children away to live with strangers. Parents were issued with a list detailing what their children should take with them. These items included a gas mask in case, a change of underclothes, night clothes, plimsolls or slippers, spare stockings or socks, toothbrush, comb, towel, soap, face cloth, handkerchiefs and a warm coat. Evacuees and their hosts were often astonished to see how each other lived. Some evacuees flourished in their new surroundings. Others endured a miserable time away from home. Many from inner-city areas had never seen farm animals before or eaten vegetables. In many instances a child’s upbringing in urban poverty was misinterpreted as parental neglect. In early September 1939 the Youth Hostel Association reported it is not likely that members will anticipate hostelling, but the following hostels in this district are being used by evacuated children: Litton Cheney, Burley, Organford, Iwerne Minster and Bridport. By late September part of the accommodation was made available again for hostelling. Belinda Brocklehurst recalled soon after our arrival in Litton Cheney (August 1940) the ‘evacuees’ arrived in the village. A bus arrived which was full of very sad looking children who had been brought down from their bombed-out homes in the east of London. Most had never been apart from their parents. They arrived with labels with their names on them tied somewhere. They were billeted with people in the village, some with families, some with single ladies and two with us. George Mundy and his sister arrived. They were terrified. George was older than me and his sister quite a bit younger. A room was made for them in the attic. I always remember the first meal with us, and they both ate with their hands and could not use a knife and fork. They had nothing, no clothes, no toys and no parents. I remember feeling desperately sad for them, and very perplexed as I simply did not understand where they had appeared from. Gently George became a friend, in a slightly distant way. He was a true Cockney, and I found it quite hard to understand him, and I think he found me equally odd! He was a frail, pale, rather sickly youth, but later grew to love the village life and grew up to work on a farm. Somehow my grandmother managed to find a vacant cottage in the village and get their parents out of London to join them, plus the very old grandfather. They arrived with their only possessions in a bucket, I remember they had just one mug in the bucket- everything else had been destroyed when their house was bombed. I am sure the village supplied the necessary to set them up in the cottage.

When the Youth Hostel opened in 1937 there were beds for eighteen men and fifteen women, but the hostel was immediately popular and had expanded by 1938 seemingly into the intended warden’s space. Alfred Pitcher of White Cross was employed as a caretaker warden, looking after the premises and collecting the overnight fees of one shilling per adult and six pence for the under sixteens. Those wanting cooked meals were able to get them in the village. The new hostel had over a thousand visitors in the first five months of 1938. W. Aldred from Lancashire recalled his cycle tour in 1938: it was one of the finest places that could possibly have been turned into a Youth Hostel. There was a pleasant crowd- but who could help being pleasant in such comfortable surroundings. The warden joined us around the fire and joined in our talks- and could he talk! I never met another like him. He never stopped for two hours.

In early September 1939 the Youth Hostel Association reported it is not likely that members will anticipate hostelling, but the following hostels in this district are being used by evacuated children; Litton Cheney, Burley, Organford, Iwerne Minster and Bridport. By late September part accommodation was made available for hostelling. The hostel was later requisitioned by the army until the end of hostilities, being used as a sick bay and general HQ office. Judging by the graffiti on the walls there would seem to be very few units of the British Army (not to mention American) who were not represented at Litton Cheney at some time or another. After the war the YHA was granted compensation of £120, but a shortage of funds and the poor state of the building meant it would be difficult to resurrect. However, it eventually reopened in August 1947.

In 1939 Alfred Pitcher, carrier and taxi proprietor and A.R.P. warden was here with his sister Laura Billett. Laura’s husband had been killed in the First World war. Mr Pitcher’s bus was a Morris, the body of which was built by the Leggs of Long Bredy. A wide back door and seats for fourteen passengers placed round the sides made it easy to load goods. During the war the bus was used for transporting livestock on market days, calves and crates of chickens sometimes being carried at the back. American soldiers often used the service, their extra weight often making it impossible for the bus to climb the steep hill, to the main Dorchester Road and forcing them to get out and help push. The Morris became a familiar sight on the road until 1944 when Fred Pitcher retired, saying they had carried everything from live pigs, calves, to a swarm of bees . The vehicle and service were acquired by Bere Regis & District Motor Services. nds and the poor state of the building meant it would be difficult to resurrect. However, it eventually reopened in August 1947.

Belinda Brocklehurst recalls another important character in the village was Mr Pitcher. He lived in a white house on the corner opposite the White Horse Pub. Mr Pitcher was quite elderly, in my eyes, and had a sister who lived with him. He also had an ancient bus. He used to go to Dorchester, 10 miles away, twice a week and amazingly took shopping lists from many people in the village, and ration books, and collected all their shopping for them. Very few people had cars, and those that did had no petrol coupons. I was surprised to learn when I was older how many of the old villagers had never been to Dorchester, and also how many had no indoor plumbing and only had a WC in an outhouse in the garden. Some used to walk daily with buckets all the way up to a spring halfway down a path from the Church to get the pure spring water spouting from the chalk hillside. Soldiers from the Durham Light Infantry, including George Stephenson were billeted here in 1940.