Children try out day in life of wartime refugees at museum

EIGHT-year-old children took a step back in time yesterday as they learnt how to live like a war-time evacuee – extinguishing bombs with a stirrup pump and washing clothes without electricity.

The pupils from Ashville Junior School, Harrogate, dressed as evacuees and were greeted with a cup of cocoa and a biscuit for an education day at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, Murton, York. The children were met by Shona Griffiths who gave them a short talk on what it was like to be evacuated to the country – a common fate for many schoolchildren during the Second World War.

Amanda Clarke, who works at the museum, said: “The 29 children were divided into small groups and given different tasks to do. For example, one group would learn how to identify aircraft and how to put out an incendiary bomb using a stirrup pump while others would learn the skills necessary for washing clothes using a mangle, dolly tub and a posser – an item which created the agitation essential for cleaning the clothes.

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“Others would be taught how to make a clippy rug using hessian and old clothes.”

After sheltering from an air raid in an Anderson shelter, the children would then face their toughest task – writing a postcard home describing their event-packed day.

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