Former wartime evacuees have attended their annual summer reunion at Lowestoft and Glossop stations.
On Monday 2 June, the Friends of Glossop Station supported a commemorative and celebratory event at their station, followed by another special event at Lowestoft Station, hosted by the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP), on Saturday 7 June.
The collaborative events gave former evacuees and family members a chance to catch up and reminisce 85 years since more than 600 schoolchildren and their teachers were evacuated from Lowestoft to Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, away from the imminent threat of invasion and bombing.
Many of those evacuated found safety in and around the High Peak town of Glossop, with the links formed between the two communities all those years ago still celebrated today. Many evacuees even remained in Glossop after the war, establishing firm ties, raising families and becoming part of their adopted community.
At the Glossop event, Mayor of High Peak Cllr Elliott-Starkey presented special certificates to former evacuees Alma Mingay, aged 93, who had travelled from Lowestoft for the event, and Thelma Wood (née Walpole), Sheila Mickleburgh (née Walpole) and Sheila Webster.
The event was also attended by a Year 6 class from Whitfield Primary School, many of whom would have been the same age as many of the evacuees who arrived in Glossop in 1940. The students spent considerable time talking to the evacuees and hearing their stories, asking many questions about their experiences and how their lives were changed by the evacuation.
Refreshments were provided courtesy of TWIG, the Glossop Station café.
Both community rail groups strive to maintain reunions in both towns and provide information about this important historical event, especially during this Railway 200 year. Lowestoft Station is already home to two large interpretation panels on the station concourse telling the story of the Lowestoft Schools Evacuation, and services are held in January every year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Neil Williams of The Friends of Glossop Station, said: “I’m so pleased that both our communities continue to cherish these important memories and that the friendships made are not only still celebrated but are now being retold for future generations.”
Jacqui Dale from the Lowestoft Central Project, said: “It is always a great privilege to host the reunion and to enable former evacuees to meet up and reminisce about their time away. We are thrilled that Neil was able to attend and give an update on what is happening in Glossop, especially as so many were given refuge there during the war.”
Keep up to date with future news, projects and events from the Wherry Lines CRP via their website and Friends of Glossop Station via their website.
