Tallantire Hall - WWII Memories
Shaun Castle 08 November 2006
Tallantire Hall - postcard. circa 1905
Extract from WW2 People's War, an archive of World War Two memories - written by the public, gathered by the BBC. Full story is available at bbc.co.uk.
“In July 1940 we were removed to Tallantire Hall near Cockermouth in Cumberland. This was an enormous Victorian house which belonged to Mrs. Barraclough. We all got up at 4.30 and travelled by train to London. We had to cross London by underground. I remember sitting for what seemed like ages on a London platform and the noise of everything was tremendous. We had our names pinned onto us. I was given a pork pie to eat. It was absolutely delicious and I spent years afterwards trying to find one as nice. Never succeeded. Obviously I was starving. We arrived at Carlisle Station late that evening and travelled to Tallantire in a lorry arriving at midnight.
There were no air raids, no bombs but Italian prisoners of war worked for the local farmers. They wore jackets with patches on the back. They were extremely friendly to us children. We had to walk two miles to school in Dovenby and two miles home and thought nothing of it. At first my mother had to make sandwiches for 26 children to take each day but later school dinners were provided. They were dreadful and we were not allowed to leave anything on the plate. The vegetable was boiled nettles which were very dark green and very strong.
The schoolmaster and his wife Mr and Mrs Haston had previously retired but were brought back. The village school had to cope with the addition of 26 children. Our lessons consisted of arithmetic, war geography and singing. Nothing else at all. The Haston's son was killed. In 1944 we moved once again.”
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