Thousands of Merseyside children were evacuated to Wales in WWII. Laura Davis hears some of their stories

Nov 1 2008 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

THE inside of the house resembles a photograph album – the walls covered with pictures of smiling children.

Family is clearly very important to the couple who live here, with 13 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren between them.

And as well it might be, as Billy Moffitt was just seven when he left his home in Walton to be evacuated to North Wales with his three brothers – their baby sister, Lily, sent to a Salvation Army children’s home in Southport.

“We came out of the air raid shelter one morning and the house was gone,” recalls Billy, whose mother had died in childbirth some six months earlier.

“We knew our mam had died in hospital, but we didn’t understand why, and where our dad had gone we didn’t know.”

Billy, 76, and his brother Harry, 74, will feature in a new book about Liverpool’s links with North Wales, commissioned by Denbighshire’s Heritage Service to mark European Capital of Culture 2008.

The boys saw out the Second World War in the Ruthin area, living with a series of families while their father served in the army.

“I remember being on the train and all the kids fighting – ‘that’s my packet of crisps’, ‘my sandwich’s the biggest’,” recalls Billy.

“When we got there we just waited to be selected and I was one of the last three.”

Billy went to live with the Jones family, who he kept in touch with for many years while they were still alive.

His brothers Harry and Peter joined him there after a spell in a children’s home.

“Mrs Jones was a great lady. She had an 18-year-old daughter called Megan who would take us to the Scouts’ field and play football with us.

“Mrs Jones would give us a bottle of pop and sandwiches and before you knew it you were on the top of Moel Famau.

“I loved it there. They were good people who made us very welcome.

“If you lay on your bed – myself, John and Harry used to sleep in one bed and Mrs Jones’ sons would come in to watch too – you could see Moel Famau and over that the bombing over Liverpool.

“It wasn’t scary to us, it was just like bonfire night.”

Billy, who lives in Rock Ferry with his second wife Celia, also spent some time on a farm.

“That was with an 84-year-old man called Johnny Williams. He was a great old man who looked after the farm and his wife looked after the house.

“I looked after the one cow, putting it in a field and shutting the gate every night.”

At the age of 12, Billy decided he wanted to return to Liverpool and set off on foot.

His Uncle George immediately returned him to North Wales.

“By the time he got back to Liverpool the next morning I had beat him back – on my two feet,” he laughs.

“When I was 16 I joined the Irish Guards and I didn’t know what my own bed was until I joined the army.”

Harry, meanwhile, was still in North Wales, living on a farm and attending the local school.

“I was left out there,” he explains, nodding when Billy intervenes with: “If I hadn’t gone out to bring him back, he’d still be there!”

“I was only five when I left so I didn’t really remember Liverpool. When I came back I had a Welsh accent,” continues Harry, whose four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren live in Scotland.

”People there mostly spoke Welsh in those days, so you had to pick it up or you wouldn’t know what they were saying.

Viv Howarth’s experience of being an evacuee was very different to the Moffitt boys’.

She was eight years old when she, her mother, sister, brother, three aunts and her cousins all moved to a farm in Denbigh to escape the bombings.

Her memories will also form part of the book, which focuses on the links between Liverpool and North Wales and is being compiled by freelance writer and interpreter Lorna Jenner.

“We were lucky having our whole family together and I think it has brought us closer together,” says Viv, 74, who lives in Crosby.

“Our fathers used to visit whenever they were on leave.”

While children back in Liverpool were having to put up with rationing, Viv was enjoying fresh produce.

“I used to help with churning the milk to make butter,” she recalls.

“We would go along the hedgerows and find wild strawberries and things we’d never seen growing at home.

“We were lucky because although our house was bombed, we were safe and we had two uncles in the Royal Navy but everybody came back alive.”

LORNA JENNER is holding a memories day at St George’s Hall on Saturday November 8, 10am-5pm. Drop in to share your stories about North Wales or contact her on 01352 741676 or lorna.jenner@btinternet.com. Read more of Viv Howarth’s memories at http://blogs. liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ pooloflife

THE Daily Post has produced an 84-page collection of images of North Wales taken from our extensive archive. North Wales: The Way We Were is priced £3.99 from newsagents or online at www.merseyshop.co.uk

lauradavis