WHILE the Germans bombed the heart out of British cities during the Second World War children were evacuated to live an idyllic life in the countryside. Safe from harm.

However, Heather Nicholson's recent book, Prisoners Of War, featured in The Northern Echo earlier this month, blew a hole in that cosy image as she recounted a tale of cruelty and violence at the hands of a monster in South Moor, near Stanley, where she had been evacuated.

But not everyone suffered as Heather did...

Jean Williams of Catterick Village was a nine-year-old in Coventry in 1939.

I was surprised that Heather Nicholson was evacuated alone because most children under school age were able to be accompanied by their mothers. It was arranged that we would go from school with our teachers at 2pm on Sunday, September 3. At 11am that day the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced on the radio that Britain was at war.

We set off from school with our gas masks and some clothes. Our parents weren't told where we were going. They would be told when we had been allocated a billet. I suppose there were lots of tears though it's not something I remember. We were children from what one would call lower middle class homes. I was going with my friends and my favourite teacher, Miss Carter, so it was an adventure.

We set off in double decker buses which had the windows painted black, so that after dark they wouldn't be visible to enemy aircraft. This meant, of course, that we couldn't see where we were going!

We arrived at a village called Napton-on-the-Hill. It was about eighteen miles from Coventry. We were taken into the small school.

It should be said that people living in areas accepting evacuees had no option. If they had a spare bedroom, they must take one or more. And I was taken, with two other girls whom I didn't know because they were in a different class, to live at Manor Farm with Mr and Mrs Truslove.

Manor Farm wasn't posh, but it was a child's dream of what a farm should be. There was a large household. Gaffer, the son lived there and Clarkie, who also worked on the farm, and their daughter and, I think, her husband. There was a large kitchen with a range. I remember my favourite meal, roast beef cooked on a trivet over the Yorkshire pudding - so that the juices ran down into it.

As an adult, I think how difficult it must have been for Mrs Truslove to have these three nine-year-olds billeted on her.

Everyone was very kind to us. The farm had sheep, cows, which we soon enjoyed going over the fields to bring in for milking, pigs, chickens and guinea fowl which I had never seen before. We loved to be allowed to help on the farm and there was never any thought of exploitation. Sometimes we even got to go out in the car. This was something we had never experienced before.

We went to the village school which had its hall divided by a partition. The village children had their lessons at one end and we at the other, each with our own teachers.

Life in the village was good. We went to the church and tried our hand at bell ringing. We bought sweets at the little shop or the garage.

I'm sure I was sad to leave Manor Farm, and visited the family several times when I was also able to ride that distance.

Lilian Hall, of Manfield, Darlington, wrote A Child's Remembrance of the 1939-1945 war. She thinks Heather Nicholson must have been very unlucky in her placement and was definitely in the minority. Lilian remembers her time with affection.

AS I lived near the shipyards on the River Wear, I was one of the many children to be evacuated.

On Sunday, September 10, my school was due to leave. We assembled in the schoolyard with our kit bags and gas masks. Goodbyes were said then we were marched to the nearest railway station. On the way people kept giving us sweets and fruit. We thought it was great fun and there weren't many tears.

We arrived at Barnard Castle and then went by bus to a little village called Barningham with its moor behind.

In the village school we were sorted out, sisters and brothers kept together. My friend and I were taken to Mr and Mrs Goodall, nearly at the top of the village, they had no family and I thought they were quite old (actually later I worked out that they were only 33!). The Goodalls had made dinner for us but we were too shy to eat. We made up for it at teatime.

On Monday morning we went to school but as there was only room for about 50 children we just did half days for a week or two.

The school had only two classrooms. It was very strange trying to work with the young ones reciting their tables or singing and it was always distracting being able to watch and hear what the juniors were doing.

The people in the village were very kind to us - "poor things away from home" - and we got on well with the other children as well. There were only about 50 houses in the village, a pub, post office, general shop that sold just about everything and a sweet shop.

Barningham is a long village, houses mostly on one side and a green to play on, but our real delight was to go up on the moor where there was endless space and a beck. There were hundreds of rabbits about so we never went short of food.

We sometimes went gathering small sticks for fire lighting and got three old pennies a bag from our headteacher.

We were quite happy to be away in term time but liked to go home to Sunderland for the holidays.

The most magical time was winter. We often got two to three feet of snow which lasted for ages without getting wet and slushy. Once we were blocked in for ten days and we had a great time sledging. Also in winter the school caretaker used to throw a couple of buckets of water over the yard to let us slide after frosty nights.

Most of us stayed in the village until we left school and I will never forget the happy times and memories of being an evacuee. I kept in touch with the Goodalls, visiting them when I could. I was godmother to their son, Leslie, and through my association with Barningham went to live in Piercebridge. I met and married my husband and we have lived in Manfield for 46 years and I wouldn't like to leave.