A NORTH Yorkshire village captured the heart of a young Second World War evacuee who went to extreme lengths to settle there.

This is just one story that will be told when former pupils of Coxwold school gather for a reunion 30 years after it closed.

Mr Peter Bradley, now aged 68, was evacuated from Hull with his brothers, Victor and Robert.

He was only six when they arrived in the village, and the brothers were taken in by the headmistress of Coxwold school until somewhere else could be found for all three.

He came from a big, close family and it was very difficult for the boys. Two of their sisters were also evacuated, but they went to Caister in Lincolnshire. Two other brothers were in the services and the rest of his siblings were too young to leave their mother.

"It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I probably came to the best place of any of the evacuees," said Mr Bradley.

The headmistress was a vegetarian, which was a novelty for the youngsters, and there were no beds in the house so the boys found themselves sleeping on sacks filled with straw for the first three weeks.

"At intervals during the night we had to get up and gather all the hay together and put it back in the sacks. When you are young this is quite fun really," said Mr Bradley.

They made the daily journey of 150 yards to the school; Mr Bradley attended for four years.

He eventually made his home with the Smedley family at Shandy Hall in the village, where he lived until he was 12.

By this time a lot of the evacuees had returned home and the government had decided other children needed to be moved on so they were not in one place for too long.

Mr Bradley was moved to Tollerton to live with a young couple who had no children of their own. "I stayed there for exactly three days. In the mornings I had to get to school, get myself ready and lock up," he said. "I didn't like the school and one morning after they'd gone to work, I packed my bags and carried them back to Coxwold."

He walked all the way back, thinking he was going to be in big trouble. But he was welcomed with open arms.

"I couldn't go back to Hull. Coxwold was my home with the people I'd been with for four years. I knocked on the door and the old man came, put his walking stick round my neck and said 'the lost sheep's come back'."

About a year later Mr Bradley returned to Hull, but it was not long before he was back in Coxwold. He now lives in Oldstead, near Coxwold, with his wife Margaret, aged 64. Their daughter, Jayne, lives nearby with her two children.

As well as carving out a farming career in the village, Mr Bradley, opened a fly fishery which he ran successfully with his wife until last year, when they developed the land into a private shooting range. He also used to dig graves in the village.

"Miss Smedley was like a mother to me - more so than my real mother," said Mr Bradley. "I owe Coxwold and the people a great debt of gratitude for the way they accommodated us and cared for us. They were just as good as our own parents. It would have been hard for them to accommodate us, both financially and through space, but they did it."

Mr Bradley will be attending the Coxwold school reunion on September 17. It is being organised by another former pupil, Mr Percy Featherstone.

He and his wife Margaret have spent time going through the archives at the Borthwick institute, York.

The school was first opened in 1863 and closed 111 years later, in 1974. The reunion is open to anyone who was ever a pupil.

Mr Featherstone said: "I said we would do this as a millennium project. There are about 70 or 80 people coming at present, but we are hoping to get at least 150 to 200 there."

Contact Mr Featherstone on 01347 868379