With the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII in 2020 on the horizon the Buriton Village Association has stepped up its work to try to track down as many people as possible who had been evacuated to Buriton and nearby Weston, from Portsmouth and London, during the conflict.
As a result of their research several evacuees recently met each other for the first time in decades – and others came later, or sent their memories.
The evacuees had been housed by families all across the parish (and in the hop-pickers’ huts at Buriton’s Cowhouse Farm and at Weston) and had fond memories of their school days in the village, of stealing eggs (and being told off!) and of exploring the countryside.
The project has recently been boosted by a feature article about the work to find evacuees published in The News (Portsmouth)
So far the researchers have successfully made contact with a dozen people (including two in Australia) who were evacuated to Buriton as young children – as well as collecting memories from families in the village who helped to look after the evacuees during the war.
The Buriton Village Association plan to publish a booklet on their findings in May 2020, to coincide with the anniversary of VE Day.
Seen here at the Bygone Buriton exhibition, held in September 2019 in the village hall, are evacuees Pat Haines (née Cozens), Terry Piper, John Ford, Ted Williams and Michael Chandler, who all met each other for the first time in decades following research by members of the Buriton Village Association.
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