Betty Blake, the first Evacuee
On a sunny Sunday 6th September 1999, I was mowing the lawn when I heard several voices coming down the lane. Not unusual in itself, but these were no ordinary voices for Harley. These were strong scouse voices.
The elderly lady leading the pack stopped and asked the way to Rowley’s Farm. I told them to go right to the end of the lane, exactly one mile, and to go right.
A short time later I spoke to them again as they walked back up the lane. In unadulterated Scousespeak the story went something like this.
Betty Blake, then 71, said that she and her friend, who wasn’t with them, had been the first evacuees to arrive in Harley during the second world war. They only stayed at Rowley’s Farm for about seven days but she said she had a strong memory of a little girl there.
Betty had gone down Domas Lane with her family, knocked on the door of the farm and spoken to Esther. She said she had had the shock of her life. She had seen a little girl who looked just like the girl she remembered in the war and who looked to be about the same age. I don’t think she had said anything to Esther about this.
She promised to write with more recollections of Harley in war-time, but so far she hasn’t.