A new film documentary, It Started With A Train Ride , tells the story of World War II evacuees from Wallsend who in 1940 were sent to stay with families in Haltwhistle, Northumberland.
For the youngsters, evacuated by train, the experience must have been a major culture shock as industrial Wallsend was a totally different environment to rural Haltwhistle. The film was originally mooted in 2019, ahead of what would have been the 80th anniversary of the mass evacuation in 2020.
Wallsend Local History Society (WLHS) placed notices in local old folks' homes and 32 people responded with their wartime memories. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, meant the film project had to be put on hold, but George Laws, secretary of WLHS, decided to publish the reminiscences into book form which he produced himself.
READ MORE : Unseen photos of Newcastle United back in European action 45 years ago
Recently, after two years' of setbacks, Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership (TVCRP) and Wallsend Local History Society were able to finally premiere It Started With A Train Ride at St Luke's church hall, Wallsend, and the Comrades' Club, Haltwhistle.
The film tells 72 fascinating wartime evacuee stories extracted from the original interviews. One story concerns a boy who who caught rabbits out in wilds of Northumberland and regularly posted them back to his parents in Wallsend for their lunch. Another story recalls a young girl who was given a new pair of wellies. At the end of the day, she was in a lot of pain as the wellies had cut into her legs. No one had told her to cut the string which kept them together.
It Started With A Train Ride was made with help from crowdfunding through Spacehive, support from the North of Tyne Combined Authority, donations from individuals, and the Haltwhistle Film Project. Film Able, a film production company run by and for adults with learning difficulties, interviewed contributors and provided animations. The film also brought together children from the Scouts, Brownies and Rainbows, and young people from Haltwhistle's Young and Sweet Youth Club, to play the role of evacuated children at Haltwhistle railway station.
The film score was written by award-winning singer-songwriter Gareth Davies-Jones The film has recently been shortlisted for a Community Rail Award 2022 in the Involving Diverse Groups category.
Watch a clip of It Started With A Train Ride on this page, or the full film on the YouTube channel of Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership here.
READ MORE
- End of the line for the Tyneside railway station that was 'Britain’s least attractive'
- When the Auf Wiedersehen, Pet star and the lead singer of The Who teamed up
- 111 Places along Hadrian's Wall That You Shouldn't Miss - a new book reveals all
- Newcastle 270 years ago - a brutal murder in the Bigg Market and a botched execution
- 90 years of Marks & Spencer on Newcastle's Northumberland Street
