Gerald Haslam grew up in Wilnecote, a small rural village just outside of Tamworth. He enjoyed the company of the evacuees who came to live in the village, and made good friends with the Page family, who moved in just down the street.
During the war Wilnecote was a very small, rural village, and he used to “wander far and wide” with both the local and evacuee children in the fields that surrounded the village. He remembers seeing the Italian Prisoners of War working in these fields, and not really knowing why they were there.
In the following audio clip, Gerald talks about how well the evacuees were incorporated into village life, by children and adults alike:-