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.
