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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line
oor Street Station: gwrms2654
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Labelled and carrying their possessions, these Birmingham
school children were evacuated from Platform 3 of Moor Street station on 1st
and 2nd September 1939. Rehearsal evacuations had taken place during the Munich
Crisis in 1938 and a year later with war imminent children living in potential
target areas were evacuated to be rehoused in safer rural locations. Over these
two days the Great Western Railway suspended most of their normal timetable and
ran 64 special trains from Birmingham with 22,379 passengers to destinations in
Wales and Gloucestershire, however with little activity happening in the early
stages of the war many children returned, so further evacuations took place in
1940 when the threat from air-raids had increased. It was the practice to take
whole school classes together to minimise the disruption to the children's
education and provide a support structure. Parents of evacuated children were
allowed to apply for vouchers for reduced railway fares from their child's
school, in order to visit their child.
Robert Ferris
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