WARTIME memories came flooding back for residents in North Tawton when they were interviewed for an interesting booklet that has been published this month.

Dr Alan Parkinson's 'Wartime Memories: North Tawton Schooldays 1939-1945' is a fascinating insight and record of life in the village during those tumultuous years.

A retired academic who lectured at South Bank University, London, Dr?Parkinson has written several books on modern Irish political history and is a member of Okehampton and District History Society.?He moved to North Tawton in 2011.

He told the Times: 'It was important that having settled into a new community and being a social historian, to find out about the history of the area.

'What was really enjoyable for me in writing this booklet was in meeting and interviewing around 20 people here in the village and talking over the phone to former evacuees who lived in other parts of the country.'

In the preface to the book he writes of his interest in the war and its affect on communities: 'There have been numerous studies, including some oral accounts, on areas directly affected by the ravages of this global conflict, but less attention has been paid to communities relatively unaffected by aerial bombing and far from the central theatres of war.

'Yet small rural communities, like the one highlighted here, often endured a range of wartime experiences — including troop movement and training, rationing and the arrival of evacuees — while also carrying on with a genuine semblance of everyday life.

'This study, therefore, is essentially the sharing of memories of both those born and bred in North Tawton — and its surrounding areas — and others who had been evacuated to the district during the second world war.'

There are some intriguing tales revealed, and some not without humour of life in rural Devon.

The American GIs came to North Tawton in late 1943 and were billeted for several months in Market Street, the Methodist Chapel in Barton Street, Burton Hall, Archie Gregory's garage, the Ring O Bells' pub, Lakeway Congregationalist Church and in various halls across the town.

They certainly had their effect on the local population, causing quite a stir.

Sheila Shannon said she believed it caused 'the biggest upheaval in the town for many years' because they were 'so different in their attitudes' — adding 'there had never been such excitement in our young lives.'

David Bale recalled one US Army officer reprimanding a soldier for boasting about the size of American skyscrapers and reminding the locals there were very few of these in North Tawton!

Jack Gregory, who lived in the village and worked in a Tavistock bank remembered: 'I ended up giving Home Guards service both in Tavistock and North Tawton when I returned home at weekends. One frequent task we had was guarding one end of a tunnel between Tavistock and Plymouth — I've never really discovered why it was just one end!'

Contributions include those from Mike Wreford and interviews from David Bale, Mabel Bloor (née Bolt), Alf Bolt, Ivy Bolt (née Yeo), Edna Carr (Merchant), Margaret Clifton (née Yeo), Joan Gearing (née Bale), Peter Fewings, Sylvia Fewings (née Stapleton), Barry Goodman, Jack Gregory, Kennedy Gregory (née Heath), Margaret King (née Mallett), Bill Mallett, Frank Mintrum, Audrey Ruby (née Bolt), Sheila Shannon (née Leech), Jean Shields (née Philip), Betty Syewczyk (née Webb), Enid Westlake (née Day), and Margaret Williams (née Edwards).

Durant Trust provided a grant and Ink Print of Okehampton printed the booklet.

Copies cost £3.50. The book is available from North Tawton Post Office, Martin's newsagents in Okehampton or directly from Dr Parkinson by e-mail on [email protected]">[email protected] or by calling 01837 880497.

Captain?Heard, the local school's head teacher and in charge of the town's Home Guard, kept a diary of its wartime activities.?Writing about the force's post close to Wildridge on Boucher's Hill, Captain?Heard noted: 'It had been a fowl-house which we took over. The long night watches provided the old sweats with an opportunity of outdoing each other in their tales of the last war, and of putting the wind up those who had no previous war experience . . . The days went by and the nights grew longer and no enemy appeared. Our only diversion was to listen for Jerry bombers on their nightly journeys to Bristol,?South Wales and Liverpool.'

Audrey Ruby, about 7 at the time, remembers the arrival of the evacuees: 'I remember them coming off the buses with all their possessions packed into carrier-bags and clutching their little gas-masks. Most of us felt sorry for them and after a while they settled in, and some of the boys even went rabbit hunting. Mind you, there was some teasing from time to time. One of the evacuees would shout "Devonshire dumplings" at us but I got my own back by calling him a "smoky Londoner"!'

(Extracts from 'Wartime Memories — North Tawton?Schooldays 1939-45')