LEADER READERS PIECE TOGETHER MISSING PIECES
Back in September we reported on how modern day technology had allowed one man to be transported back in time some 70 years to the place where he was evacuated during the war. Now, just months later after some help from Leader readers, Mark Harrington has made an emotional trip back to Gisburn, Lancashire and to the place where he spend 18 months after being evacuated from Dagenham in 1941/42.
It was a casual conversation 25 years ago with someone else who had been evacuated during the war that Mark first realised he had all these missing pieces of information and gaps in his memories and decided then he would like to try and track down the family that looked after him so well. However there were no official records taken during the mass evacuation process, something that in later years caused some consternation in the country and Mark quickly came to a dead end and the search pretty much ended before it began. But, after receiving a laptop for his 75th birthday last year, the internet opened up a whole new world and he found the one person whose name he could remember – Phyllis Bromwich. He also tracked down Mill House in the village of Gisburn where he stayed after searching for images on Google Earth but that is where the search had ended. Despite having some clear and vivid recollections of how the house looked, the nearby river and forest with a fort, he couldn't remember the names of his adoptive parents during that period. “They looked after me so well and treated me like a prince so it is amazing that I don't remember them or didn't keep in touch.” Mark told the Leader at the time.
Just days after the story was published as luck would have it, Graham Wright contacted us saying he lived in Colne, close to Gisburn. He was just here on holiday but when he returned home he promised to check the local voters registers and trade directories. True to his word he got on the case. Unfortunately neither Clitheroe nor Skipton Library held the relevant Electoral Registers – which would have immediately resolved some questions but he got in touch with Mary Kirby from the Gisburn Local History Society who also passed on the details to Bill Pate, the local fund of knowledge for the area. The local newspaper, The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times also contacted the Leader and we were happy to share the story with them to see if there was anyone else who could piece together the final parts of the puzzle.
Mark, now living in urbanisation La Marina, was continually kept updated and spoke to everyone that came forward offering help and information and at the end of October felt it was time to go back to his childhood and visit the Mill House and Gisburn and meet some of the people that had helped him in his search.
Accompanied by his wife Pam, the couple met with their daughter Sarah at her home in Northampton and, accompanied by their Grandson Jack, the foursome made an emotional journey to the village. “Driving up to the house was incredible, it was all the same and exactly how I remember it. Time had moved on but not that place.”
Mark met with Bill Pate at the local deli café and finally he was given the name he had been searching for. “Barlow. As soon as I heard it, I knew that was it, I can't believe I had forgotten it. He said they had moved on and we don't know where to but it would be lovely to meet some descendants of them or see some old photos.” Mark continues, “Bill had been there with his father when we all arrived, he pointed to a little area opposite the café and said that is where we all got off the coach. One boy who had been evacuated there lost his parents in the war and never left.”
News of Mark's story soon spread in the village and he was interviewed by the local press once more. One couple sat there picked up on the conversation and the husband said he was also an evacuee sent to Wales. Another lady said she had some old photos of Mill House and returned the next day to show Mark and reminded him of the vegetable patch of the garden, something he had forgotten about previously. “The hospitality was wonderful, we were made to feel so welcome, they were fantastic people.”
But a highlight had to be the return to Mill House. Now called Holgate House and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, Mark said much of the exterior house remained untouched, although half the house that had been the original mill had now been developed. The new owners, the Holgate family, welcomed Mark and introduced him to the residents and showed him round, “I was taken up to my old bedroom and 70years on it is still looking the same, the shelf is still under the window that I used to crawl on top of and lean out of the window.” Mark also got to visit the forest where he spent many a happy hour and the fort where he used to play in; a ruin now, it was a key point in helping Mark pinpoint the area when searching on Google Earth just months earlier. It was lucky he didn't wait any longer as Bryan Holgate informed him that permission has been granted for it to be knocked down and redeveloped in to a new house.
Having filled in the blanks and making an emotional return to Gisburn, Mark is grateful and thankful he got the chance to go back and through the Leader would like to thank everyone that got in touch and helped him in his quest, “I can't thank everybody enough. We came away and in no time I wanted to go back. It was absolutely lovely.” And if anyone does know of the Barlow's that used to live at Mill House that would just be the icing on the cake and they can contact gquinn.reporter@gmail.com with any information.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/32092/Home Insurance | Spanish Home Insurance | Home Insurance in Spain | Spanish Property | Costa Blanca Spanish Property | Spain Property | Spanish Real Estate | Spain Real Estate
