Ron Levett's childhood memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex

In 1937 I sat and passed the Scholarship Exam (now known as the Eleven-plus). I went for an interview with Mr. Bradshaw, the Headmaster of Lewes County School for Boys and was accepted. Mum and I went to Brighton, to Horne Bros shop by the clock tower.

School uniform required a school cap in two shades of blue, blazer also blue with light blue piping, grey flannel shorts, school tie, grey socks with blue tops, a long two colour blue scarf. I also required a PT vest, shorts and shoes and football boots. This collection must have been quite a struggle for my mother to afford.

To get to school, which was Lewes County School for Boys, I had to catch a double-decker bus. This was one of a pair, which had been garaged overnight in a specially built garage near the Blacksmith's shop. Both buses left the village at 8 am, one to go to Lewes and on to Brighton, the other to Eastbourne.

At Berwick, the Eastbourne bus went straight on, but the other stood still for ten minutes. I believe this was something to do with fitting in with the timetable at Lewes. It suited me fine because I could finish my homework in that break!

In Lewes we had to walk from the bus stop in the High Street, down Station Street to the station, where we met the stream of pupils emerging that had arrived by rail. Then we all carried on down Mountfield Road (whose old name of Jug Lane, the headmaster preferred), to the school.

I didn't really enjoy school; being usually in the last third as far as marks were concerned. I took Latin for the first year but then was judged as not very good at languages, so I took woodwork from this time.

I hated all sports with the possible exception of swimming. A particular hate was cross-country running. This took place in the fields at the back of the school, which were criss-crossed with ditches, all filled with black filthy water. I tried to avoid this sport as much as possible. As for cricket, I am colour blind so I couldn't see the ball.

Rumours of war started circulating soon after my first year at Lewes but they died down a little when Chamberlain came back from Munich waving a piece of paper. All the same plans for evacuation were made, gas masks were distributed, and National Identity Cards were issued. A year later, things came to a head, and war was declared on a Sunday morning.

The air raid siren sounded and Stanley came downstairs wearing his gasmask. A number of evacuees had arrived from London, mostly from the East End. At home we had four evacuees. A brother and sister about my own age arrived named George and Lily, plus another brother and sister a few years younger called Billy and Ivy.

The first night my mother gave the younger pair a bath, which was something new for them - 'Do we have to take all our clothes off?' After they were put to bed my mother went up to check that they were all right and at first, couldn't find them. She soon discovered them under the bed. They explained that at home, mum and dad slept in the bed and they slept under it. They were soon told that in Sussex we didn't do that sort of thing!

We also found that their diet had also been different from ours. They seem to have eaten a lot of bread and jam and not much in the way of green vegetables. Consequently they all four of them were rather unhealthy. The slightest scratch caused them to fester immediately.

Air Raid Shelters were built at school, using large pipes, about six feet in diameter. These were placed end to end to form a long tunnel about sixty feet long. Brick built ends were installed, together with wooden seats. The whole thing was covered with soil about a foot thick.

A school from London, Tooting Bec High School, was evacuated to Lewes. Our school now attended on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tooting Bec were allocated Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Ron Levett, 2001