Wartime evacuee given special tour as she shares memories of Arundel in the 1940s

Pam Harnden née Treloar, 91, from Lee-on-Solent has many memories of her time in West Sussex as a child and the invitation from Arundel Historic Tours to return enabled her to share some of her stories.

Martin Alderton and Karen Tunnicliffe took Pam and her daughters on a tour of the town, along with Martin's 92-year-old mother, and the family was then about to chat over lunch at The Black Rabbit.

Pam said: “It was wonderful. It brought back so many memories. I learned things that I didn't know. Martin took us to places that I knew about but had never seen.”

The youngest of three children, Pam was born and brought up in Gosport. As the town was a key target during the Second World War, she and her brother Peter were evacuated to a convent in Romsey with their school when she was six. Pam said about 40 children went, along with three teachers. Her eldest brother, Tony, was five years older than Peter, so he stayed behind.

They were at the convent for two years and Pam said 'there were a few unhappy times', so eventually she and her brother were evacuated to Arundel instead.

Her dad had been able to rent a cottage at 5 Surrey Street from the Duke of Norfolk for his parents, and Peter and Pam went to live there, along with their cousins, for around two years.

Pam said: “I love that place. I have so many happy memories. Mum and Dad would visit us most weekends. My dad had a business, so he had a car and petrol rations. My grandmother was quite firm, my grandad was lovely.

“I do recall, and I always have, that it was three and ninepence ha'penny a week. I was brought up very strictly Roman Catholic, so I went to the Catholic school in Arundel.”

Next door was Auntie Mildred, her father's cousin, who was a kitchen maid at Arundel Castle. Mildred's husband was part of the castle security team and Pam wonders whether they had a tip off and it was through them that her dad found the house was available.

Pam said: “It was the loveliest place. For me it is such good memories. I remember my grandmother going to the gardens in the castle and she could pick the carnations that she wanted.”

She also remembers the big concrete table near the river, where her cousins' grandmother used to sit and do her darning. Pam was always fascinated by the river and the bridge, and even went back to The Bridge Hotel for her honeymoon.

French Canadian soldiers set up camp in Arundel in 1942, near the lake, and Pam recalls how they parked their vehicles in between the trees, to hide them from the enemy.

She said: “A French lady used to hire out the rowing boats on the lake and that's where I learned to row with my brother Peter.

“There were woods just up the road and there was a lodge either side. The people there were lovely and they used to talk to us. Coal was rationed so we used to go up and collect chips from the trees that had been chopped down.”

Pam remembers buying sweets from Mr and Mrs Brown's shop in Tarrant Street and her dad buying cigarettes from Mr Eames' tobacconists shop over the road.

But there were difficult times, too, as Arundel was a crucial defensive point during the Second World War.

Pam said: “There was one time when we thought someone was knocking on the front door for us to go to school. When my grandmother opened the door, it was an enemy aircraft letting go of its bullets and shooting them at will, so she quickly shut it again. We found out that children on their way to school had run into the cinema for safety.”

Pam's dad was in the Home Guard and she still has his hat, which she takes with her when she does talks about life as an evacuee.

Arundel has always been close to her heart. After the war, her dad kept the cottage for a little while longer, then he made his own caravan when Pam was a teenager and they used to have family holidays on the camping site near The White Swan.

Martin and Karen said it was a pleasure to spend the day with Pam and her daughters. They invited them to Arundel after spotting a Facebook post asking for wartime pictures of the town and chatting with the family as a result.

They said it was 'a very satisfying, enjoyable, emotion-filled morning with some lovely people'.