A NEW radio series about the millions of children torn from their homes in wartime Britain 60 years ago has been produced by an East Lancashire man.

The stories of the evacuees, now in their 60s and 70s, are told in their own words in the Radio Four programmes commemorating the 60th anniversary on September 1.

Blackburn-born producer David Prest, who helped interview more than 700 pensioners, said: "It was a very exciting project to work on because it's a big story that has not been told."

In East Lancashire, the Northern Daily Telegraph reported at the time that more than 14,000 children arrived from Salford, Manchester and Bradford, but most didn't stay long as homesickness set in.

Fleets of motor coaches brought parents to visit them on their first weekend away from home and many took their children away with them again.

The Telegraph reported: "The children cried to return to their homes in the danger zone when their parents were leaving." Over the first few months of the so-called Phoney War before Hitler's planes started raiding in earnest, many more drifted back home or never returned after going home for the Christmas holidays.

But for those who braved the strange new world of the country, it was sometimes the start of a completely different life.

The radio programmes began yesterday and feature about 70 pensioners, including people who never returned from their new homes in South Africa, Australia and America.

David, who started work at Radio Lancashire, said: "A lot of people had a wonderful time and some stayed in their new homes at the end of the war, especially the children who were ten or 12 when they were evacuated and spent five years away from home. By that time, they had settled down, some were even thinking about getting married."

Sadly, David found not all the children were well-treated and about 12 per cent suffered sexual, emotional or serious physical abuse.

He said: "They weren't always billeted with families and farmers often took the big kids that could be useful. Some were treated like slave labour. "Some of the evacuees internalised the trauma because they were told at the time, keep quiet because there's a war on, so don't moan and complain. It's only now they are feeling the need to talk about it."

David, who now lives in London, is hoping to make a Channel Four series about the pensioners he interviewed. The tapes of the interviews will be kept in the Imperial War Museum, London.

Were you an evacuee, or do you remember evacuees arriving in your home, street or school? Write to us at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and tell us about your war-time memories of the children torn from their homes.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.