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Balcary was acquired by the Dr. Barnardo charity near the close of World War II It was opened 11th August 1944 providing accommodation for children evacuated from Kenward, Yalding. The children, Miss O'Brien with her helpers had all left at 5am for their long train journey. The local people and staff had clubbed together to make up a food hamper for the children on their long trip but in the rush to the station it had been forgotten. All was not lost as Miss O'Brien managed to get a couple of churns of milk and some sandwiches from somewhere to see them through. The journey was so long and that the children and staff were so exhausted when they arrived at Balcary that was to be their new home for the duration of the war, they went to sleep that night on the camp beds left by the previous occupants, dressed in the clothes they had arrived. Balcary became a mixed home for boys and girls. The boys would stay until their twelfth birthday at which time they would be placed in another home.
Balcary finally closed it's doors in May of 1974. The original destination was a house in Dumfriesshire for the girls and Staff of Kenward, Yalding but Miss O'Brien had swapped her orders with another lady on the train as Miss O'Brien felt Balcary would be a far nicer place for the children. Many of the now adults still hold fond memories of Balcary and still class the house and Hawick as home.
21/08/08 Ian Bishop sent some further information Regarding Miss Hilder O'Brian (Mamagee), she had been born in the east of London somewhere in the Deptford area and was herself rejected by her mother, and somehow came to be brought up by my Great Grandmother in Essex. Hilder, we know, started work in a children's home in Dartford. She then joined Barnardo's and went to another children's home on the Isle of Jersey from where she and the children where evacuated at the start of WWII to Kenward, Yalding in Kent. I understand the evacuation from Kenward was prompted by the Luftwaffe's strategy of strafing the workers in the hop gardens and other agricultural enterprises in Kent. And the rest is, as they say, is history. I remember Balcary as a very happy place where all the staff and children where as one family. I even met my first girlfriend there, Patsy Cuckoo who had a brother at Balcary. One wonders after so long how things faired for them all. I also remember being told that education was high on the priority list at Balcary and that the academic achievements where correspondingly high. 09/02/08 Paul Harrison contacted me via email: Miss O'Brien and Miss Allen have sadly passed away some time ago, however Miss Folley or Aunty Vera is still very much with us but is not in the best of health, having problems moving around. The lost hamper and other memories make her laugh, the long journey thinking about how the children all looked laying there flopped onto the old army beds. Paul ended by saying "she has done many wonderful and charitable things in her lifetime and not expected anything in return. If something came up and she thought she had the capability of doing something to help, she would." Paul ended by saying " Miss Vera Folley has done many wonderful and charitable things in her lifetime and not expected anything in return. If something came up and she thought she had the capability of doing something to help, she would." Paul visited Miss Vera Folley February 2008 to read click here. Balcary did have their own reunion web site with some photos I have tried to email the two contacts found but neither seem to be working. The web site was last updated in 2004 after they had their first reunion for 60 years.
This home is listed on page 30 plate 2 of the Childhood Memories a photographic history of Dr Barnardo's |
The children returned to
