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Concept
Evercreech
Summary
Evercreech is a village and civil parish south east of Shepton Mallet, and north east of Castle Cary, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Stoney Stratton and the village of Chesterblade.
The village was recorded as Evrecriz in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Small Down Knoll (or Small Down Camp) is a Bronze Age hill fort above the village which rises to .
The parish was part of the hundred of Wells Forum.
War was declared on September 4th 1939, and later that month, the local village school received 215 children evacuees, 18 teachers and 6 helpers, from two schools in West Ham, East London.
In 1941, 50 more children and their teachers arrived from Bristol after a bombing from Germany.
The children were welcomed into the homes of the villagers. However, rationing was a prominent issue event though many of the children had come with their own ration book.
Schools also had to adapt as their current teaching facilities and schedules could not accommodate and teach all of the extra students. The village town hall was used as an extra space and volunteers helped to look after the children and assist the teachers in the parish.
American soldiers had been arriving in Evercreech ever since 1942; however, in 1944, a group of African-American G.I.s were sent to the area. Most people in rural Somerset had never seen a Black person before, so seeing African-American soldiers was a novelty for the Evercreech population. However, the people of Evercreech welcomed the Black G.I.s in the same way they welcomed evacuees throughout the war, and the American presence was a boost to the morale of the British public. The troops helped out in schools and gave the brought the children chocolates, fruits and chewing gum, which was a rarity in rationed Britain. Moreover, to raise money for the Spitfire funds, the village and the American soldiers held dances where they enjoyed American jazz music. Here, the African-American men could socialise and dance with white women, which was a novelty, and something forbidden in segregated America and often inter-racial relationships would be formed at these dances.
Official source
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