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Sisters' handmade WW2 magazines tell evacuee tales

Victoria Evans A close-up of a selection of aged paper magazines, with hand-drawn Christmas-themed illustrations including holly and berries. On the cover of each is written the title The Petworth Star, with one cover adding "Special Christmas Edition 1943 - Christmas Greetings".Victoria Evans
The evacuees left Portsmouth for Petworth, West Sussex, during WW2

When a big brown paper bundle appeared on a cottage museum's doorstep in December, Gordon and Debby Stevenson thought it might be an early Christmas present.

"We unravelled it and it turned out to be these funny little Petworth Star hand-drawn, hand-illustrated, magazines," said Mr Stevenson, who is a volunteer and on the board of the Petworth Cottage Museum in the West Sussex town.

The couple discovered the magazines, some written in pencil and held together by string and red thread, had been created by Polly Scadden, who was evacuated from Portsmouth with her sister Amy during World War Two.

The delicate creations are now under the care of the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester.

They were delivered by a woman from Oxford who had found them amongst her father's things, Ms Stevenson told the Secret Sussex podcast.

He had recently died.

"Because he was a furniture dealer, she thinks probably they were in a piece of furniture," Ms Stevenson added.

Debby Stevenson Debby Stevenson, dressed in a blue winter waterproof jacket, striped scarf and white fluffy hat, stands smiling at the door of a stone and red brick cottage with a brown door. Outside are piles of chopped wood and a horseshoe on the wall.Debby Stevenson
Debby Stevenson said she would have liked to keep the magazines, but said they were too fragile

Leafing carefully through the fragile papers of these "lovely little books", Ms Stevenson read the sisters had been evacuated to a farm.

"At first we assumed, being evacuees, that they were perhaps teenagers... but no, they were actually more sort of middle-aged ladies," she explained.

One of the pages talks about the lead-up to Christmas, explains archivist Victoria Evans, who has taken the magazines into her care at the West Sussex Record Office.

One story from the magazine reads: "It is nearing Christmas in our village and excitement is felt in every phase of our life.

"Even the stream has turned into a turbulent waterfall and adds to the stormy landscape in an ever-monotonous song.

"Everyone in our household seems to be hoarding string, paper, not a piece can be found. Parcels everywhere, they seem to be growing."

Victoria Evans A photo taken above archivist Victoria Evans, dressed in a brown jumper and black and white gingham skirt, sat at a table, turning the pages of one of the tiny books lying in front of her on a wooden table. They are all hand-illustrated and handwritten in what looks like pencil. Behind her are bookshelves loaded with books and folders.Victoria Evans
Archivist Victoria Evans has enjoyed reading the tiny books and researching the family

Ms Evans said: "I've done a bit of research into the family. We have Polly Scadden - she was usually referred to as Popsy Wopsy or Nellie - and we also had Amy Scadden her sister - she gets referred to as Auntie Amy in the books."

She said: "There's even a Christmas menu... they had ham and chicken, boiled potatoes, brussel sprouts, and then they had Christmas pudding with custard afterwards.

"Being in the countryside, I think they were very friendly with farmers and butchers, so they did have that access to a little bit more food and were able to plan for a really full Christmas."

Victoria Evans A close-up of hands holding the pages of a small paper book, handwritten in pencil and hand-illustrated, over a wooden table, with others lying alongside it.Victoria Evans
Members of the public can see the magazines in the archives at the Record Office

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