MEMORIES 183 took us over to Spout House at Bilsdale on the North York Moors, where there has been a pub called the Sun Inn since time immemorial.

A meeting of the Bilsdale Hunt inside the Sun was painted in 1895 by Ralph Hedley. In its day, Hunting Morn was quite a famous poem and was adapted – probably against the artist’s wishes – to promote Bovril and Norman Brown whiskey.

“My grandmother, Phoebe Fawbert (nee Barr) was born and raised on Laverock Hall Farm next to the inn,” writes Clive Wilkinson, whose middle name is Fawbert.

“She is the inn girl standing against the table in the controversial Bovril advert.”

For Bill Bailey, in Consett, the pictures took him back to when he, his mother and three brothers were evacuated to Bilsdale in 1941.

They were sent out from Norton, near Stockton, which, due to its proximity to Teesside’s industries, was regarded as too dangerous.

“Our first night was rather dramatic,” says Bill. “We heard the roar of bombers – the Germans were bombing what they thought were soldiers’ huts but which were, in fact, our chicken sheds. The bombs fell short, killing three chickens.”

Bill was allowed to explore the craters, and count the 156 surviving birds.

Ironically, his father and eldest brother spent the war in Billingham working at ICI, and only one bomb fell inside the factory – the evacuees might have been at less risk if they had stayed at home.

Bill helped on the farm, feeding the chickens, and attended a nearby school. “We had one teacher, a lady on a bike, and our school hours were 9am to 11am because she had another school to look after,” he says. “I enjoyed my three years in Bilsdale. I came back to the Norton Board School two days before my Eleven Plus exam. I could answer one question out of ten. No one passed.”