Stop Line Way, Donyatt Halt Train Station, near Ilminster, Somerset, England
At the outbreak of the Second World War, 3 million people, mostly children, were evacuated from cities and towns for safer places in the countryside.
Doreen was just one of those children. At 7 years old she was sent from Bromley, along with her neighbour’s daughter June (aged 10) with the promise that they had to stay together, no matter what. And so, the pair were the last two standing at Donyatt Halt’s school hall before being taken in by a childless couple. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like for Doreen’s mother being separated from her child, who gave this letter to June to pass on to the foster family.
Thankfully this story ends well. Doreen went on to live a full life and visited the unveiling of her statue in 2009 after a station restoration project some 80 years after the station opened. An arson attack in 2015 saw the station burned and an appeal was swiftly organised to renovate the site, including a replacement Doreen.
The statue was sculpted by Ian Edwards whose grandfather was evacuated to Donyatt Halt at the same time as Doreen.
The Chard to Ilminster railway line was abandoned in 1962, leaving Doreen now waiting for a train that will never come.
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