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Exmoor
DULVERTON AT WAR
The Second World War brought enormous change to Dulverton and brought the area out of its
relative isolation. Infantry and artillery training turned Exmoor into a noisy battleground, land
was ploughed for corn and potatoes, men left the land for the army and members of the
Women’s Land Army and prisoners of war arrived to work on local farms, older and younger
men joined the Home Guard, evacuees swelled the population although the holiday trade
languished.
Civilians endured blackout and rationing, although Exmoor’s self sufficiency probably
helped. Although tourists disappeared from Dulverton many well to do people from the southeast took houses or hotel rooms to escape the Blitz. Child and adult evacuees from all over
England were brought to Dulverton and several houses were requisitioned including Ashwick
and Hollam. The additional population in July 1940 was 856, more than half the pre-war
population of the town. Schools had to accommodate evacuees and their teachers. Many
young people enjoyed the war and found life dull afterwards. There were evacuee children to
play with and the older girls found boyfriends and husbands among the soldiers. Dulverton
had a cinema, dances, concerts, and other entertainment for the evacuees and the troops. Even
Simonsbath had a cinema and dances in a hut at Honeymead.1
In 1944 several thousand American troops arrived at Dulverton by special troop trains
in preparation for D Day. One day 15 troop trains arrived each carrying 1,000 men and stores.
There was a surprise visit by General Eisenhower, still remembered by local people. He
arrived by train at Dulverton station. Provided with a horse, he rode over the moors to
Winsford and Withypool, where he called at the Royal Oak before returning to Dulverton.
1
SRO, D/R/dul 3/1/7—8; Exmoor Oral Archive.
Mary Suirat
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Exmoor Reference
The Americans, unfamiliar with English lanes, had several accidents including driving a truck
through the parapet of Dulverton bridge into the river Barle.2
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2
SRO, C/E 4/407/1; ibid. D/R/dul 3/1/2—3; DD/BS 8; ibid. Exmoor Oral Archives; Som. C.C., HER;
Hawkins, Somerset at War, 107, 118, 121, 193, 195, 199, 211—12.
Mary Suirat
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Exmoor Reference