Eastleigh Museum played host to a special party when a group of wartime evacuees returned to the town for a 60th anniversary celebration.

The evacuees were all schoolchildren from the Gosport area who were billeted in the town between 1939 and 1944. On Saturday a number returned to renew old friendships and share memories of their wartime years in Eastleigh.

The fear of the wartime German bombing raids had forced them to leave their homes and seek refuge in the town.

The party of young mothers and children were accommodated in local people's homes and the children all went to North End school, now the Hampshire Fire & Rescue headquarters.

The former evacuees attended a special reception at the fire headquarters after being officially welcomed to the town by deputy mayor Peter Humphreys at the museum.

The visit coincided with a new exhibition at the museum, based on the memories, letters, photographs, school reports and logbooks which document the period.

Organiser of the reunion Denis Boxall, himself an evacuee, was delighted with the exhibition: "It is a wonderful record of the time we spent in the town and it evoked some vivid memories among the party.''

More than 80 evacuees and guests attended the reunion day, with people coming from as far as North America.

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