TWO sisters who were evacuated to Oxenhope during the Second World War returned to the village yesterday, almost 80 years after first moving there as children.

Octogenarians Edna, 87, and Audrey, 82, Mackay, where moved from their home in Westminster Road, Undercliffe, just eight days after fighting broke out in 1939.

They spent the next six years in Oxenhope, living in Pear Street with Mr and Mrs Hey, before returning to the city in 1944, with Edna going to work and Audrey attending Bradford Grammar School on a scholarship.

The pair, who were evacuated along with Edna’s twin sister Alice, rode into the village aboard a Keighley Worth Valley Railway steam train, almost exactly like they did as children.

They were then treated to coffee and cake at the station, before visiting Oxenhope Primary School and the home where they grew up, along with various children and grandchildren.

During the conflict, they only saw their mother once, when she brought their newborn baby brother, although their father, who had fought in World War One, visited more often.

Audrey Mackay said she loved her time spent in Oxenhope with her sister and the Heys.

She said: “I loved it in Oxenhope, I was from the city and out here it was all fields and animals.

“Everyone was really kind and we were very fortunate, and we still try and come back every now and again to see the village.”

Eldest sister Edna reminisced over her time as an evacuee with a wry smile.

“We weren’t nervous at all when we arrived on the train, we were all together and with lots of other children so we just went with the flow.

“I still remember, shortly before we were moved we were on the way to a swimming lesson with school, and the swimming baths got bombed, that’s why I never learnt to swim.

“Mr and Mrs Hey were wonderful to us, we always kept in touch with them for the rest of their lives.

“They moved to Morecambe and we always used to visit them and to our children they were like grandparents.”

Welcoming the sisters to Oxenhope was local historian Mike Hopkinson, who has been delving through local school and church archives, as well as speaking to evacuees, as part of a project focused on wartime in the village and the role it played during the war.