We know this gentleman must have gone and got the correct papers because a beehive complete with bees from Rockfield managed to find its way back to Rosyth nailed to the boot of his car much to the horror of his chauffeur.

During the time of the evacuation people had to move everything from the houses. That was fine apart from some problems namely ‘the hens’ !. Most people had hens at that time as a source of fresh eggs because as you know eggs were scarce during the war and people got powdered egg, which tasted horrible. Everyone had hens but they couldn’t take them with them when they were evacuated. At that time people used to just have chicken for their New Year’s dinner, but with all the hens having to have their necks wrung it was boiled chicken every night. A great treat for the youngsters. There would be two fires going at both ends of the house with boiling water and there were so many hens to be plucked that the feathers were floating on top. There was rice and chicken soup on the menu for so long that one became tired of it. When the removal men arrived to carry out the evacuation they all went home delighted with two chickens each.

Another woman had even greater trouble with her hens. She had wrung all their necks and packed them into boxes ready for taking with her. When the woman came out to her garden after having a meal she found to her dismay that all the boxes were empty. Had they been stolen? No, she hadn't wrung their necks properly and the hens were running wild all over the village. No doubt with their heads to the side watching to make sure they weren't caught again.

It seems the people weren't the only ones who didn't want to leave. There was an old sheepdog belonging to elderly crofting people in Inver. His name was 'Tyne'. They were all put into a house just outside Tain, but Tyne didn't like it, and one day he made his way back to his dear old Inver. He stayed there on his own until the evacuation of Inver was over and his master came home. The soldiers made friends with him and were very kind to him, feeding him what food they had. He lived for some time after that period. He was a shaggy dog and everyone loved him.

Two ladies and their families were evacuated to Embo. One of the lady’s prize possessions was a new,tall paraffin lamp, which she decided to carry in case it got broken. One of her family was carrying the lamp into their new house in Embo when she spotted a man with a beard. It was the first time she had ever seen a man with a beard. Her first reaction was of fear and she dropped the lamp and shouted, " OH! Look at that man with the feathers on his face!" and bang went the lamp.

One day a lady and a friend walked five miles from Tain to Inver. The village looked beautiful but eerie and she declared that not a bird was singing. They were both in her house when they heard a bell ringing. Her hair nearly stood on end with the fright she got, but when she recovered she suggested they should go and investigate. They walked to the hall and looked in. A boy was standing in the pulpit addressing two or three other children sitting in the hall, while another boy was ringing the bell. They were from a farm out-with the evacuated areas and when they saw them they ran away.

One young girl remembers vividly her stay in Tain and attending Tain Public School. Unfortunately the young teachers were all doing war service and older ones had been taken out of retirement and weren’t too keen with all the extra pupils arriving from Inver. She was in more trouble than she cared to remember and suspects it may be because she enjoyed talking rather a lot.

In Inver before the evacuation tinkers used to go around the village in ones or twos selling brushes or pans. When they heard that Inver was going to be evacuated they seemed to appear from nowhere and lots of them were knocking on doors. They weren't selling anything now but looking for the furniture and things people were throwing out.

One lady, even though she was only young then, remembers tinkers coming round and her mother and father trying to sell a couch to them. They only wanted two shilling & six pence but the tinkers wouldn't give any money, so they got it for nothing. Other bits of furniture went onto the beach for a bonfire. Anything else that wasn't wanted found its way to the shore as well, and many a promised 'spring cleaning' was carried out then.

An interesting story was told of an old man in Portmahomack who lived in a small shed at the back of the 'Oyster Catcher'. He was a cabinetmaker and he wasn't very pleased with the quality of the coffins that were being made so he decided to make his own. During the war there were evacuees staying with him, a small family, but the coffin was taking up precious room so it was up ended with lined shelves and used as a cupboard. This unusual piece of furniture could be seen if you glanced through the window.

Once Finlay Munro saw a plane swooping down low over an area of ground where he had newly buried a sheep, and once he thought a bomb had been dropped at the back of the steading which was in the restricted zone where he shouldn’t have been. On going round the steading he bumped into a sergeant who was looking for the bomb, but he didn’t find anything. Strangely nothing was said as to why Mr Munro was there in the first place.

Before the war the people of Inver were very poor but very trusting. There were times when the visiting van man would find a note on the kitchen table with a 1/- beside it and an empty plate. The note would request some butcher meat and would read” do what you can.”