GERMAN PRISONERS
Somehow or other a silly rumour got about the town that the “German prisoners” were coming to Evesham on Wednesday afternoon, and a crowd of people gathered at the railway station to see them arrive. Of course there was never any intention of bringing German prisoners to Evesham that day, but the crowd hung about for quite a long time, persistent in the belief they were coming. There was plenty of corroborative detail to add verisimilitude to a bald and unconvincing narrative. For instance, the prisoners were to be housed in dug-outs (!) at the back of East Terrace; and some of the residents in that part of town had already provided themselves with pistols, presumably to defend themselves and their dear ones if the Germans proved obstreperous.