Child runaways who headed for Outer Hebrides for an unforgettable summer
● New BBC Alba documentary tells the children’s story
All they had was sixpence and three farthings, a bag of stale buns and a dream to spend the summer on a Hebridean island.
Now the remarkable story of two children who ran away from their Hertfordshire home in 1949 to travel 700 miles to Lewis has been told in a new documentary.
Syd and Millicent Richardson were just nine and 13 when, with just a few pennies and some old rolls, they decided to head north on their incredible journey which saw them jump a train from Hitchin to Kings Cross before boarding the overnight service to Inverness from Euston.
From there, they got to Kyle of Lochalsh and then boarded the ferry to Stornoway.
All they left behind was a note for their mother propped up on a candlestick, which said only “gone on a camping holiday, back in a few days”.
Little did their mother know that they were heading to Lewis to stay with her mother and aunt for the summer, with the two children making national headlines when their journey came to light.
Syd, who now lives in the north of England, said “Tolsta was paradise I mean for children… absolute paradise. It seemed natural somehow to just run away there.
“We’d been there before and my big sister was determined to go back. She led me astray – and I went happily.”
Syd and Millie have told their story for new BBC Alba documentary, which will screen on Hogmanay.
Millie, who is now in her eighties and lives in Queensland, Australia, described her young self as a tomboy with a love of Enid Blyton books.
She left home with her swimsuit on under her summer dress in preparation of getting to the beach with one of her best memories jumping in the ice cold water. The village girls did not swim in the sea, but people remember Millie jumping off the quay again and again.
She recalled Tolsta as a “wild, free and magical place”.
By the time the pair had crossed the Border, the alarm had been raised by their parents with the police looking for them.
But they made the entire journey without buying a ticket or coming to the attention of transport staff, with only a slight brush with a train inspector leading them to hide in the toilet for part of the journey.
Their mother, Mary, a herring girl from Tolsta married a soldier, Sydney, in Motherwell in 1935 with the family later stationed in Hitchin. Family holidays, when they happened, were spent in Tolsta but Millie and Syd took matters into their own hands when they learned that the trip would not be happening in 1949.
Both brother and sister recalled their love of the island, particularly the peat smoke in the air, the lillies on the lochans and fetching water from the well.
Syd added: “My grandmother was always smiling. I remember her making the most marvellous oatcakes and big scones. We had herring for breakfast every day. My grandfather would get the bible out at night and read it to us under the oil lamp.”
Their grandparents shared their home with a cow and chickens.
Millie added: “It was primitive and it was amazing...a dirt floor. It was very exciting stuff. I just wanted to live on Tolsta.”
“Two Go to Tolsta: Sgeulachd Syd agus Millie” will broadcast on BBC Alba on Hogmanay at 8:30pm.
“Tolsta was paradise I mean for children… absolute paradise. It seemed natural somehow to just run away there”
SYD RICHARDSON