TWO best friends from Dudley went on a journey back in time to experience what it was like to live as an evacuee at the start of the Second World War in a rural, Welsh-speaking community.

In Efaciwîs: Plant y Rhyfel (Evacuees: Children of the War), a new series beginning on January 30 on S4C, Chloe Smith and Daisy Egerton join six other young people aged between eight and 14, who left their families for a week to live in Llanuwchllyn – a remote village in the north of Wales which hosted evacuees during the Second World War.

Chloe and Daisy, both 13, who live 10 minutes away from each other in Dudley and love making Tik Tok dances together, get involved with activities that evacuees would have been expected to do back in the 1940s, including helping out with cooking, housework, farm work and school – all through the medium of Welsh.

None of the eight had any experience of speaking Welsh – but as with the original evacuees, all eight picked up the language as they lived and socialised with local people including 20 school children, parents and other local people.

Dudley News: L-r - Daisy Egerton and Chloe SmithL-r - Daisy Egerton and Chloe Smith

Daisy, who plays for her local cricket team and lives with her mum, dad, younger sister Evie and two older brothers, said: “It was just so crazy to look out and see loads of hills and to see all the trees and everything because back at home, there’s nothing like this when you’re looking out of the window.”

Netball player Chloe, who lives with her mum Claire and dog Rocco, said: “I felt a little bit sad leaving my mum. I think when the evacuees left, they would have been really scared.”

Efaciwis: Plant y Rhyfel, produced by Wildflame for S4C, is presented by Sean Fletcher (Countryfile/Good Morning Britain) and BBC news journalist Siân Lloyd.

It will be available to view with English subtitles on BBC iPlayer and S4C’s on demand service S4C Clic after being broadcast on Sunday.