A World War II child evacuee mannequin sparked confusion — and plenty of laughs — after vanishing from a railway station in Somerset, only to be discovered miles away on a train clutching a can of cider.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The mannequin, named Annie, is part of a historic display at Blue Anchor Station on the West Somerset Railway, where she usually sits beside her “mother” as part of a wartime evacuation scene.
But during the railway’s busy Diesel Gala event, Annie mysteriously disappeared from her usual bench without anyone noticing.
It wasn’t until staff at Minehead Station, around five miles down the line, made an unexpected discovery inside one of the carriages that the bizarre case unfolded.
Annie had been found sitting alone on the train — with a can of Thatchers Haze cider in her hand.
Robin Whichard, station master at Blue Anchor, said the museum had no idea the mannequin had gone missing until they received a call.
“We didn’t know anything about it until we got a call from staff at Minehead station asking if we’d mislaid Annie,” he said. “Because she’d turned up in a carriage with a can of cider in her hand.”
The mannequin, dressed as a wartime evacuee child, had been relocated to Blue Anchor Station last year from the STEAM museum in Swindon, Wiltshire, along with the rest of the display.
According to Whichard, Annie and her mother are among the station’s most photographed attractions.
“They don’t normally cause a lot of problems,” he told BBC Radio Somerset.
“We get more photographs taken of them than virtually anything else on the station.”
Staff now believe Annie may have been taken by a “group of lads” attending a stag do, who allegedly borrowed her during the bustling gala before sending her off on an unexpected solo journey.
“Piecing it together, we think there was a group of people on a stag do that borrowed her and decided it would be fun to put her on the train and seat her there and leave her there,” Whichard explained.
The discovery reportedly caught Minehead staff completely off guard.
“I think it gave staff quite a shock when they were checking the train to find her sitting there,” he said.
In keeping with the light-hearted nature of the incident, Annie’s return journey came with its own bit of theatre.
“Given her inebriated state – they put her in a wheelchair and delivered her back on the next train.”
Fortunately, Annie’s “mother” remained at Blue Anchor Station throughout the ordeal — seemingly unaware her daughter had gone missing.
“She seems absolutely unfazed by her condition and mum doesn’t seem to have noticed, so no harm done,” Whichard joked.
The station master added that Annie was eventually reunited with her mother, “who appeared not to have noticed” anything was wrong.
West Somerset Railway runs a 20-mile heritage route between Minehead and Bishop’s Lydeard, with its annual Diesel Gala attracting large crowds and train enthusiasts each summer.
While Annie’s adventure may not have been part of the official schedule, it has quickly become one of the event’s most memorable stories.
And after her brief cider-fuelled detour, staff are just relieved to have their runaway evacuee back where she belongs.
“We’re glad to have her back even if we didn’t realise she had gone.”
Featured image credit: Blue Anchor Station
