Elsing, Norfolk

The Bawdeswell Plane Crash, The Willows and The Rectory.

Although I was just a little lad I can remember seeing the smoking debris of All Saints Church after the Mosquito crashed on it.

I was staying in "The Willows" which is opposite the church with my mum, my sisters, my cousins and my aunts, who were all evacuees from London.  It was a miracle that the plane never hit the house.

Next to the Willows was a corrugated iron building and I remember that there were a lot of cars and lorries that seemed to be stored there. I remember how dark it was in The Willows but my mum told me later that it was because there was no electricity, just oil lamps. My mum bless her is still going strong at 96 years of age. Her name is Hannah, her sisters were Nellie and Kate, perhaps somebody in Bawdeswell will remember them. My cousins who stayed in Bawdeswell were Maureen Goddard, Bryan Donaghue, Kathleen Donaghue, Patricia Donaghue and my sisters Sheila and Veronica.

We also spent some time living in "The Rectory". My sister Veronica was born in The Rectory and sadly my nan died there.

When my dad was on leave from the army he used to take my mum for a drink in The Bell public house.

Mainly my childhood memories of Bawdeswell are very happy ones. I have made a couple of visits back there over the years and they have been very nostalgic.

Occupations in Great Witchingham

I have found out that my great, great, great grandfather, William Brigham was a baker at Great Witchingham (1841 census). My other GGG grandfather, James Smith, was a miller.
James Smith's son, Frederick, was the grocer/draper/flower seller (1871 census).
William's grandson, Frederick, became the rate collector, coal and oil merchant by 1896.
Would love to find any pictures of the area.

school days

First school London Road Infants, a short time in Scotland and then the Church Infants, each school day walking from Theatre Street (two doors up from 'The Cherry Tree') through the market place and down Church Street. I moved on to the primary at the top of Theatre Street and eventually Crown Road. While at Theatre Street I would occasionally return to the bottom of Church Street to the 'rag and bone' yard with rabbit skins to supplement my pocket money.
I remember some 10 years later when I rode my motorbike from Theatre Street to the chemists at the top end of Church Street, made my purchase then walked out thinking of other things. It was when I got back to Bell Yard I realised my bike was still parked outside the chemist's. So much for being lazy.

My hometown

I was born in 1928 at Woodhill, Gressenhall and moved to Dereham at the age of 6yrs and left when I married some 20 years later. It was a happy childhood in spite of the war years, in fact it added to the excitement of those years, dashing out to crashed planes, collecting shrapnel, army badges etc and of course the generous handouts from the American troops of chocolate, gum, cigs plus the grub when we went on to the bases at Shipdham and Wendling, bearing in mind that our food was rationed.
Then the Evacuees came to Dereham. I was one of the helpers that walked the children to their new homes.
This influx of children meant that the schools couldn't cope with all of us at once so we only did half days, one week of mornings and afternoons the next, we kids thought that was great as gave us more time to pursue our "war exploits".
We had two cinemas in town, I should say two in Winter and one in Summer. The Exchange was the permanent one and the other in Norwich Road became a swimming bath in the Summer. At the end of the Summer season the "pond" was boarded over and the rows of seats screwed down on top. A lot of this work was done by us kids. Often we neglected to put all the screws in, consequently on occasions the whole row would collapse during a film! It was all good fun.
On leaving school at 14 yrs of age I started work at  J.J.Wrights as an agricultural engineer overhauling all kinds of tractors and repairing combines out on the farms. This was interupted by almost 3yrs National Service most of which I spent in Egypt and Palestine [Jordan].
When I was a kid, Dereham had a population of about 7000 and I think I knew just about all of them. Recently I went back but didn't recognise one person. It made me feel very sad - not one person left there to share my memories with. Oh well, I guess time must move on.