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Great Cressingham
Great Cressingham maps
Historic maps of Great Cressingham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Great Cressingham maps
Great Cressingham photos
We have no photos of Great Cressingham, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Watton| Ickburgh| Swaffham| Mundford| Lynford| Cranwich| Great Hockham
Great Cressingham area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Great Cressingham and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Great Cressingham
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Norfolk memories
Crashed Liberator
My husband, Edward Hoggett, remembers a Liberator crashing on the school road close to Claremont Hall, there were no survivors. He was a very young boy at that time but we don't seem to be able to find any information on this, just wondered if anyone out there could help, Mrs B Hoggett.
Evacuee
I was evacuated from Hackney with my brother and sister in 1939 until 1942. My brother and I stayed at the gardens with Mr and Mrs Rawlinson my sister across a field stayed with Mr Blakeney. We were chosen at the village hall. The church warden's pub was our school. The army were billeted in all the woods surrounding the gardens, I was supplied with badges and sweets by them and on Sunday I would try to march back to their camp from church, which was very hard for a six-year-old.
Lady Roberts used to knit me socks and scarves and even gave me saving stamps. A great time was had when Lord and Lady Roberts's son got married and all the village pushed his car.
I still visit Cockley Cley once a year, there is still a lot unchanged and it brings back three very happy years of my life. I could not have wished to have been looked after better.
Len Wastell
Holidays in Saham Hills
Just after the war we visited Saham Hills quite regular from Hull. We stayed with an aunt and uncle of my father's by the name of Smith. He was called Charlie, his wife was Pat and they had a son who was called young Charlie to distinguish him from his father. The house was next to the Post Office and had a water pump in the yard and an enormous garden out the back which had an enormous Victoria plum tree in it. I think Uncle Charlie worked on the road but I could be wrong. If memory serves me right, the Post Office was in a house built with white bricks in among the red ones and had a lovely sounding bell when you opened the door. On the road outside the post office was a G.P.O. red telephone kiosk which to my eyes was very unusual as in Hull all the phone boxes are white. I spent a lot of time with the local children whose names I have forgotten... Read more
School Holidays in Swaffham
I used to spend all my school holidays with my grandmother Mrs.May Symonds who lived on Queen street last house close to the playing field, I have very fond memories of playing in the field, walking what was called "the cinder path" and shopping at a store called Hanents this store if I remember correctly from my childhood memories was beside a closed in stone ally way, I loved the smells in this store and the old wood floors that creaked they also had a cash lady sitting in a booth high above counter or so it seems to my mind and there were lines running from each counter to this cashier who made all the money transactions. a bell would ring and this comtraption holding the money would fly back and forth.I also have fond memories of the market place where one could buy anything from a safty pin to a dress. oh how I wish I could returne to those times. There was a... Read more
When I Was A Child
We lived in the hamlet of Saham Waite - about a 2 mile walk for my mother with the pram and 3 older kids every time she needed some shopping. My Granny worked as a cook/housekeeper for a nearby farm and I think we got the cottage as part of that deal. There were only 2 cottages and Baldrow's Farm in the hamlet. Neither cottage had electricity and Mum and Granny cooked on the range and we used candles and paraffin lamps for light. Us kids had the freedom of the land! We were out all day. There was a pond with coypus that we were warned not to go near, so of course we did and we were also warned not to eat the opium poppies in the field where the pond was - so of course we played shops with them - I don't remember actually eating them! I once found a sword in a ditch but during a quarrel with my brother, he took it and then... Read more
The Early Years...
I was born in Mundford in 1955 - when I was 18 months old my family moved to the nearby hamlet of West Tofts. We had a small wooden bungalow, one of a pair, that was directly opposite an army camp. My father worked for his father as a farm labourer at Lynford Home Farm, but following some sort of bust-up, my dad started working for the MOD on night shifts and during the day he gradually built up a smallholding, ending up with about 40 acres - we farmed barley and sugar beet, and kept pigs. Now I look back, I realise how hard Dad must have laboured to hold down a job a night and work the land during the day. He did have me as a (sometimes unwilling) labourer. Usually I would get up and feed the pigs before going to school at Mundford Primary. At that time, 1960 when I started, the 3 or 4 kids in West Tofts were picked up by a local taxi and taken... Read more
Boyhood
I was born in 1922 in Mundford where my Father was the village policeman. We had no motor car, indeed in those days there were not many people who could afford this luxury. The village was small, however it was self-contained and provided all the necessities of life, including a village doctor, blacksmith, carpenter and general store. When other needs arose we hired a taxi or cycled to Brandon where there was a train station that would enable us to get to Norwich or Kings Lynn. My Father policed the area for which he was responsible on foot or on his bicycle.
The social life was superior to that found in the suburbs today and in many respects I believe we were much happier. There was no TV and the radio was still in its infancy; it was not easy to get into town and we all had to make our own entertainment. Whist drives, various clubs and weekly meetings for tea, talk, knitting and sewing. Of course... Read more
