Hitcham memories
Here are memories of Hitcham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Hitcham or a Hitcham photo.
Elm Tree Cottage, Hitcham
I used to go every summer school holiday to my great aunt & uncle's cottage [ Elm Tree Cottage]. I visited last month and it is still there in excellent condition. I remember harvest time, shire horses, haystacks, threshers and combine harvesters, cold tea in the hedge in a quart beer bottle for a refreshing drink. Chopping sticks for kindling in the shed. The milkman coming round with a small churn and a 1/2 pint and pint ladle, poured into jugs on the back windowsill. Outside 'dunny', potties under the bed, fetching water from the pump down the road. Molese's and Squirrell's coaches. Rabbitting with uncle, twelve bores behind the back door. Corona Coaches and the conductor who always looked after me, 'Percy'. Such happy days, now I wan't to move to Suffolk for my last years, such a beautiful place. Looks like my daughter is moving to Suffolk too, that will be an extra bonus.
My First Home After Marriage
I was so excited to see Friday Lane Cottage in the picture of Hitcham. We rented that cottage in 1961 & loved living there. I have fond memories of walking through the churchyard to the village shop & sometimes, on a Friday evening, going to the local pub whicch had a great atmosphere. I can't recall the name of the pub now but I do remember that there was a polyphon (I think that was what it was called) near to the entrance. I remember a reaper & binder working in a nearby field that year. It was old fashioned even then. This a real nostalgia trip after all these years.
Memories of Suffolk
My Early Years
Hi, I guess it's one of those things you do as you get older, to take a walk down memory lane and to do a little bit of reminiscing. I was doing such a thing when I came across this photo of the village in Bildeston and saw the old house in the High Street that as a child and also in my early teens I lived in with my parents. When we lived there it was the local fish and chip shop. We also had a mobile shop that my dad used to take around to the outlying areas, to Watisham and Lavenham, I believe. Those were good days. There are many memories of my years in the primary school but none more than when my teacher (I can't remember his name) attempted to get me to go to an assembly. I had no idea what that was then and wasn't going to go so when he picked me up to take me in to the hall I kicked... Read more
1955 to 57
I spent approx 2 years in Bildeston attending the junior school, headmaster I think his name was Mr Kelk (not sure of spelling). I was fostered from the age of 8 to Bildeston for 2 years. Just before I was 10, I then went back home. I sang in the Church choir and pumped the organ on some Sunday mornings for sixpence. I think the junior school was on the market square somewhere but I am unable to find it, I assume it has been knocked down like many junior schools.
Nedging Tye
I well remember having to make my first telephone call from the telephone box here at the age of eight. I was staying with my grandparents Leonard and Clara Pryke at No 3 Crowcroft Road, when my grandmother fell and sustained a bad cut to her head. The box has recently been removed, such a shame and I am sure will one day be regreted. I often stayed with my grandparents and remember playing in the deserted wartime buildings which stood to the left of this photograph. The USAAF hospital, mess huts and Red Cross Club, all demolished, I believe, around 1958 along with the Air Depot and surrounding accommodation sites.
Crowcroft Road Nedging
I remember the old buildings that were once part of Wattisham Airfield in Crowcroft Road. This area was occupied by the 4th Strategic Air Depot USAAF during the second world war. In the 60's Mrs Gant was the shopkeeper, and Mr Mowles from Whatfield would deliver groceries. My grandparents Leonard and Clara Pryke lived in Crowcroft Road from 1939- 1971.
Memories of A Youngster
I have many memories of Monks Eleigh. Although only 4 years of age, the sights I saw during the Battle of Britain in and around Monks Eleigh are vivid. Mother and I moved there in 1940, following Father who was with a searchlight regiment. We spent some time in a Tudor-style home known as "Hobarts" and some in "The Bungalow", then owned by a Mrs Gilmour. In the early 1990s I revisited Monks Eleigh with my wife and how the memories flooded back! There is the paddock where I collected pieces of Spitfires, Lancasters and FW108s and aluminium foil. Took them to the police station who promised us they would be made into planes for the RAF. There is the school, and The Swan (not that I visited there in 1940! I remember Father coming home on leave one day and asking me what I was playing with. I didn't know so showed the object to him. He very gently took it from me - I... Read more
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