My First Memories When We Moved To Hunstanton

A Memory of Hunstanton.

My mother, Queenie Grounds, was the headmistress of Lynfield House School from 1946 until 1953, when we moved from Lynfield to The Homestead at the top of Sandringham Road, where it met Lynn Road. When we first moved to Hunst'on we lived in a tiny summer cottage at the bottom of Seagate Road while my parents searched for a house where they could have a school. Next door lived two elderly ladies, whom I used to visit, and I remember they would buff my nails with a nail buffer until they shone like nail polish. I believe these two lovely ladies were lost in the flood of 1953 as their home sat on the corner as the road came down from Seagate to the sea front. The house we rented was cold, and I don't mean cold, I mean frigid, and I remember the ice forming on the windows inside! I used to scrape off the ice in order to look out the window. But the most vivid memory of living there was the field behind was full of ponies and donkeys that were used in summer to give rides on the beach. I will never forget waking up to the sound of 'Hee Haw, Hee Haw', from the vociferous beasts, better than any modern day alarm clock! Then we moved to Lynfield House School at the top of Railway Road where I lived until I was 12. Then we moved to the Homestead which was a beautiful old home, which had its own ballroom, surrounded by a palatial style garden which stretched all the way from Lynn Road to Sandringham Road and consisted of a walled vegetable garden, perennial beds, an expanse of lawn, greenhouse with grapes, cucumbers and tomatoes, mulberry trees, nut trees, a large chicken run. Now it has, like most old houses in Hunstanton, been turned into flats, and houses have been built on what used to be my paradise of a garden. I will always treasure the memories of an idyllic childhood, with the sands, the water, the boating lake, the swimming pool, the pier and the skating rink! What more could any child want. I have never lost my love of the beach!

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