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Kelsale, Court Convalescent Home c1955
Kelsale, Court Convalescent Home c1955 Ref: k138001
Memories of Kelsale, Court Convalescent Home
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Kelsale & local memories
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Kelsale, the Village c1955
Ref: K138002
I grew up on Church Lane. I had an auntie and uncle living on each side. We had a well for about 10 cottages. I know that the Lane has a different name now. My sisters and I used to play at the big white house at the top of the hill and in the churchyard. We went to the school in the Guild Hall until my sisters had to take a bus to Framlingham. I have some lovely memories of my childhood there. I remember when Queen Elixabeth II was crowned, we all stood on the road to Saxmundham and cheered as the cars went b. My dad took me to the school to get my mug with an orange inside it to commemorate the crowning of the new queen.
Shared on 19 December 2008
Kelsale, the Village c1955
Ref: K138002
Memories of dances at Leiston/Aldeburgh to the music of local band, The Rebels, with mates Steve Mew and Keith Tomblin. I worked at G.A. Hubbards as an aerial erector before moving to London, where I still live with my wife and 3 children. I remember the 8 Bells pub whose landlords were Jack & Sylvia Ford. My aunt & uncle Dot & George Scopes still live at Beaumont Cottages, my dad's name is Matt (Paddy) Mckenna.
Shared on 07 July 2006
Saxmundham, Mill Road c1955
Ref: S69014
Does anyone have any information about Parham House. I believe that it was a residential school in the 60's - 70's run by a Mrs Russell. I wonder if there are any records surviving from this period?
Regards
Hilary Player
Shared on 02 March 2010
Saxmundham, Mill Road c1955
Ref: S69014
Family of 14 and still take in lodgers!
John and Charlotte Freeman lived in the white houses by the motor bike. ( I'm sure I have photos of groups outside the house with this bike!). My great grandfather was a blacksmith with his smithy in Church Road. He made many of the fences that protected trees on the Hurts Farm estate. They had 12 children. 8 boys (Thomas, George, Sam, Fredrick, Sidney, Percy, John and Bill)and 4 girls (Elsie, Rose, Honor and Kate - Percy and Kate were twins). Thomas was a Lance Corporal with the 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment and died in 1916 aged 20 and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Percy used to cut gents' hair in a shed in the garden in Albion Street where he lived. His brother Sam lived next door. Rose (Hulme) had a laundry the other side of the railway line in Chantry Road and used to have whist drives for the soldiers there. (I think it was later a motor bike shop.) She later lived in Albion Street as well with her sister Honor and brought me up. Bill and his wife Gladys lived in one side of this house and Kate the other until about the late 1970s. I had many happy memories of flitting between Mill Road and Albion Street! ( Carol Allen nee Clark)
Shared on 16 January 2009
A previous shared memory recalling International Stores reminds me that my father worked there, as a roundsman. He would cycle every day from Leiston, then do the equivalent all over again in Saxmundham, several times a day as he delivered groceries.
He had his own band - he played piano - and met my mother, Joan Spatchet, at a dance in the Market Hall. They married in 1937, my sister Ann was born a year later and I arrived on February 23rd 1944 - just a few weeks after my father was killed on a bombing raid over Germany on January 1/2nd, when his plane was attacked by a night fighter. Two years ago we travelled to Germany from our home on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border, and with the help of a local journalist, the Mayor of Weyhausen, and the townsfolk, we found the crash site of his plane. It was in a forest and has been left undisturbed, with the Mayor pledging to place flowers on the site every year.
I've always considered Saxmundham my home and visit at least once a year for my "dose of Sax".
Some other events I recall - the Queen Mother arriving for the Suffolk Show (then held in Saxmundham), catching newts in the pond near the recreation ground, and Saxmundham Primary School (still only just standing on my last visit, awaiting a use). Teacher Mr Foster had a violin and thought he could play music. Aargh! We were also one of the first schools to have a new climbing frame - known as "the apparatus". Elf and safety would condemn it today.
One of the teachers used to tie our thumbs together and make us stand by the fire if we were naughty. I was always there. I remember Headmaster Mr Bettenson, who was still alive and kicking just a few years ago and is probably still.
I was also a keen train spotter and I remember those glorious occasions when Britannia steamed into Sax station. What an engine, still going strong today, though mostly retired.
Then there was Backhouses - the grocery shop where service was the key word. It had a lovely smell of tea and coffee, which I can still recall today.
I'd be pleased to hear from anyone from the town on john.g.fisher@btinternet.com
Shared on 25 June 2008
