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Needham Market memories

Here are memories of Needham Market and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Needham Market or a Needham Market photo.

Happy Days

this is only one  of  many wonderful memories i went to school in needham market the junior school and lived at darmsden we were picked up and taken to school by a mini bus we lived in three places in  darmsden the 2nd place was right next door  to a strawberry  field one of many owned by tarston farms further up our road .When it  was time for  picking strawberrys a lot of my friends were bought up in a lorry   and  i  was put  in  charge   to  make  sure  they  picked properly and  didnt  mess about  i was  the  first  one  picking  and  the  last  one  to  finish  i  was  as  brown  as  a  berry  and  loved  it .  one  day  my  mum  came  over  and  and  said  shhs she  then laid  this  very  real  looking  grass snake  amongst  the  strawberrys  well you  should  have  seen  my  mates run  they  screamed   with laughter when  they  saw  what  it  was.  mum used to  litTereally  drag  me  of  i  loved  it... Read more

Memories of Suffolk

Robert James

My great great great grandfather Robert James was born in Darmsden in 1816. He married Maria ? when. They had a daughter Emily b.1852. Is there anyone in the area with the surname James that may be able to help me with my geneology search? Others in my family were born in and around Bosmere, Needham Market. Looks like a lovely part of the country that I will have to visit soon.

Shepherds Hut

My father Eric Welham is still living in Barking Tye and will be 90 this year. A 'Shepherd's Hut' which was originally from a farm on Barking Tye around the early 1900s was bought by my Grandad Welham and he moved it across the tye to 'Mill Cottage' along the top of Barking Tye. It was then moved again across the Tye in 1950 to where my father still lives in Fox Meadow and used as a work shop. I have great memories of this old shepherd's hut where many family photos were taken. The shepherd's hut is now at the 'The Museum of East Anglian Life' in Stowmarket. This time it was moved using a tractor and trailer with help from a local farmer, through the adjoining fields, having waited for the harvest to be gathered in. We are trying to trace any history of shepherds that may have used this hut! This picture could very well be that shepherd.

Shrubland Park

My wife and I moved to Shrubland Park in 1950 after I had secured a job working in the glasshouses and market garden of this large estate. It was a wonderful place to live and enjoy the peace of the countryside. After a couple of years the head gardener left to become self employed. I was then given the chance to take charge of the market garden whilst the pleasure gardens were looked after by someone else. I had been involved with three generations of the Saumarez family by the time I retired in 1999, just a few months short of 50 years since we arrived there. The last 41 years of that time we rented the walled garden and surrounding area and established what became a flourishing chrysanthemum nursery. It was quite a wrench when we had to retire but I did write my memoirs of that very happy 50 years. Sidney G Forsdike

Combs Fords Tragedy

In World War II I attended school in Stowmarket. My home was in the neighboring village of Needham down by the railway station, so I would catch the local bus at the Swan Public House and ride it to the Market Square in Stow. As the bus traveled north there were three other young children who joined the same bus, and on arrival we would walk to school together. (I was about eight years old at the time. One of the girls was about one year older as I remember)
After school we would stand in the Market Square to catch the bus back.
One day we stood waiting for our bus back home and it didn't come. No one seemed to know why. Eventually on our own initiative we decided to walk home to Needham. When we arrived at the edge of Combs Fords the road home was completely blocked. There had been a terrible... Read more

ARTHUR WALTER HURRELL

MY FATHER ARTHUR WALTER HURRELL WAS BORN IN CLAYDON IN 1898. HIS PARENTS WERE JOSEPH AND MARY ELIZABETH HURRELL. I AM TRYING TO FIND OUT WHETHER HE HAD ANY BROTHERS OR SISTERS. AND WERE HIS PARENTS ORIGINATED FROM. ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE APPRECIATED. MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS retfordrascal@hotmail.co.uk. Tony Hurrell

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