Snape, Suffolk

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)

International Stores

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

blacksmiths

Apparently my Gr Grandfather John Freeman owned a blacksmith shop that was situated just on the left hand side of the road here at the beginning of the 20th century. He also made the 'fences' that protected the bases of many of the trees on the Hurts Hall estate. I've never been able to find any written infromation about him or the 'smithy' though.

THE WOOD AND CHURCH HILL

LIKE JOHN FISHER SAID WE PLAYED IN THE WOODS AND EXPLORED ALL THE SURROUNDING FARMLAND, SCARED OF BEING CAUGHT BY SQUIRE LONG AND LATER MISS ALDOUS.  AS FOR THE OLD WELL UP CHURCH HILL, I CAN REMEMBER DROPPING ROCKS DOWN IT WHEN THERE WAS A LOUD BANG AND A FLASH WHICH MADE US DISAPPEAR QUICKLY FROM THE SCENE.  I ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT IT HAD BEEN.  CERTAINLY TAKES YOU BACK READING THESE MEMORIES.