Canon Peter Nicholson

A Memory of Catfield.

I loved Catfield, my home village, and the little school which, in my time there had almost 100 pupils up to the age of 14. Mrs M A Batchelor was head teacher and Miss Drake taught the infants. We learned such a lot and I remember learning so much about my country and the world from the huge maps which hung on the walls all around us. There were no school dinners; we just took sandwiches. Everyone was very happy. We played conkers, hopscotch, marbles, hoops, pop guns (with acorns as bullets) etc. I sang in the church choir along with many of my friends. The Revd Henry Lillingston was the rector but he went away to become an army chaplain in the Second World War. Canon Horace Wake served the parish for about 27 years and he was greatly loved. He had lost an eye at Gallipoli. He founded the scout troop in the village. Almost everyone in the village walked to church on Sunday mornings and evenings and there were lots of social activities during the week in the village hall. We walked to school; I had to walk about two miles. But we learned such a lot by so doing as we stopped and talked to the roadman and the farm workers and looked at birds, trees and flowers and all manner of wild life.
At the age of ten I went to the Paston Grammar School at North Walsham by train. The Midland and Great Northern Railway ran through the village in those days and, on Saturdays, the 1 p.m. train was packed with people from Catfield and Sutton, Ingham and Hickling going to Yarmouth for the afternoon. In the summer, huge, fast express trains whistled through from the Midlands to Yarmouth and then took those who had enjoyed a week's holiday home again. During the war we had War Weapons Week and Wings for Victory Week to raise money for armaments through savings. One day a Dornier 17 ("The Flying Pencil") flew over Catfield and one bomb was dropped near the village and made a huge crater. At seventeen and a half I joined the Royal Corps of Signals and served in Italy and India, going out on troopships with 5,000 troops on board. My first journey was from Liverpool out into the Atlantic in convoy - a frightening experience. I hope lots of people who know Catfield well will join me on this message board. I loved the village and still do.

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