Holidays In Saham Hills

A Memory of Saham Hills.

Just after the war we visited Saham Hills quite regular from Hull. We stayed with an aunt and uncle of my father's by the name of Smith. He was called Charlie, his wife was Pat and they had a son who was called young Charlie to distinguish him from his father. The house was next to the Post Office and had a water pump in the yard and an enormous garden out the back which had an enormous Victoria plum tree in it. I think Uncle Charlie worked on the road but I could be wrong.
If memory serves me right, the Post Office was in a house built with white bricks in among the red ones and had a lovely sounding bell when you opened the door. On the road outside the post office was a G.P.O. red telephone kiosk which to my eyes was very unusual as in Hull all the phone boxes are white.
I spent a lot of time with the local children whose names I have forgotten apart from one, a quiet little girl called Gwyneth Cox who lived diagonally across from Aunt Pat and Uncle Charlie's house. I remember her house had a well in the front garden for their drinking water.
I know the first time we visited, twin calves were born at the farm along the lane and they thought I had brought good luck. I tagged along with the boys who lived in that area and still have a scar on my leg after a slight accident with an air rifle.
We didn't have a car so any travelling in the area was on the cross-bar of my fathers borrowed bicycle sat on a cushion, my mother on a lady's bicycle behind. We visited Watton quite regular for the market and one great memory was coming back from the market eating enormous gooseberries out of a carrier on the handle bars of the bicycle
In order to travel further out we had to wait for the weekly bus which you caught at the bottom of the hill near a ford so we visited Norwich and Peterborough. I recall a lot of stuffed animals in the Norwich Castle Museum and when you went through an archway an elephant's head was exhibited above it and its trunk hung just out of reach. In a glass case was a family of stuffed lions which was quite spectacular.
I think in the area was a American aerodrome near Watton as we had to wait while they turned a bomber round as the wings came right over the road and for safety reasons all traffic was halted.
I did make another visit in the mid 1960s witha friend on a motorcycle but most things had changed apart from Gwyneth Cox who came across for a short visit and I still mean to come back for a visit to see the changes one day.

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