Growing Up In Wonderland

A Memory of Sible Hedingham.

In the mid and late forties I attended Kingsmuir Boarding School in what is known today as Alderford Grange. It was owned and mastered by Ms Francis. We were told that the building had once been the Inn attached to the Bell PH next door.

During my attendance the interior was extensively rebuilt, even the deep wooden sink in the kitchen was replaced, along with the ancient lath and plaster walls. While leveling the interior open patio, at the end of the "kitchen" garden, the workmen's tools literally fell through the floor. The hole turned out to be part of the cellar of the adjacent pub. One wall was lined with hundreds of pewter mugs, all had broken glass bottoms. Next day they had all disappeared and later the hole was filled as part of the remodeling.

The nearby malt house was then a warehouse full of wooden doors and window frames. These were removed thus restoring the interior to its original state, including the huge vat used for soaking barley. It also gave us kids another playground. On the other side of the yard in front of the malt house were a row of stables where we had two horses and a buggy. Our "playground" extended uphill to a pasture and then down to the river.

The water mill down Alderford road was still grinding flour. We had a punt that we launched into the mill pond and explored the meadows beside the upper river. As a small boy of twelve I was fascinated by the power and movement of the machinery and visited many times. Maybe that helped me to decide to become the Architect/Engineer that I am today.

All the walls on the property were red brick, even the walls along the roadside. On the other side of Swan Road was a half timber house that was a family residence where lived our friend Tony Bell. I don't know if they had any relationship to the Pub. Opposite our driveway on Alderford Road there is now a schoolhouse, The Yellow House, that used to be a grocery. Today, looking at Google Maps I can hardly recognize the town.

If the above jogs the memory of someone maybe we were school mates?

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