Child Okeford In The 1940s

A Memory of Child Okeford.

I remember the village in the 1940s to 1970s.
I went to school at the centre of the village till 1951 then went to Sturminster S.M school.  On the walk home from school we used to go into the forge run by Alfred Wolfery (known as Bogey as he was as dirty and sooty as the bogey man!)
Across the road from the forge and Post office was Mr Fox's bakery.  He would give us wonderful hot bread and iced buns. Just on down the road was Mr Hutchins the local wheelwright and undertaker, he also had a cow which he used to take out on a halter to eat from the hedges.  A few more yards down on the right was Mr Fred Bradley's farm, most of the work was done by Harriet (White) who spent most of her time moving cows from farm to fields a long way from the milking sheds.
When I started school the teachers were Mrs Laurence in the infants class and Mrs Jackson in the "big" class.
Mr Pride ran the Bakers Arms and Sid Adams the Union Arms pubs and Mrs Hart ran an off licence at Goldhill.
Mr Diffey had the Post office , we also had a Co-op, a butcher Mr Turner, and a shoe repairer Mr Hart, my father had the third shop in the village at that time.
As kids we spent most of the summer holidays either up on the hill or in Okeford coppice where we made dens and would dam the stream to make paddling pools.
They were very happy days and gave us a good start in life, and as everybody knew who we were, we were fairly well behaved.
David Moon