My Happiest Years

A Memory of Ramsey St Mary's.

Alfred Ellington. 01-06-2013.
My earliest memorys are during the war when we lived in the rear half of the old Star public house. l would have been 11/12 and l remember helping father put earth on small fire bombs dropped by german aircraft the night Fountains Farm on the Benwick road was hit and set alight. A while later my mum and dad were given No.8 Ashbeach Drove and we moved, by this time l had escaped the clutches of Mr Peacock (headmaster at the school) and started working for a living. l started at Letall Farm, Pondersbridge under Mr D Berry, then Mr F Corney, and finally Mr R Papworth. Ramsey Heights, it was from here that l left and joined the Royal Navy for 7 and half years. In the evenings a crowd of us used to congregate down Berrys, Grassfield, Ashbeach and it was here that l got friendly with a beautiful young girl, but like an absolute idiot l joined the navy and let her go and marry someone else. What a stupid fool! However, after the navy we met again, her marriage had broken down and we did eventually marry and had many happy years together; sadly she has departed me now. Her mum and dad had the bungalow built next to the school and let us live in the old house next to the chapel, but it was an old house with outside toilet and no bathroom; having said that l used to look forward to the old tin bath in front of the fire, what a wonderful evening with the children all in bed. l drove a lorry for Peterborough Contractors then, and we were allowed to go shopping in the artic fronts to Ramsey on a Saturday. We used to trundle in on a Saturday afternoon with 3 children who we never left to go out and we used to buy a bottle of "Gold Dust" port to drink after the children were in bed, and that was our Saturday night out... what a wonderful night. A while later we were offered No.28 Ashbeach Drove - how wonderful all mod cons; bathroom and flush toilet, we had never had it so good. It was a nice place to live, everyone was friendly, the kids used to fight now and again as kids do,but you had to ignore it as they were playing together the next day. Eventually we bought it from the council and altogether lived there for 24 years and l can honestly say they were the happiest years of my life. If only we could turn the clocks back, but sadly that will never happen. The children having flown the coupe now left us with a large 3 bedroom house and we decided to buy a bungalow at nearby Yaxley, a very nice bungalow, but a very wrong move. My darling Joy, never did like the surroundings and the atmosphere wasn't the same, the open fields had gone and we were closed in, but as the saying goes 'we had made our bed and had to lay in it'. l am now left a lonely old man but with some wonderful memories. l trust some people will read this and remember the good times we had - if only we could go back. Love to all who remember us, Alf.

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