SOME MEMORIES OF SOUTHWOLD ( 1939 onwards )
My grandparents lived in various houses in Southwold. For some time, we ( my mother and I and baby brother) lived with them, while my father was away in the Navy, serving in minesweepers in various parts of the world, coming back on leave only very occasionally. This must have been so very awful for my mother, who had come over to England in 1939 with my father and me - a 1 yr old baby. She had left her family (parents and 4 sisters) in Melbourne, only to arrive in a country soon to be at war. I can't imagine how she coped.
After being bombed out from one house in North Parade we all moved, temporarily, first to a house on The Common, then when my grandparents rented Gun Hill Cottage our family moved into 8 Lorne Road, where we stayed until my father was posted to Germany after the war. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers me or my family.
My grandparents lived in various houses in Southwold. For some time, we ( my mother and I and baby brother) lived with them, while my father was away in the Navy, serving in minesweepers in various parts of the world, coming back on leave only very occasionally. This must have been so very awful for my mother, who had come over to England in 1939 with my father and me - a 1 yr old baby. She had left her family (parents and 4 sisters) in Melbourne, only to arrive in a country soon to be at war. I can't imagine how she coped.
After being bombed out from one house in North Parade we all moved, temporarily, first to a house on The Common, then when my grandparents rented Gun Hill Cottage our family moved into 8 Lorne Road, where we stayed until my father was posted to Germany after the war. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers me or my family.
Regency House ( opposite the Red Lion Pub ) was where my father lived as a child. Lorne Road, where we lived as children, is in the road leading down to the common, to the right of Regency House. We lived at No.8.
In Southwold very large properties are often built next door to tiny or modest houses. Some of these large properties have been divided into flats. Regency House, however, has recently, once again, been changed back into one magnificent dwelling.
During the war, we lived in a tiny cottage, a bathroom across an outside passageway, with a huge metal shelter in the living room, under which the 3 of us ( my mother, my brother and I ) slept during the air raids. If there was no raid we slept upstairs and my mother in the shelter. There was rationing - but I don't remember ever being hungry.
I do remember flying a kite on the common, climbing the monkey pole, the wonderful smell of gorse when playing hide and seek, sailing a toy yacht on the Model Yacht Pond along the Ferry Road and learning to ride a bicycle bought for me by my dearly loved Aunt Jane. I remember birthdays and, despite rationing, a cake with strawberries and cocoa and sugar icing. I remember drawn bedroom curtains when lying in bed with measles and whooping cough and a ceramic rabbit on the chest of drawers that glowed in the dark !
I had my tonsils out, in Southwold hospital, in a shared bed, head to toe, with a young boy . I remember Christmas stockings with a Rupert Annual, hand knitted doll's clothes, and one year, a handmade sledge and a beautiful china doll ,brought home from abroad by my father.The doll fell off the sledge, broke its face and had to go to the doll's hospital for repair. She was never so beautiful again.
My first teacher was Miss Whitty at the local school, but I then went to Miss Hurrells at the bottom of Constitution Hill where we wrote on slates with a slate pencil. Each morning we copied the perfect copper plate handwriting that I now realise , one of the Miss Hurrells must have spent the previous evening preparing . We wrote on those slates with great care. So good was our handwriting that our best efforts (on paper) were sent into handwriting competitions in The Children's Newsapaper and we won certificates to prove our competence! Sadly I no longer write so well, nor in the same hand. I now write in a primary school teachers , blackboard style- sort of Marion Richardson. I wonder if anyone remembers the Miss Hurrells' school? I left in 1947.
After school, we played - in the attics of an old cottage in Primrose Alley, finding treasure- a large hoard of sequins. We played in the tamarisk in the overgrown gardens of the empty, big houses on the front by the beach. We sledged on Skillmans Hill, flew kites on the common.
We enjoyed the wireless. Dick Barton was a favourite as was Childrens Hour. I remember Southwold as a dream place for us children- except for the bombs!
We were bombed out when we were living with my grandparents in North parade. My baby brother was in his cot when the window of his bedroom blew in, scattering shattered glass all over him. He was unharmed but my mother must have been frantic. I 'm not sure where we went that night, but have vague memories of being taken into a house on the Common.
Looking at pictures in Southwold Museum I see how much Southwold suffered during the raids. The images of war damage are not imprinted on my memory, though I vaguely remember gas masks and of course, the Morrison shelter in our living room.
We enjoyed the wireless. Dick Barton was a favourite as was Childrens Hour. I remember Southwold as a dream place for us children- except for the bombs!
We were bombed out when we were living with my grandparents in North parade. My baby brother was in his cot when the window of his bedroom blew in, scattering shattered glass all over him. He was unharmed but my mother must have been frantic. I 'm not sure where we went that night, but have vague memories of being taken into a house on the Common.
Looking at pictures in Southwold Museum I see how much Southwold suffered during the raids. The images of war damage are not imprinted on my memory, though I vaguely remember gas masks and of course, the Morrison shelter in our living room.
We left Southwold after the war - but came back regularly to visit my grandparents and grand aunt in Gun Hill Cottage. We borrowed a beach hut ( I think it was called Cartref ) near The Lord Nelson. It was owned , asI remember, by The Bonsey sisters , friends of my Aunt Jane.
Jane was an intrepid bather, fearless of the cold sea. The garden of Gun Hill Cottage reaches directly down to the beach and Jane , wrapped in her towelling robe would, as did / do several other intrepid Southwold bathers, brave the North sea for an early morning dip then go home, to change and eat a thoroughly deserved breakfast.
Southwold is for me a place full of memories. Around every corner , in every shop window linger, just out of sight in today's sunshine, reflections of my childhood.
Sadly, none of my relatives still live here, but our Southwold beach hut and nearby Chestnutt Cottage in Reydon, bring us great joy. We are delighted that so many of the holiday makers who hire our cottage and hut, love their visits, We know from comments in our visitors' book that this is indeed the case and the high number of repeat bookings proves,that a 'Southwold holiday' is now firmly planted in their own families' plans .
I now live near Woodbridge and am part of a family of artists- My husband was an architect, I was a teacher, am a textile artist, our daughter a painter and our son a musician and our grandson maybe following in his uncle's footsteps. We all love Southwold and our beach hut, spending a lot of our time here. We let Chestnutt Cottage, our small, modern well equipped holiday home ,hoping our visitors come to love this beautiful part of the world as much as we do and that they too build many happy memories that they also, will treasure. Do get in touch .www.southwoldholiday.com