My story, By Dorothy Rout.



I was born to Anna and Thomas Wright on December 27th 1919. I already had a sister Annie, a brother Tom and a sister Mary. We lived in a little cottage with two bedrooms, two down stair rooms and a toilet down the bottom of the garden. We were not very well off, but like most cottage dwellers in the village my father was an agricultural worker. None of the families were very well off, but we were all happy.
Working on the land in the early twenties wages were very low. My mother use to say to us, being poor is no disgrace as long as you are truthful and honest, I have often thought of her words.
When I can first remember farm workers wages were 30/- per week (that was £1-10 shillings) 150 pence today not much when one thinks about it.

Well this is Little Dunham as far back as I can remember and the way of life for myself, my family, grand parents and many friends, such as school friends etc.
When I was a young girl I knew everyone who lived in the village. Although we were not very well off mother fed us well and we had a happy home, but most families were the same. Our clothes were hand me downs but tidy, we had clothes given to us by the Buxton family who lived at Dunham Lodge and mother use to alter them to fit us and with quite a lot of families doing the same thing as they bought things from jumble sales for a few pence, this of course was in the days of the early twenties. When I think about it all now I wonder how we managed in that little cottage, as there were six of us at one time.
There were four cottages in our row, the water came from a well in the middle of the yard and had to serve all four cottages and what a worry it was in the summer when we had several dry weeks of hot weather and the well got rather low, I remember one year Mr Pickering who was a farmer living at Manor Farm, well he sent his men round the village with a water cart, the water was from one of his ponds called clay pits and the men with buckets filled up our water tanks and we were glad of it as it was a risk drawing so much from the well as I remember our well never did dry up, although some did in the village.
The folks next door to us were a large family by the name of Clarke, three of the sons were very good cricket players. Their sister use to whiten their cricket boots and stand them on the top of the well in the sun to dry, I can visualise them now in my minds eye. At the far end of our row lived a couple that had both married before so there was a mixed family. I didn’t like the old woman at all she was wicked, evil and told lies and used disgusting language. When I was very young I was frightened of her, by the way I should have mentioned that the father of the family next-door use to clip sheep or should I say shear sheep with sheep clippers. Now a days its all done by electric clippers and doesn’t take very long, but this man Mr Clarke and his brothers would go on to a farm, clip all the sheep and roll up all the fleece, they would be three or four days on one farm depending on the size of the flock and then move on to another farm. They had a great old closed in cart, as they use to dip the sheep after they had been sheared, alas those days are gone. My grandfather use to tell me that he use to shear a score hogetts (male sheep) for a florin and he could do a hundred a day and earn him self ten shillings, that was of course was a lot of money seventy years ago. How I use to watch him shearing sheep, it gave me a lot of pleasure as I use to marvel at the way he held on to the sheep and keep it still for him to work on. Oh happy days, what fun we had.
Dunham has changed so much over the years, the swan was kept by Mrs Dawson who use to keep pigs at the bottom of her garden from which she would sell pork, the pigs would be killed on the premises. My granddad use to keep pigs down the bottom of his garden, you could in those days, I’m talking about 1920 to 1940 and long before I can remember, but with the changes and various regulations that sort of thing is not allowed today, but to get back to the keeping of pigs, if Mrs Dawson was short of pork for selling perhaps my granddad had a pig big enough to kill or Mr Jim Clarke would have one, that’s how they did helping each other, alas there is not much of that sort of help going on today. I well remember on one occasion and I wasn’t very old, I had been sent to the village shop for something for my mother and I saw this great pig running on the road in front of the Swan with its neck cut half way round it was in the process of being killed when it got away from the men, there it was poor thing with blood pouring out of it’s neck and three men trying to catch it, they did of course but I will never forget that sight.
The village post office stores have changed a lot since I was a girl, there use to be two cottages at the side of the shop and some very large families were brought up in them, they had to sleep three to a bed, no water on tap it all had to be pulled up in a bucket from a well, oil lamps for lighting, all the cooking had to be done on an open fire and a loo (toilet) down the bottom of the garden.
On Fridays one could take cakes and joints of meat to the Bakery and Mr Carl Register who worked for Mr Bayfield who owned the Bakery, well he would bake things people took there for 2d each, sometimes the cakes were a bit over done but no one complained, “oh happy days”. I well remember on one occasion being sent to the bakery to fetch a cake for Mrs High (I use to run her errands), well this cake the old lady had put into a round tin, I picked the cake up and the tin was still a little bit hot, but I thought I could manage, got outside the bakery, tripped up on the very unlevel step, away went the cake and rolled down the road for some distance, I managed to pick up the cake which had now parted with the tin, I was very pleased that now damage had been done. Do you think I could find that tin? So I took the old lady her cake minus tin, needless to say I didn’t say it had been rolling down the road, I just told her I had taken it out of the tin for her so she didn’t burn her fingers, the tin turned up later, a bit of luck!!
Near the side of these cottages next to the post office was a wide path and it would lead you on to the Necton road, we use to call it the yards, walking through there you would pass eight cottages two rooms up & two rooms down with a loo down the bottom of the garden. There were some very large gardens that went with the cottages, all had lovely fruit trees, some very large families were brought up in these cottages, all happy families as I recall. These cottages are all gone now and new dwellings built on the gardens. The 8 council houses that were built at the far end of the village nearer toward Necton were built to house the families that were in the old cottages round the “yards”. They were the first council houses to be built in the villages & the families moved in in 1938, but they were not modernised until 1974 when mains water was brought in the village. Since then there had been more council houses and bungalows built.
Some of the old houses have been pulled down on the Necton road along with the Methodist chapel, shame about the chapel, we’ve had some good old sing songs in there two services on a Sunday and a service Wednesday nights.
There use to be some cottages behind the chapel, a boot maker lived in one with the name of George Steggles, he was one of a family of thirteen, he would make boots to measure and also repair boots and shoes, he always smoked a pipe and there always seem to be a drip on the end of it where George use to slaver. George Steggles was born a cripple, so he did well really to learn his boot and shoe trade.
There were cottages on what was known as the common, these cottages went with canister farm and were lived in by the men and their families who worked on the farm. There was one family who had four girls and I use to like going down to the common to play with these girls, their name was Robinson. To get to the common one had to walk down school lane and under the railway bridge, turn right and past a orchard on the left and there were the cottages, I use to think I would have like to live down there, the train ran very close by and very frequently. These cottages have gone long since. There was also a very flourishing railway station when I was a girl, trains ran very frequently to Norwich and Kings Lynn, stopping at the village stations on the way.
Little Dunham station use to cater for Necton, Great Dunham, Litcham, East & West Lexham and Sporle. Quite a lot went on there as the cattle use to be moved by rail and also sheep, sugar beet and horses some times. I remember the Duke of Windsor travelling on the train “he had a special carriage” bringing his horse so that he could hunt with the West Norfolk Fox Hounds, he would wait in the Crown public house which was just at the top of the station yard and have coffee with Mr & Mrs Ted Newman + their daughter Flo. I mentioned the Crown public house it was a Steward and Patterson pub, but after the Newman family all died off it was sold as a private house. The Newman family were Quakers and a very nice kind family, they were always ready to help those in need and a great help to the village. Mr Ted Newman was a coal merchant and use to deliver coal round the village with a horse and cart, he kept two ponies and two donkeys, one of the donkeys was trained to pull a little whickes cart and on a nice sunny day one would come across Miss Flo Newman and her mother out in the cart. There was also 2 other coal merchants their names were Smith and Co and also a Mr Marshall. The coal was brought to Dunham by rail by the truckload. The farmers and the well-to-do bought it by the truckload through the merchant. Mr Newman had to give up as he got older and he sold his business to Knock of Litcham. The Railway was closed in 1968 the village people did try hard to keep it open, but as more people were getting cars & less people travelled on the train, we were very all sad when it closed.
Now there was a very good blacksmith shop in the village, how I use to stand and watch the blacksmith Mr Charlie Southgate shoe horses, of course there were a lot of cart horses used on the farms in those days and they all had to have shoes and also the horses that were kept for hunting. The forge use to fascinate me, I can still recall seeing the blacksmith pumping up the forge and the coal dust and cinders glowing red hot and Charlie would pull out some red hot metal and form it into a horse shoe and would fit it to the horse’s hoof red hot and then he would nail it on the horse and shape the hoof. I use to like the smell of the horses hoofs as the hot shoe was placed on, it use to make a sizzling noise.
Also at the blacksmith’s I’ve seen the great metal wheel being fixed to the wooden wheel frame, the metal would be heated up on the forge and then brought out and fixed round the wooden frame, there would be three men beating it on to fix it firm, it was placed on a round Iron ring about eight feet across it with a dip in the centre to let the hub of the wheel rest in. The men would beat it and turn it at the same time until the metal was cold, Great big hammers were used, This smithy was closed for a number of years, but now another blacksmith have bought the place and I understand he is making some beautiful things, ornamental gates, fire guards and various other things.
I’ve seen a good many changes there, some good, some bad. Now along what was known as the Barrow Holes Lane, well this lane ran from the centre of the village and finished up on the Necton road, when I was a little girl there was only a farmhouse, three cottages and a bungalow at the far end. The farmyard had various sheds and buildings to house implements and a stockyard and on the road side a five-barred gate. The house has been altered a lot as well, when I was a small child I use to visit there a lot with my mother as she was related to Mr & Mrs James Clarke who lived there, the toilets and coal sheds were along the
Side of the house and another little out house had inside a coal copper, where the water had to be heated for washing and baths. Now all this has gone long since, the farmhouse is now two dwellings all modernised. Where the stockyard was there are three quite large houses. In what was the orchard now there are two houses and a bungalow. And further along the lane more houses and bungalows, I’m afraid as far as I am concerned all that building has spoilt the village, to some folks its called progress but to me and the real village folks ugly! Ugly!
To get back to Barrow Holes Lane walking from the village end one would see turning off to the right a lane, well its really a public foot path, and it runs between two fields, years ago when I was a very young girl I recall it, to walk this lane was a real treat any time of the year, It was an avenue of trees mostly Oak trees, but there were also Ash, Elm, Elder and Beech, about three quarters of a mile along this foot path and looking across to ones left was a little wood, about two & half acres, during the spring and summer it was a haven for wild life and it was a mass of wild flowers too numerous to mention them all as some I still can’t remember the names Blue Bells, White Bells, Wild Orchids, Pink and White Campion, Soldiers Buttons, Cows Foot and many many more. The scent from these flowers was absolutely out of this world and is something I shall never forget, no perfume has ever come out of a bottle like it. I always think of it as one of Gods creations and one of the few free pleasures of life. Well now we go further along the lane turning right this time on our left is another wood consisting of various lovely trees, and also a lot of pines. The wood was always known as Sporle Wood and is also full of the most beautiful wild flowers and shrubs covering 50 acres. During the summer holidays quite a few of us village children spent very many happy hours in this wood, the singing of the birds was absolutely lovely, there was a Tawny Owl in a hollow tree. We took a lot of pride in watching the habitat of the birds as we used to write essays about these things when we went back to school after the summer holidays, so of course the more we took notice the more we could write about these things and of course there were lots of birds nests in the woods, during March and April lots of Pheasants were nesting.
To get back to our foot path, following it along brought us out near Sporle Bridge, a lovely walk at any time, but during Spring and Summer it was quite unforgettable, I can visualise it now in my mind but alas sad to say the avenue of trees are no longer there, the small wood I mentioned is no longer there and the footpath is a job to distinguish and walk on. Alas most has now gone I’m sorry to say, what has gone wrong with folks, must they destroy all our beautiful walks, there wont be anything left soon.
I did first mention the Swan but to go in to it in more detail, years ago during the 1920s up to say the 1940s or just after the last war, there use to be wood railings round the front of the Swan, with chains linking the wood post, to wood post were attached metal rings these were for folks who stop there with their horses and carts, the horses could be tied up to the metal rings, of course there were quite a lot of horses & carts when I’m talking about, some of the poor old horses were tied up a long while I can tell you, and when it was time to move off the driver would be so drunk and very often didn’t know which way to go home, some of the horses would find their own way home. That was when Beer was 4d a pint.
To the side of the Swan, there use to be a cottage one room up and one room down, the stair case was just a ladder. There was an old lady lived there with the name of Miss or Mrs Coe, I always thought she was a witch, it was doubtful whether she ever had a wash, for her face was as brown as a berry and shone, she also had two or three very rotten teeth just in the front of her mouth which didn’t improve her looks. Well this Miss or Mrs Coe use to make love potions up for the young men of the village, as she said it would make them more attractive to women, and also make them virile, she would get the water from the pond at the back of the Swan on Mr Clarke’s field, (that’s why the pond was always known as Coe’s Pond) the water was put in a round cauldron that had three legs and hung on a hook attached to a chain that hung from the beam in the chimney, there was a rhyme, the old woman use to chant as she made this brew, I can’t quite remember it now, but I’ll try
The blood of a Nat.
The skin of a Bat.
The Bark off the Oak.
Altogether I’ll soak.
The skin of a Flea.
The leg of a horse.
They make a good stew and a very good brew, I’ve been told by the older folks who knew her better than I ever did, my mother knew her. There were some men from round about did buy her brew, it leaves a bit of doubt, but I should imagine some of her brew was the slops of beer from the pub, where the beer spilled over into bowls as the landlady was dishing up pints, there was always a few spills and old lady Coe didn’t let much go spare.

Now School Lane has been built up quite a bit since the war, with houses and bungalows both sides, there were just four cottages when I was a young girl, my aunt use to live in one and I’ve spent many happy hours there with my cousins, just a bit further down the lane from them were the other two, well I think at one time they had been four but were very small, so two had been made into one to make a much bigger house. I well remember the families that lived in them, long since gone, well the grandchildren of one of the families I see now and again as they live near Dereham. We have a good old chat when we do meet. One man who lived there was Sam Steggles and I understand it was he who helped Build the railway station.
Continue along School Lane and under the railway bridge bear left and across the meadow to Canister Farm, well that was where we used to walk to for milk when I was a girl, twice a day. Then there were changes, the farm was sold, I can remember three or four different families living there, Major Beasley, Mr Makins, Mr Carter then Geoffrey Mason brought the place & turned the farm house into two houses, now it is back into one again. Most of the land has been sold apart from the large meadow round the house, which has been made into a golf course & fishing lakes. Also the railway lines have been taken up between little Dunham and Fransham Stations and have been Dammed up each end and filled with water, and are now fishing lakes, they are used quite a lot, folks who are interested in fishing travel quite a distance to fish there. The banks each side of the railway track are quite high, so it was quite easy filling them up, I can also recall when I was a girl I have seen water spouting out of the sides of the railway banks. These railways banks were also very pretty during the spring and summer as they were covered with Primroses, Violets and Cowslips, always a beautiful sight, but the farm sprays have killed most of them off I’m sorry to say.
The village school has been made into a house, it was built in 1873. I’ve always been told that the school is on land given by Mr George Copeman who was the owner of Little Dunham Lodge at the time, the school consisted of an entrance porch, a cloakroom and two large classrooms. There has been some very clever people turned out from the teaching they received from attending this school. I myself started school there at the age of four, the infant teacher at the time was Miss Grethan. (Gretan) a very good kind lady she was, all the youngsters were very fond of her and we were most upset when she left the school. If my memory serves me well Miss Gretan retired, to me she seemed very old, but then I was very young. Then there was Miss Doris Dixon who came to teach the infants, I didn’t like her very much as she had her favourites and I was always getting the cane off her for things I hadn’t done. Well she had a whistle that she would blow at play times to get us all back in school, this particular day the whistle was missing I know who had taken it as I saw this girl with it and kept on blowing it, Miss Dixson blamed me but I didn’t give the other girl away, well two days later this whistle found its way back in the cupboard. I always did get the blame, but I never did split on the girl, her name was Milly. The Head Teacher at the school all the time I was there was Miss S Blamire, a very good strict teacher, there were never any children leaving school during her time that couldn’t read or write, Miss Blamire concentrated on arithmetic, reading and good writing and spelling. Every morning we had assembly with prayers and a hymn. We always had a time for bible reading and every term we had a scripture exam. I always enjoyed this, I loved the bible reading as Miss Blamire always got me to read a whole chapter and then we had to discuss it, this way it gave us a good knowledge of the bible and it’s stuck with me through the years.
I enjoyed my school days and was very upset when I had to leave school and of course we left school at 14 yrs old in those days. Looking back they were very happy times, our head mistress did her best to make our school a very happy place.
Friday afternoons during the summer we played games on Miss Blamire’s field. The girls played cricket and football as well as the boys. I got quite good at cricket. If the afternoon happen to be wet we had to stay in school of course, the girls did knitting and the boys did painting, some times we went for a nature study walk.
It was a very sad day in the village when the school was closed, that was in 1935, there were several tears shed.
During my years at school and even before I was old enough to join in we had a sports day two or three days before we started our summer holiday, it was just a fun day amongst our selves. Mrs Ivor Buxton who lived at Dunham Lodge at the time would be there and bring her daughters Mary Nancy and one other I just can’t remember her name, we called her Zuloo because she had a lot of fuzzy hair. Mrs Buxton would judge the games, how we all loved that day and then when Mr Copeman was alive and lived at the “Paddocks” only in his time and also while Miss Blamine & her sister lived there it was always Known as Dunham Cottage. It was renamed the Paddocks after Mrs Williams got there to live.
Well now – what I was saying are yes- we use to have a parents day and Mr Copeman let us all assemble on his lawn, us children would sing the songs we had been taught at school and also dance, we had a wind up Gramophone and records with the dance music on. The Gramophone and records belonged to our schoolmistress, we use to dance a sword dance and a stick dance, the swords were long and made of wood, the sticks were about an inch in diameter they were all proper dances. I have seen the same thing on television only recently and would have loved to have joined in as I can still remember the steps. I often wonder what happened to those sticks and swords, oh happy days, what fun we had, my dancing partner was a boy called George Carter. I wonder what happened to him! Each Christmas Mrs Buxton would have a party at Dunham Lodge for the school children, we always had a very nice tea, there were lots of jam sandwiches and cake, it was the first time I had ever tasted a doughnut, and as I bit in to it the jam shot out all over my face. After tea we all went in to the very large drawing room to be entertained by a Conjurer, on leaving for home each child received a present, we all use to look forward to those parties.
Also at Christmas, all the school children would get together with the schoolmistress and go all round the village carol singing, how we all enjoyed this. These were all most enjoyable times, we got such fun out of the simple things.
Major & Mrs Ivor Buxton moved from Dunham Lodge I think it was about 1934, it was a great loss to the village when they moved, they were such kind people and were very helpful, also they were kind and thoughtful towards the folk who worked for them. I’m thinking back about sixty-five years and more, at that time more than half the village was Dunham Lodge Estate. Now I’m sorry to say in 1991 there is hardly any estate at all, its all been sold off in bits and bobs, when I can think back now there use to be a whole lot of farm buildings and stabling for the farm horses, there were eight lovely big farm horses, Bob Gage was one of the team men as they were known in those days, I don’t suppose the young men of today would know what a team man was if we were to ask them. I know a team man had to be at work at about 5-30 am in the morning to get the horses fed so they were ready for work at 7 am.
Major and Mrs Buxton moved to Dunham Lodge after Mr & Mrs George Copeman moved out that was in 1919. Mr Alfred Copeman one of the sons moved into the village, there was a Major Charles Copeman also another son, the rest of the family moved to a house near Norwich, but they have all died off now. But what I was going to say is this, Major Copeman would stay in the village now and again with his brother Alfred who moved to Dunham Cottage. Well this Major Copeman was a great friend of our school mistress Miss Blamire, as was his brother Alfred, so he was asked to come into school to give us school children a lecture on the places he had been too, the different countries, and what he had done with other soldiers. How I use to hate that. Well we use to have to write an essay on this lecture the next day, I’m afraid I didn’t do very well as those old lectures of Copeman’s got my back up.
Now about Alfred Copeman, well he was chairman of the Norfolk Education Committee for years, and would go to Norwich nearly every day to the Education office. I have been told by Miss Blamire our Head Mistress that Mr Copeman would not let any of the people who worked in the Education Offices smoke, if they did and he knew about it he would see that they lost their job. Well also as being chairman of the Education committee Mr Copeman was a barrister. Not many people in Dunham knew that.
I want to get back to when I was a young schoolgirl. Now I’m going back about sixty-one years, yes it is.
We were all in school and it was a Wednesday morning about 11am, there was a knock on the door, I remember it well, it was Bob Clarke Mr Copeman’s gardener, he called our Head Mistress (Miss Blamire) in to the porch to tell her the bad news, Mr Copeman had been hit by the train, it was the 9-45 am train for Norwich, this was the train Mr Copeman frequently used as he was in Norwich most school days. Well he thought the train would stop if he held his hand up, but it didn’t and so there was a nasty accident, I remember it well as if it had just happened. Miss Blamire came back into school and told us all to be very quiet as there had been a serious accident and Mr Copeman was badly hurt, we were all to sit still and get on with our work until she came back. No playtime that day much to our dismay. Well our teacher came back to school just about 12noon and we went home for lunch, but we were told we must walk very quietly and not make any noise. Come the following Friday evening Mr Copeman died, and the funeral was the next Wednesday afternoon, the school was closed for the day, and most of the school children had to collect in the front of Mr Copeman’s house to walk in front of the funeral procession carrying a wreath (not the infant children). I don’t think I have ever seen so many wreaths at a funeral. However I don’t think I have ever seen so many smiling faces at a funeral as there was at this one, apart from our Head Mistress who shed tears, and Mr Copeman’s brother Charles. The de-ceased was looked upon as the village squire, and tried to run every ones life for them, after the funeral the village was like a new place. Although I must say this for him he was willing to give advice to anyone if you made an appointment to see him, but one had to do exactly as he said, but with his experience as a Barrister he could give genuine advice.
The church, I must say something about our little church. I’ve been attending services there since I was a very small child, also I was a member of the Sunday school, Mrs Hunt the rectors wife took the older children for Sunday school & Miss Kathleen Hunt the younger ones, I did not much care for the Hunt family, Rev Hunt was not a very nice man (well I didn’t think so) and Mrs Hunt and the three daughters were all powder and paint. More like actresses than a Rectors family, as I grew older I liked them even less, as I learned more about them, most of the village people felt the same, but now I have got away from what I was going to write about the church.
Where was I? The church is known as St Margaret’s, some of the pews on the north side of the church were taken out during 1945-1947 and a side alter made in the place. This was during the time Rev Williamson was rector at Dunham and also Sporle. There is a most beautiful coloured window above the alter, and also a smaller one on the south side of the church, this small window was inserted by the Rev Montague Hare in memory of a son of his who had died young, that was in 1868, (hope I’ve got the date right). When I was a child we had services in the evening on a Sunday, how I did enjoy going to church with my mother, and friends of mine with their parents, when I was in my teens I was asked to read a lesson in church, how I loved doing that, I’ve done this many times since.
Also it was delightful for me when I got involved with church flower arrangements. How I loved every minute of this delightful task. As I grew older I found myself cleaning the church and church brasses, I just about took over, later I became church secretary to the P.C.C this position I held for 25 years until I moved to Gressenhall. YES! I’ve seen a lot of changes in Little Dunham church some good some not so good! And there has been a few changes in clergy, but all in all I’ve had some very happy times, helping out at garden fetes, coffee mornings, cake stall on Swaffham market place, alas to say very few people attend services now. One or two at 11 o’clock, sometimes 4 at communion, very sad. I do hope things will improve. When I was a child there use to be a high hedge each side of the church drive, on the right side, walking down towards the church there were three large oak trees at intervals, on these were brackets about four feet up from the ground, and during the dark evenings (just Sundays) there were oil lamps lit and fitted into these brackets, they just gave off enough light so that one could see the drive, these lamps were put out by the sexton as he came up the church drive after the evening service. Mrs Hazlewood was the church organist, and Mr Hazlewood was church treasurer, Mr & Mrs Hazlewood kept the Post Office Stores when I was a girl, they had two daughters, Freda & Margaret.
Rev Hunt went a bit funny in the head and was sent away I think to a mental home, Mrs Hunt and Kathleen left the village and took over a boarding house at Runton near Cromer, they were not missed in the village, they were very unpopular. Old Charlie Barrett was sexton and grave digger at this time, when he gave up, George cook took it on for a time, he was a very good grave digger, after him it was George Kenning, he didn’t have the job long, he was frightened out of his life in case some one should get out of the grave and come after him. He was digging a grave on one occasion when he unearthed a set of dentures, well he down with his spade and ran home, that was the end of George Kenning and the sexton’s job.
Yes! Dunham has changed a lot, several old houses have been pulled down, there used to be two on the crossways, that’s were Great Dunham road go along to Necton and another road comes down through the village towards Sporle, well on the cross ways stood two cottages, they used to belong to the Lodge estate years ago, Tom Newell lived in one and Fred & Mrs Bidwell lived in the other, and there was a three cornered piece of grass in the centre of the roads, as children we use to sit there with our note book and pencil and take car numbers, we could sit all day and perhaps get two or three, as there were very few cars about in those days. I can remember when there was just one in our village and that belonged to Major Buxton who lived at Dunham Lodge at the time. A horse and cart was the mode of transport in those days, a much slower pace of life, now in these days every house hold have a car or sometimes two, and life is one mad rush. Not so much fun as in days gone by.
There is not much left of the Lodge estate now, bits and pieces have been sold off, pity but that’s the way it is, and the Lodge itself is in a dreadful state, such a pity as it’s a most beautiful house with a very unusual frontage. I just wonder what will happen to it eventually. I’m afraid I won’t be around to see the changes, there is a lot of history attached to Dunham Lodge, Lord Nelson slept there, also William Cowper was living at the Lodge when he wrote some of his poems. There use to be (alas now gone) an avenue of trees from Dunham Lodge to Corbets Lodge and it is said Lord Nelson use to meet Lady Hamilton along the avenue and the Obelisk as a memorial to Lord Nelson was erected on the spot where the two met. It’s good to keep these memories alive, I do hope they never die altogether, otherwise there will be no nice things for our grandchildren to talk about, after all this is part of the history of Little Dunham and should be kept alive.
My Grandad was a good mole catcher, he use to skin the moles he caught and pin the skins on his shed door, but before doing so he would treat the skins in a solution made up with 2 gallons boiling water so much salt Peta and so much salt prenalla and some thing else which I can’t remember the name. Well the mixture had to get cold and the skins were soaked for a little while in it, and then taken out stretched out and pinned to the shed door. When the shed door was full, my grandad use to parcel up these skins and take them to Kings Lynn and meet someone at Kings Lynn Docks who would buy these skins for 15bd each, now that was looked upon as a lot of money in the 1920 period, I have an idea that the person who bought the skins off my Grandad came from Holland. No one would bother to skin moles now, they have all got so much better off. Those days might have to come back.
When I was a child, my friends and I use to walk miles gathering primroses in the spring. Later on in the year it would be Bluebells, how I loved it all, and then we would play games with marbles, then hoops. Then there was a time for the skipping rope and also spinning our tops. When we use to spin our tops, we would use coloured chalks to make a pattern, we would try and out do each other, now we never see any of these nice games. I have spent hours spinning my top, marbles was fun. We use to play in the school playground during break. I can still remember how we use to play with a hole cut in the play ground. Three or four of us would play together, and if one of us lost all our marbles, then we would borrow some from a friend, and pay them back when we had better luck and had won some more.
Hop scotch was another good game we would play, the way we use to play hop scotch was to draw with white chalk an oblong about 10 feet by 8 feet, then mark it out in squares and number each square 1 to 10 or even 12, then with a flat stone, throw the stone into number one square and hop into it and so on into every square, until you had gone into every square without stopping or putting both feet down.
Before the last war, and when I was a child, there was in Dunham a very good cricket team. The cricket green was on the middle park as you go up the Lodge drive on the right side. One of the members of the cricket team would see to the cutting of the cricket pitch, there was some very good cricket played there, I well remember one year the team winning the County Cup, there was always a cricket tea served in the village hall, and when the team were playing away there was always a bus load, a lot of very keen men and boys.
Also as one entered the Lodge drive just past the little Bungalow, on the left was the bowling green and on the right was the tennis court, the bowling green was kept beautiful, with flower beds all round the out side and seats for the spectators, and also quite a large lock up shed where the lawn mowers were left, and also the players would leave their bowls.
Tennis was just as active with tennis tournaments, e.t.c. Alas the war came and men, boys and girls were called to serve their country. After the war things never got going again. The tennis court and Bowling Green was ploughed up.
Now to get back to what folks call “Back Lane”, it is Barrow Holes Lane, well when I was a child it was always known as Barrow Holes Lane, and the pond, which is half way along the lane, was always known as Barrow Holes Pond. I don’t know how the name came about, I’ve never heard anyone ever saying they knew either. But why is it when someone or other have to change the name, it will always be Barrow Holes Lane to me. Well when I was a girl there were not many houses along Barrow Holes Lane, going from the black smith end, there was the farm house on the left a bit further on one would past Barrow Holes Pond on the right just past the pond and on the left the little cottage that Mr & Mrs Clarke lived in, a bit further on, and still on the left were two cottages and immediately after that a few out buildings, still on the left a little bungalow built in 1934 for Mr J Clarke to retire in to from Beech Farm, built by Burtons builders who lived at Fransham at the time, long since died, and at the end of the lane on the right a bungalow, this was built in 1910 for Mr & Mrs Walter Clarke, for when married, it has been altered a lot since, with various rooms added and a lot of sheds. Looks ugly now turn right on to the Necton road there is a bungalow named Four Winds, built 1958. Well it’s an arcon or asbestos building with brick out side, not very substantial one would think. But it was erected for Mr & Mrs Walter Clarke when they retired from Beech Farm, they gave their nephew their good bungalow because he was getting married, and the arcon was all they could afford. The arcon was erected by Mr W C Littleproud of Bradenham, he was a most excellent builder, his finished work looked professional.
Well first past “Four Winds” is another bungalow, built in 1962 for two elderly ladies who had both been schoolmistresses, one was our Head Teacher in Little Dunham School Miss Blamire as she then, but she married and was then Mrs Ball. Her sister Alice had not married, they left Little Dunham in January 1938 when Sarah got married, she was married in Swaffham Church. Alice was schoolteacher at Great Dunham for a good many years, and then she was at Swaffham School for a while, then when Little Dunham School was closed Miss S Blamire got a teachers place with Alice at Swaffham until the said Sarah got married, and they moved Prospect house Long ridge Lancs. Then of course when Sarah’s husband died the two ladies returned to Dunham and that was now the bungalow Known as “Kemple End” came to be built by Mr W C Littleproud Bradenham, Kemple End has been built on too and Spoilt, I think the shape of it has been spoilt, it is a most beautiful bungalow with big spacious rooms. A bit further along the Necton road are eight council houses, the folks moved in those in March 1938. They were the first council houses to be built in Dunham. Well now we walk Barrow Holes Lane again as it is now, starting from the Black Smiths, on the left are three large houses. They have been built on the field that was once the stack yard (I will come back to the stack yard). Then there is the farmhouse now made into two dwellings. My mothers cousin was Mrs J Clarke and we use to spend a lot of time there, little did I think then that I would live there after I was married, well my husband and I lived there 33yrs, there was a reason why we left, but never mind now! What use to be the barn and cart sheds has now turned in to a bungalow, before that it was a shoe shop for a few years, and before that a chicken plucking house with the cold store in the barn. When the barn was used for storing grain, there also was a little engine and mill, the wheat was ground up for cattle feed, and I would take my cooking bowl to get some ground wheat, and make some scones with it, “delicious” I can almost taste them now that I’ve mentioned them, - oh happy days. Also there was a wall on the side of the road and there were more farm buildings the other side of the wall, and a five barred gate on the side of the road. OH dear I’ve side tracked myself again, I get so carried away, it’s because I’m so home sick for Dunham, and my lanes and woods I love to walk through. If I live here for a thousand years, it will never be my home. No one will ever know how much I just yearn for my home village. There was a lovely big orchard that went with the farmhouse and when I did get to live in the farmhouse i9 loved wandering about in the orchard, especially under the lovely copper beech tree. Oh dear I’ve let myself get side tracked again. I must not do that otherwise this little lot will not make sense. I was saying about Barrow Holes Lane as it is now, at the bottom of the orchard is a bungalow, built in 1966 for Mr & Mrs Rutterford, since they left the village the bungalow has had various bits added, an extra kitchen and conservatory, and has had two more owners. Also a house had been erected at the far end of the said orchard, backing onto the playing field. Again on the left side is another new house, it was built on the same spot as Charlie Clarke’s house, carry on a bit further along and there is another house, which has been two cottages earlier on, but were sold when the former owner died he was Mr Harry Clarke commonly known as sergeant, I don’t know why as he was never in any of the services, and the said cottages were bought at an auction Mr John K M Adams and he had them made into one nice house. Then a few yards on, and still on your left is a bungalow named Ateraxia, it stands on the spot where a thatched house was at one time, I will come back to the thatched house after we get to the end of Barrow Holes Lane. Now opposite is a fairly large house, it was built in 1968 and is known as Westclife House and was built for Mr W J Wright. A bit further on, but on the left side is a new House, and it was built in 1989 on some of the garden which ajoin Sunnyside that is the bungalow which Mr J Clarke had built in 1934 for his retirement from Beech Farm just a bit further on are two large houses, built on what we called four acres, at one time the chicken factory was on this land, but it was sold to Colin Howlett in 1977, it didn’t last long after that and so every thing was sold, hence the houses on the land, at the end of Barrow Holes Lane, (Necton Road end), on the right is a bungalow with building round it. Now to get back to the bungalow named Ateraxia, the gentleman who bought the site was Rev John Starham, well he and his wife Olive a lovely couple, we became great friends, I well remember the bungalow being built in 1969. John Starham told me the reason they named their bungalow Ateraxia (a Greek word) was because it means “peace be with you”, alas the poor folks had very little of that. A very sad story, I shall always remember them, they were very kind to me. Lovely friends, I was asked to do the last for Rev Stathams dear mother who lived with them, I did and made her look lovely for the lord. Now Ateraxia was built on land where once stood an old thatch house, with building and cart sheds, various other wooden huts, on the side of the road and it was the entrance to this house & garden was a large wooden farm gate, well we call them five barred gates in Norfolk, just inside the gate on the left was a water well, you know what I mean, where one has to crank a pail with a chain on to get water. This well had a wooden top, and of course it has a big roller (a wooden roller) with the chain and a hook to attach the pail too, now Sergeant Clarke who lived there with his wife was one of the family of Clarke’s who use to go round farms shearing and dipping sheep. Now the sheep dip was made up with all sorts of poison, and the formula was kept a secret and died with the Clarke family. Well the old house was a thatched roof, but it all had to be pulled down to make way for the new bungalow. The poison has all been buried. I was told there was enough poison there to kill everyone in the village. The new bungalow is built over the spot where the poison is buried, one wonders what will happen if it is ever found, I doubt if any of us will be around then. Now to get back to old sergeant Clarke again, he had a twin brother, and they were exactly alike, when they were young in their teens, both of them courted the same girl, this went on for quite a while, the girl found out when they both turned up one night at the same time, the girl gave them both up.
Yes Dunham has changed a lot since I was a girl, there is no one living in Dunham now who were born there, and who I call the village people. They haven’t got the same feeling towards the village as I have, I like to think of it as my village, ”my home”.
Its funny how things stick in ones mind, well on December 27th 1934, I well remember the whole end falling out of the house and shop, the end from top to bottom, you could see all the furniture in the bed rooms, Mr Pickering lent Mr Hazelwood a stack cloth to hang over everything until he could get the builders in, as it was Christmas time, it hung things about, builders were on holiday, Bamdridge the builder built the wall up again, also the same day there was a fire at the Gardeners Cottage at Dunham Lodge, I remember the fire engine going through the village, and that was an unusual sight in those days. About the Gardeners Cottage, well I have been told by my mother and other elderly folks who knew the lodge Estate well, that the Gardeners Cottage was once a private chapel for the folks who owned Dunham Lodge, I must say it always gave me the impression that it looked like a chapel, I suppose if one took the trouble to check up on the past history of the building one could find out. It is a lovely little building, and as a child I use to visit it with my school friend, as there were children living there that came to our school, now of course it is in ruins, such a shame, I must add here it is a listed building.
I was always told that at one time there was a high hedge each side of the lodge drive, I can vaguely remember some of it being pulled out, I use to go up to Dunham Lodge quite a bit when I was young, and also to visit a friend who lied at Corbets lodge, that is just beyond Dunham Lodge, and I had school friends living there, so I did travel that way quite a bit. The children who lived in the cottages at Corbets lodge use to attend our school, there were thirteen in one family, their name was Cater. Now about Manor farm, there is a very nice farm house, it has had four owners since I can remember the first one who I can vaguely remember was Mr Bob Large, although his name was Large, he was a very short man and use to ride around his farm on a little Shetland pony. Now about the house well I know it very well, inside and out, it has four front attics and 2 back attics, and six main bedrooms, and there are two rooms with no windows. The Prats spoilt it down stairs, there were no bath or flush toilet at manor farm house until 1958 people with the name Prat put them in, there are five large spacious rooms as well as a large kitchen and larder, and various other small rooms. The folk who have owned it at different times have spoilt it. But the folks who own it at the time of writing this have improved it. There were two thatched cottages that went with the farm, quite large cottages with large gardens and quite a number of fruit trees in the garden. What I wanted to say was that my granddad lived in one of these cottages he use to work for Mr Large, he was gamekeeper and shepherd as well. When Mr large wanted my granddad to give him a few orders, or to find out something about the sheep or game shooting, he would go to see him at lunch time, as he knew my granddad would be in at that time. Well Mr Large ride across the meadow riding on his little Shetland pony right up to my granddads front door. He would come still on the pony right up to my granddad sitting at the table eating his lunch, give his orders have a chat and then still on his pony walk out of his back door and down the path, things like that would never happen today. Folks just wouldn’t put up with it! Just one little thing I remember about Manor Farm House, there was a chimney stack right in the centre of the roof, and attached to it was a cowl that would move as the wind blew, it was fairly large, well a tawny owl use to live in this cowl, and nested there year after year. I can well remember seeing two little baby owlets sitting on a branch of the walnut tree out side the back door of Manor Farm. Well the people who bought the farm off Mr John Pickering shot the owl as they said it would bring them bad luck, and I must also add they cut down the walnut tree down that stood in the back yard, Oh dear what vandals there are about, fancy shooting an owl, they are such graceful birds, so beautiful in flight, some folks don’t know what beauty is. One more little item about Manor Farm House is this, there was a very good spacious cellar and in the very hot weather the food such as meat and dairy produce was kept down there as it was ideal for that, and it was very cool, well the folks who bought the farm off Mr Pickering knocked the garden wall down and filled in the cellar with the bricks from the wall, they really were vandals, they hadn’t been used to living in a good house.
Well going back to my childhood days I’m afraid I do drift about so and get carried away. As I have said before there were not many cars in the village, Major Mrs Buxton at Dunham Lodge had one, I remember it well, it was navy blue with a canvas hood, the next person in the village to have a car was Mr Jim Clarke he use to live at Beech Farm but he didn’t buy his car until he retired into his bungalow, well his car was very small, it use t6o remind me of a square box and it was dark brown in colour. I can remember very well on one occasion there was an election and folks from Little Dunham had to go to Great Dunham to vote, Mr Clarke was using his car to take people from our village to vote. Well old Mrs Twite wanted to go to vote, she only wanted a ride in the car really. Actually she was as big as the car, Mr Clarke was a bit hesitant as to whether to take her, well she got in the car and the poor little car went down on it’s springs, however Mr Clarke got here there and back, the little car was never the same again. Have I it was a very nice little primitive Methodist chapel, we’ve had some very good times in there. I can remember when it was full every Sunday afternoon and again in the evening, the fruits and vegetables that people took there for the harvest thanks giving service were sold during the week following the Sunday service. The chapel was packed out, there were several bundles of carrots, onions, red beet, potatoes some in bags others in cardboard boxes. Mr Dennis came from Swaffham to take the service and act as auctioneer, app-les and pears by the dozen, Mr Dennis would try one as he was auctioneering, “what fun it was”. The money raised went towards the up keep of the chapel. I can remember it being a very good evening. One year in particular stands out in my mind, the people at the shop had given some tins of fruit for sale, and Bob Gage (long since dead) bought a tin of Peaches, well he cut the tin open with his Knife and he ate them standing out side the chapel door (Guts that he was). Yes we had some good old times in the little chapel, alas the whole front fell out of it one very wet winter and there was no money to have it repaired, very sad this was in 1966, houses have now been built on the site. The chapel pews, pulpit and communion table were stored in some ones out building at Litcham, goodness know where they are now.
Dairy farm house is quite a nice building, I understand it to be a listed building, it has been in different5 peoples hands over the years, and there was a couple of rooms built on in 1935, that was when Mr & Mrs Michael Whales lived there.
Mr & Mrs Hazlewood kept the shop and Post office along with their two daughters, the shop was open all the time from early in the morning till late at night and Sunday mornings, although his wife did not like the shop open on Sundays, Mrs Hazlewood was the church organist and a very good one she was, Mr Hazlewood was church treasurer. Their daughter Freda use to be organist at Spole church. Well to get back to Mr Hazelwood he was a good man to have in a Post office, he liked to know every ones business, but he never ever spoke about it, you could trust him. But this I must tell you, Mr Hazelwood was not the essence of cleanliness in the shop, I would go there for my father’s tobacco, which was hard twist and had to be cut off the roll with a knife. Well Mr Hazlewood used the same knife for cutting the butter and cheese, also the lard and if you went in the shop for butter, lard or cheese you would get a bit of tobacco as well, and the same went for the tobacco, father use to be cross, and Mr Hazelwood would wipe the knife across the seat of his trousers, goodness knows what else he used his knife for. However he got by, Mrs Hazelwood use to help in the shop sometimes and I have seen her halve a tomato to get the weight right she would not give you a tiny scrap over, a very mean woman, but still she was a very likeable woman.
On Saturdays mother gave me a half penny to buy sweets, well i9 always use to buy dolly mixtures because I thought we got more, and when I was a child one could buy one ounce of dolly mixtures for a half penny, these were small hard sweets about the size of a pea. Mother use to share them between the four of us my sister Annie, myself, my brother Tom, and my sister Mary, alas Mary died when she was young. I also had a brother George, he was knocked down by the mail van when he was 2 ½ yrs old, a very sad affair, I went to his funeral, I can remember it very well as I was only eight years old at the time, the hymn we sung at the funeral was “there’s a friend for little children”. Funny how things like that stick in ones mind.
When I was just a youngster along with my brother Tom and a few more children of the same age group, we would go fishing for Sticklebacks, we knew all the ponds that had the most in, we would have a long piece of cotton or wool, and tie a worm on the end and dangle it in the pond. We would also have with us a jam jar and this we would fill with pond water and put our fish in that we had caught, I use to take mine home and put in a water tank, and of course they would die and make the water stagnant, mother would be cross about that.
I started off writing about the village but always get sidetracked, but I really must mention this little episode, you have heard me say early in my little bits of nostalgia that Mr Copeman was not a favourite with us children. We always awe of him. His nickname was the “Walrus” as his moustache was so big and it stood out. It was naughty of us to call him names as I think he was a good man really. Many years later when I was looking after my old school governess, she told me she had been very much in love with him during the early years of teaching at Little Dunham, Mr Copeman was a wealthy man, and owned several farms round the Diss area.
Now I’ve been side tracked again, I get carried away I’m afraid. What I started off to say was that five of us children, we were all about twelve years old, I won’t mention the others names, but I was one of them, it had been snowing quite a bit, and there was a layer of about six to eight inches It was during the evening, we had been snow balling as children do, well we got our heads together, we also knew that Mr Copeman would be coming off the 7-50pm train from Norwich, as his man Mr Bob Clarke had gone up to the station to meet him, Mr Bob Clarke was Mr Copeman’s gardener and handy man, and he always had to meet his boss off the train and carry his brief case. We did a naughty deed, with a length of string we tied one end to the bushes one side of the road and then the other end to the bushes the other side, about six inches from the ground, then we waited, we hid up behind the fence, we heard them coming along and of course both caught their feet in the string, and they hit the ground, Mr Copeman lost his walking stick, and of course they had to scrap about in the snow to find the brief case. The next day he came into school looking as mad as a hatter, but we never said a word nor did we give each other away, and so Mr Copeman never did know who did it, in the end he thought it might have been boys from the next village, so it died down, but we often had a little laugh about it between ourselves, to think we out witted him, well it made our day. It was very naughty all the same but we didn’t even tell our parents. Another naughty deed my friends did, I really must tell you about it. You know I have mentioned Miss Flo Newman who kept Crown public house with her elderly Parents. Well Miss Newman had two Donkeys, one of them she called Johny. My friends were walking one Sunday afternoon on some land belonging to the railway, and they saw Johny tethered out to graze, they took Johny and shut him up in one of the toilets on the railway station, but they had to get his front feet up onto the toilet seat to get him in so that they could shut the door, well as soon as the door was shut Johny put his feet on the floor and his back end was jammed up against the door so no way could they open the door again. Later when Flo went to get Johny in, she couldn’t find him. She was calling Johny, oh Johny where are you, oh poor Johny, then of course she heard him “Hee-Haw Hee-Haw” poor Flo was in a state, and of course we were all hiding up. At the finish Flo had to get someone to come and take the door off the hinges so poor Johny could get out, Flo reported the matter to the police and also a railway inspector. They all thought it a great joke behind Flo’s back. The five of us all kept quiet. Our parents heard about it, but never associated it with us. Looking back I now see it as a very naughty thing to do, we had a good laugh at the time, but we were not too bad as children really.
As children we made our own fun out of little or nothing, and also we would walk miles, several of us together, but sad to say now it is very dangerous for children to wander far from home.
We made our own fireworks, and they didn’t bang, this is how we made them, we would buy two penny worth of Carbide, “ I don’t think you can buy it now”, it was used in gas lamps for bicycles, if the carbide got wet it would give off a gas and smell strong. We would have a tin, mostly it was a coco tin and piece a hole in the bottom, put the carbide in and mostly spit on it put the lid on the tin, wait a second or two, and then strike a match near the hole in the tin, the lid would fly off &it would bang very loud, it made a bit of fun for us. Children of today are not half as happy as we were years ago. We made our own pleasures and enjoyment out of very little. It’s strange how different things stick in ones mind, when I was very young sitting in chapel or church and if I was behind ladies with hatpins in their hats, I thought the pins went right through their heads as well, and I thought to myself it must really hurt them, ladies all wore hats in those days if they entered a place of worship. I well remember the Sunday school tea parties we had in the village hall, it was usually just before Christmas. We looked forward to that weeks before hand. We all sat down on these long forms and trestle tables, the food consisted of jam sandwiches, meat paste sandwiches, red jelly, plain cake or fruit cake “it was bought cake”, I have never liked shop cake since, we had to eat all the sandwiches up before we were allowed a piece of cake, after tea we played games, such as postman’s knock, nuts in may, kissing in the ring, I’m afraid I have forgotten some. Before we came home we were presented with our Sunday school prizes, these were books of course, “happy days”.
I suppose who ever read this will find it a bit hop scotch as I get so carried away and dart about from one thing to another.
There use to be two cottages right opposite the school, they were quite nice dwellings with spacious rooms and very large gardens, one family who lived there was the name Bugdale, Chris Bugdale use to teach at the Sunday school, Mr Bugdale worked on the railway. They moved to Swaffham. The other family was Cook, the cottages have long since gone. I can remember electricity being brought in to the village, one could have two lights and one plug put in free, any others would be charge for, the year was 1929. As children we saw the men putting those great poles together with steel rods and girders and of course we were asking the men questions all the time, as I was great excitement having electric light in our homes especially after oil lamps.
As children we would collect conkers in the autumn, and thread them on a piece of string. If I hadn’t got a piece of string I would take the laces out of my fathers best boots, “I did get smack across the bottom for that, well it was naughty”, those laces went missing at different times, my brother took them some times.
We also collected acorns to use in our pop gun, the pop gun was made out of a thick piece of elder, the pith in the middle was burnt out, and then we had a handle to push threw, mine use to crack off like blazes, in fact I have still got it. “All good fun, it would be too tame for the children today, they don’t know what they are missing”. The popgun was a cheap enough toy easy to make, and give a lot of pleasure. But to get back to the village it has been spoilt with the great houses that have been built along Barrow Holes Lane, and also where we use to live, and again down the school lane. When I was a child Little Dunham was a nice quiet little place, so unspoilt, now some of the dwellings that have been built are ugly, and not in keeping with the village at all. The village hall that was opposite the post office stores was closed in spring 1994, “shame”.
The village hall has been moved up to Necton road and a bungalow built in its place. The village hall was really two army huts and was given to the soldiers who came home from the 1914-1918 war. It was a good building, and was used for numerous functions. The village men folks formed a club, and used it for billiard, snooker, darts and whist drives. “No one seem to take any interest in those things any more, I suppose it’s because of TV”.
So get back to the old bakery Mr Register use to make the bread for Mr Bayfield who owned the bakery. I’ve stood and watched Mr Register knead the bread in a great wooden bin, he did it all by hand, well I say hand, he was in the dough past his elbows, the perspiration would be dropping off Mr Register into the Dough, sometimes one would come across a half sucked peppermint sweet in the bread. “That sort of thing would not be allowed today”. Mr Bayfield delivered the bread using a horse and cart, those days are long since gone. One could buy a loaf of bread there at the bakery straight out of the oven, the smell of the newly baked bread was delicious and was really lovely when hot with butter and cheese. We’ve had that for lunch many times when I was a child. Sad to say the bakery has long since gone.
I wasn’t a bad scholar at school, my head teacher wanted me to take the “eleven plus” as it was called in my school days, but my mother said if I passed, no way could she afford to send me to grammar school, and as there were four children in the family, it wasn’t fair to do it for one and not the others, and she certainly couldn’t afford to send four of us to grammar school, so we had to forget about it, how ever I haven’t done too badly, I’ve worked hard and earned an honest living, and I’ve always enjoyed what I have done.
I well remember my mother teaching my sister Annie and my self to knit, for needles we had wood meat skewers and a ball of string to knit with, the wood meat skewers were scrubbed well and then smoothed down with emery paper. Mother said when you can knit properly you can have some proper needles and wool, well I might add it didn’t take us long to knit and then we were bought a ball of rainbow wool each from the village shop and were happy with that. I became quite a good knitter and when I was about ten or eleven, the schoolteacher gave me quite a lot of knitting to do for her. Also I was good at knitting socks on four needles, alas very few people make socks these days, I always loved making socks.
Have I mentioned there was a hedge each side of the lodge drive, when I was young? We use to walk along side it gathering blackberries during September, it was pulled out about the end of 1928, the Copeman family would drive in to the village in their horse drawn carriage, I can’t quite remember that, but my mother would tell us, although I can remember Mr Alfred Copeman very well, he moved into Dunham Cottage in 1919 (now called The Paddocks). There are two large dwellings in front of the Paddocks. I think they have spoilt the centre of the village. “ Why is it if there is a tiny piece of land anywhere, it has to be built on”. I do hope that the powers that be leave Little Dunham alone now and NO MORE BUILDINGS PLEASE, it’s quite a quite little place. There are some nice walks in Dunham, as children we walked miles through these old lanes, Public footpaths they are called. Gravel walk was a favourite with us children, that was usually where we found our first birds nest of the season, Wood Lane was another, to walk along Wood Lane on a sunny day especially, was like walking under an avenue of trees, alas the trees have all gone. The folks who bought the land of Mr John Pickering cut them down. Why! I ask myself the trees were beautiful, Oak, Elm, Chestnut and Beech, as children we spent hours under those trees during the summer holidays, they gave us a bit of shade, and we use to collect the acorns and conkers, the Beech nuts we would collect and thread them together and make a necklace, it gave us hours of fun and pleasure.
Now lets see, have I said anything about canister farmhouse, as I remember it years ago, in the days of Mr Makins. It’s a most beautiful house and I think I am correct in saying it is a listed building. I have been I some of the rooms in the days when the Carter family lived there, lovely large spacious rooms, the kitchen had a huge cooking range. It was at one time made into two homes, that was when Mr Mason owned it, but now it is back to normal, like it should be. There was a nice cottage in the garden where a couple lived, Mr & Mrs Gazely the man was gardener and his wife worked in the house, the gardens were always beautiful, there was well I think it is still there a moat that flowed along side the house and garden, and during the spring and summer the banks of the moat were full of lovely flowers, primroses, violets, cowslips, blue bells and many others. Also there was a meadow with a great number of walnut trees in, the Carter boys use to bring the walnuts to school and sell them.
The children in the village who attended the Methodist Sunday school had a sports day in the summer usually during the summer holidays. The sports were held on Jim Clarke’s meadow. We had a great time, there were not any prizes for running but to finish the evening we were given jam sandwiches and lemon drink, and then our Sunday school prizes in the shape of books, Jim Clarke gave them out, he was standing in a farm wagon. It was all very good fun and we all enjoyed it very much, there was a big Sunday school in those days 30 or more.