I was born in one of the bungalows at the entrance to Grange Farm, Wendling in 1934 next door to Reggie Parker. My dad and his dad were both team men down at the Grange. I remember the horses coming out of their stables to drink from a pond near the stable doors. Quite a bit has been altered down there now. When the butcher from Dereham came to deliver our meat he use to just stop on the grass at the front of where we use to live, jump out of his cart and deliver his meat, he never would tie the horse up but the horse would stand there as good as gold. Some times I would go for a ride on the butchers cart down to the Mitchell’s at Holly farm and back. There use to be a gate to the Grange out side where we use to live, well when the hunt came through we would shut the gate, then when the people on horses come we would run and open it and they would throw you a Throop penny piece on the ground. Then we would shut it up again until the next one come through.
I use to walk from there down to Wendling School past the council houses in Grange Road, then left down to the railway bridge, there we would stop and look at the old steam trains coming along. The road use to go sharp round then rather than go where it does now, you would then go along beside the goods yard and Grays corn yard, then past Mrs Eagle’s bungalow. “She was our school teacher and she would teach us at the chapel as well”. Then turn left opposite Mrs Smiths shop and then into Carr Lane to the school. The school had two cloak rooms at each end, one for small children and the girls and one the other end for the older boys. The toilets were down at the back of the playground. Some of the names I can remember from my school day are: Reggie Parker, Margaret Meen, John Gilbert, Wally Meen, Mike Meen my sister Irene Pooley, Georgie Butcher and Toney Holiday. I went there until I was eleven or twelve then I went to Dereham. Miss Rowel also teached at Wendling School, she lived down at Abbey farm with her two brothers, one was called George but I can’t remember the other ones name, but he was killed when an aeroplane crashed in to him while he was working on the farm.
There use to be an old boy who use to walk along the main road through Wendling who we use to call one arm Jack, he lived at Dereham some where near Wash Bridge. When we were kids and went to school he would come along in cap and big coat, he would have this great big stick. The kids would all be frightened of him and say look out here’s one armed Jack coming down the road and they said he had got nails in his stick though I never did see them, but he never did speak.
We use to stand on the bridge at the station and watch all the activity in the station yard, there was quite a bit of activity in the yard with the corn, sugar beet and stuff coming down. They use to shunt the carriages in the yard and then line them up along the track, there could be fifty or sixty carriages all lined up with beet on and all sorts of stuff.
My father use to come past the station, when travelling from grange farm with a horse and tumble loaded with six bags of corn on, which were to be ground at the mill in Hulver Street. In them days it was a mornings work to do that.
When we moved from the Grange we moved to Honey Pot Cottages. “This was just as they started building Wendling airfield”. When we moved there they came and counted how many rooms we had, cause if you had got any empty rooms you had to take in evacuees. We didn’t have evacuees but we had two lodgers that worked here building the airfield, this meant that our rooms were filled. My father was in the home guard along with Billy Butcher, Ernie Parker, Mr Garlick and possibly Mr Brown, Emily’s Dad. I can’t remember who else. When I was living there I remember seeing what was probably the first aircraft to land at Wendling, I use to watch out for the aircraft to circle to come in and then run up the road to see if I could see them land. I once saw some gliders drop off here and believe it or not I ran up there and I think they were English not American aircraft, I think these aircraft were Halifaxs pulling these gliders. When I got there they were all dropped and the next day they had all gone.
I use to stand on the road at the edge of the bomb dump and watch the men moving the great bombs around on trolleys. One day I stood there talking to one of the guards, he offered me some gum then a military policeman came along the track on his motorbike, this guard shouted halt or I’ll shoot, well the policeman didn’t stop, so the guard raised his gun and shouted again, but the policeman still didn’t stop, the guard must have fired three or four shots before the policeman stopped. “It has all grown up there now”
I then moved up to the cottages on Hall Green Longham next door to Ken and Margery Watts. My father worked for the Roberson’s at Holley Farm, Longham then. The Webster’s lived in the house near us. There was several of them about my age and we use to go round in a little gang, running up to the base to get gum and sweets. Near the road at Hall Green there use to be Nissan huts where they use to bring the guns out of the aircraft to be cleaned and a place for an aircraft to stand. Well we would often nip across and get into one of those Nissan huts as kids and see if we could get more gum and sweets. Then the MP’s would come round, I always remember once coming round there and they said here he comes on his motorbike in his white hat. We was caught in there so we ran in the toilets and got in the toilets and heard he say do you see any kids here, of cause the Yank’s said no-no, no kids here. When he was gone we went out again, he never did catch us. An aircraft called Alfred use to stand near where we use to go. The aircraft use to taxi round near where I lived and line up for the runway, the noise from that lot, you would suddenly hear them start up and take off very quick so they didn’t use to much fuel. Sometimes they would take off from the other way, when they did that we would go further up the road to where you turn off to Longham village and watch them take off. Then they put some black stuff in there instead because one night a German came and set light to them, he came down the main runway, my father was just going out on his bike with his gas lamp on the front. He came back round from over Beeston and opened up again. I think someone got killed along the Litcham Longham road that night, someone did say he opened up and got somebody there. That was a big night, we was told to get in doors out of the way, I think the Americans didn’t get it but somebody did on its way back.
My mother and father had to have identity passes to go along the Wendling to Longham road then. At this time I was still going to Wendling School but I had a bike then. When you watched the aircraft come home you could see flairs come out red, green and all colours saying what they had got on board and we would watch to see our favourite Alfred land and then taxi back round to his spot. Sometimes when they were taking off they would only just skim away and other wouldn’t make it and they would end up in the middle of the field on the other side of the road, they would stand there weeks and weeks. When I stood there watching them take off I could see the side gunners quite clearly with their side hatches open, some of them we would know and they would wave to us as they took off and then we would look out for them when they came back. At this time we would have barn dances at the farm at Longham hall. The war was still on because we would hear the Doodle Bugs come over when we were having the dances, we would stop and the music would stop. I think it was Keith Caters band then and his mother use to play the piano accordion and Keith would play the drums. We would go there in our robber boots and change into our shoes when we got there. The big prise there was guess the wait of the cake cause everybody was hungry as everything was rationed then you see, that was the start of getting funds to get a village hall.
When the war was nearly over we moved to Bittering, which is where I started work for Napier’s at Bittering hall when I lived in the dairy farm. Then when Napier’s packed up I worked for the Andrews. I use to plough all the fields around there and harvest them, sometimes we use to do it with the old binders, setting the corn up and stacking. My father was a stacker and a thatcher, thatching all the sacks to keep all the water out. We use to go to Bittering church at least once a month and to Bittering hall for conformation lessons with Reverend Paulson. We lived there for at least thirty years. We had the out buildings where we lived, which we use to keep pigs and chickens in. I also had a pony when I was down there but I didn’t get on with it cause I was always falling off. The buildings we use to have have now been converted into accommodation. When the Napier’s had the land we would cut all the fields with binders and have thrashing tackle come in “harvest was a big job then”. I also use to take a horse down stony road to Bunning’s at Gressenhall on a Saturday morning to be shod. When I left Bittering I worked at Spring Farm Longham, to start with it was a mixture of arable and cattle but later on it went over to mainly pigs.
