I came to Ludham with my family in 1926 at the age of 3, from South Wales where my father was a miner. Due to the miner's strike in 1926 my mother and father decided to come to Norfolk to look for work. My mother's family lived in Catfield and Mum and Dad met during the first world war when Dad was stationed at Mundesley. There were thirteen children in my mothers family and one of  her older brothers lived in Ludham at Church View. He had offered us accommodation in a cottage at the back of his house and possibly a job for Dad with his building firm, Dale, Riches and Clarke. Mr. Dale was the building man, Uncle Fred (Mr. Riches) was the Carpenter, and Mr. Clarke was the painter and decorator.

 I cannot remember anything about the journey except that we arrived in the dark at Wroxham station and were met by another uncle who had a bakery and tearooms near Wroxham Bridge. We were bundled into a small van with our few belongings and taken to Ludham. There was a big yard shared by the neighbours and a very big garden to play in. It must have been early in the year as on Valentine's  Jack Valentine came after dark and left small presents on the doorstep. These were attached to a long piece of string and when you went to pick them up they were pulled away. This went on until you were quick enough to snatch them. Another trick was to tie door handles together, knock on both doors and hide around the corner to watch the tug of war. My Uncle was great fun.

We later moved to a semi-detached cottage on the Norwich Road next to a big white house, which stood back ftom the road and was sheltered by a high laurel hedge. I think it was called Eversley House and a very posh lady lived there. A blind lady, Mrs. Knights, lived next door and I used to run errands for her and read to her when I was older.
We had an outside bucket toilet which was emptied into a big hole in the garden. There was a ditch running alongside the garden and under a low bridge over the Norwich Road to the marshes beyond. It was fed by water from a spring on School Road and another spring near the little bridge. My brother and I often fell in when we were getting frog spawn, catching tiddlers or gathering watercress. We gathered mushrooms in the early morning from the fields next door.
My mother cooked on a big black cooking range which had to be blackleaded at least once a week and the fender was polished with 'spit' and newspaper. The big black kettle was always on the hob ready to make tea when anybody called. There was also an oven in the wall which had a large black door and three brass knobs, and a small fire was lit underneath especially for the baking of bread. In the summer a double Valor oil stove was brought in for cooking. It gave off fumes which discoloured the ceiling. My mother made wine from parsnips, nettles, dandelions, damsons, and elderberries in a big brown pot which stood on the pantry floor for weeks with toast and yeast floating on the top. It was bottled and corked and left on the pantry floor for Christmas and special occasions. Sometimes the corks would blow off and the wine was everywhere. Mother also used to preserve eggs using isinglass in a large crockery pot in the pantry. They kept for months and came out covered with a thick white coating. She also preserved beans in kilner jars with layers of salt, which was washed off before cooking.
When I was seven my father had an accident at work. He fell off a roof and fractured his pelvis and was taken to St. Thomas' Hospital in London. This was a terrible time for my mother and I know she worked hard scrubbing, cleaning and cooking for the lady in the big house and other people to put food on the table for my brother and myself: She went to London once or twice to see Dad in hospital and I think Mr .Dale paid the fare but there was no help from the State in those days. Dad was away for quite a long time and when he came home he was unable to do heavy labouring. When I came home from school I helped with the household chores and learned to cook and at week-ends was left to see to the meals etc. while my mother went out to work.

At this time bread was delivered by horse and cart from a bakery in Homing. Fish was obtained from Mr .Slaughter who lived in the end cottage opposite the Church Room. He had a horse and cart and sold fish around the villages. (Incidentally his eldest daughter has just celebrated her 100th birthdayand lives in Yarmouth) Milk was also delivered by horse and cart in large churns and ladled out into jugs. Mr .England was the main butcher in the High Street. Mr. Albert Thrower had a grocers shop next door, ( he was known as 'Pop' Thrower as he had an old Ford Van which made a popping noise when it started oft). Mr .Fred Thrower had a coal business and was also a pork butcher on the Norwich Rd. near the Vicarage drive. He killed the pigs in a large shed in his yard, by slitting their throats and then scraping off the hairs in their backs with boiling water and metal scrapers. I can remember hearing the pigs squealing and one day went to see what was happening -it was horrible. His wife made very good pork brawn.

Mr .and Mrs. Powell ran another grocer's shop in the High Street opposite Stock's Hill and a Mrs. Clarke had a small sweet shop opposite the Manor gates on Hall Common Road. I cannot remember who kept the Post Office at that time but George Thrower, Fred's eldest son took it over and Mr .Harry Grapes opened a Fish and Chip Shop in one of the cottages opposite. Mr .George Knights had the Saddlers shop (now the Tea Rooms ) assisted by his son Albert. Mr .and Mrs. Herbert Cooke had a sweet shop and general stores at the other end of the High Street on the corner of Catfield Road. Mr. and Mrs. Turner (Beulah's Mum and Dad) ran the King's Arms and Mr. and Mrs. Warren ran the Bakers Arms on the opposite comer .(now the village green).
My brother and I were given l/2d pocket money most Saturdays after we had cleaned the knives and forks, and took ages to choose our sweets at either Mrs. Clarke's or Mrs. Cooke's shop -bulls eyes which changed colour when you sucked them, aniseed balls, licquorice torpedoes (girls liked the red ones to use as lipstick), sherbet dabs, strops of licquorice, coconut icing etc. We played with hoops, tops, skipping ropes and hopscotch on the road Each had a season of the year, but why or how I do not know, it all just happened.

On Good Friday hot cross buns would be delivered by the baker and when the Fair came to the field on Green' s corner a few weeks later there would be 'fair buttons' -large ginger and white vanilla biscuits. At Easter we went from house to house collecting eggs which the school sent to the local hospitals. Everything had a season or time of year, even the fruit and vegetables. There was no pre-packed food. Meat was cut off the carcase as required, cheese was cut from a large slab with a wire on a wooden board, sugar was weighed out from a drawer behind the counter and put into a blue paper bag, biscuits were sold loose and the broken ones were sold at a few pence. There were big bars of Sunlight soap for scrubbing floors etc. and Lifebouy soap for washing.

On Good Friday we would gather primroses from the lanes and hedgerows to decorate the ends of the pews for Easter Day. We went to Sunday School at 10 am. Followed by Church Service at 11 am., Sunday School again at 2.30 pm. and Church again at 6.30 pm. we were not allowed to knit or play games on Sundays. When we were about 8 years old we joined the Girls Friendly Society and later the Young Peoples Union which was a religious Youth Club for boys and girls.

The doctor was Dr Brown, a son of the Rector of Catfield. He had a surgery down Hall Common Road, no waiting room so if you were ill you stood out in all weathers until he was ready to see you. He had a dispensary at the back and his remedy was usually a large bottle of dark brown liquid given to you with the comment "take this and keep warm". He had a brother and two sisters, Arthur, Alice and Fanny, all unmarried who lived at Windyridge on the Norwich Rd. Fanny was a permanent invalid and was pushed around the village in a wicker chair with a high back and a long handle to steer the front wheel. When I was about 8 or 9 years old I was excused evening service on a Sunday if I went to Windyridge to read the Bible to Fanny while Arthur and Alice went to church. They are all buried in the Churchyard near the Church room.

My father and mother worked all their life in the Church. Dad was the Verger. He rang the bells, wound the clock, sang in the choir, dug the graves, showed visitors around and knew almost all there was to know about the church. Mum helped keep the church clean, cleaned the brasses, washed the surplices and jabots, was also in the choir, as was my brother -I didn't have the voice! ! Dad was also Clerk to the Parish Council for many years. He was also Secretary of the St. Benet's Lodge of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows, which was a friendly society for men and helped members when they were sick or in distress. They paid a small amount when they met at the King's Arms each month. Members cycled from Potter Heigham, Catfield and Horning. They seemed to have a jolly evening as Beulah and I would go up to the Lodge room. knock on the door, and get the orders for her father to take up. They later held their meetings in the Church Room. Being the Secretary, Dad collected their contributions, collected their sick certificates, paid out their sickness benefit and paid the doctor, so there was always somebody at the door, which was never locked, night or day. The introduction of the Health Service in 1948 took over the work of the Friendly Societies and only a few are struggling to survive today, such as the Oddfellows and the Foresters. There were at the time about 100 Lodges in the Norwich District and now there are only 5. Dad always grew thyme in the garden and a sprig was thrown on the coffin when a member of the Lodge died, to represent time past and time to come.

I started school in September 1927. There were 4 class rooms catering for children from the age of 4 1/2 to 14 years old. Infant teacher Miss Cushion. who later became Mrs. Mattocks, Mrs. Richardson had the next age group, then Mrs. Kitchener, and the headmaster Mr. Kitchener took the older children. Each teacher taught all subjects, concentrating on reading, writing and arithmetic. The girls did a small amount of knitting and needlework in Mrs. Kitchener's class, while the boys played football and we occasionally played Rounders. Once a year a peripatetic cookery teacher came with all her equipment set up in the Chapel school room and a few girls in the older group were chosen to have 2 weeks of cookery lessons. I can still hear her saying in a strong Scottish accent "steaming is cooking by the vapour produced from a boiling liquid". All the teachers were strict disciplinarians and we were punished for any wrongdoing or inattention. I had my knuckles rapped many times with the edge of a ruler for giggling in Mrs. Richardson's class. I vividly remember seeing 2 boys caned before the whole school for smoking in the bushes over the school wall. The school was heated by open coal fires. Toilets were outside across the school yard, three for boys and three for girls, separated by a brick wall. Underneath was all open and was very smelly. Every so often it was cleaned out via a trap door in the back of the building- where nettles grew profusely. One day after it had been cleaned out one of the boys crept into the trap door with a nettle under the girls toilets and unfortunately stung one of the teachers on the bottom, thinking it was me of the bigger girls! ! Every year Mr and Mrs. Boardman sent two horses and carts to take us to How Hill for a sports afternoon, including egg and spoon, 3- legged and sack races. At the end of the afternoon we lined up in front of the terrace for the presentation of prizes to the winners and the distribution of bags of sweets and oranges to the rest of us. We also had a week's holiday at Whitsun to go fruit picking at How Hill, mainly blackcurrants and raspberries so that we could earn a few pennies.

Every year certain 10/11 year olds were selected to take a County scholarship examination. The County awarded scholarships and paid all expenses for one or two children to go to a private fee-paying High School. I took the exam at 10 years old and just failed, but was chosen again the next year and was successful. The exam was in two parts -a written test paper at your own school and an oral exam at the High School. I was the only one to go from Ludham that year and went to North Walsham High School for Girls from 1934 -1939 when war broke out. The days were long, cycling to Potter Heigham Station to catch the 8.20 a.m. train, returning back at Potter Heigham at 5.20 p.m. cycling home, tea and then homework for 3 subjects every night. Norfolk County Council paid my parents £3 a year cycle allowance, £10 a year uniform allowance (very strict uniform -navy and emerald green) and the British Legion paid for my school dinners. My parents had a very hard struggle to pay for any extras and to keep me there until I was 16. My brother left school at 14 and went to a firm at Catfield to learn carpentry. He was always jealous of the opportunity I had. I became estranged from most of my village friends as I had little spare time, and with living so far from the High School with no transport, I was unable to take part in out of school activities and Saturday sports -my season ticket on the railway could not be used on Saturdays.

By the time I was 8 or 9 we had moved to a three bedroomed semi-detached cottage opposite the school so that my brother and I could have separate bedrooms. Still bucket toilets, no electricity and no water except from a pump at the front door shared with the next door neighbour .I singed my hair many times doing homework by the light of an Aladdin oil lamp. There were tubs of rain water at the side of the house, used for hair washing and bathing. Friday night was bath night when a large zinc bath was brought into the kitchen and filled with hot water from large saucepans heated on the cooking range. Everyday ablutions were carried out in the bedroom with a jug of hot water brought upstairs and cold water in a large jug in the washbasin on a wash hand stand with a marble top. Friday night was also the night for senna tea or syrup of figs, and viral or cod liver oil and malt. I hated it, so my nose was held while the medicine was shovelled down my throat. I was in trouble if I gagged and brought it back! !

Monday was wash-day. Dad would be up at 5 o'clock to fill the copper in the outhouse and light the fire underneath to boil the whites, which were then washed and rinsed in the big bath tub, put through the wringer -a heavy iron structure with wooden rollers -and then hung on the line to dry. Extra dirty clothes were scrubbed on a wash board in the bath. Reckitts blue was used in the rinsing water for the whites. Dad's white collars were dipped in starch and rolled in a towel until almost dry ready for ironing. There were usually two heavy irons heating on the range so that there was always a hot one to complete the job when the ironing took place on Tuesday. On Monday we always had cold meat and bubble and squeak left over from the Sunday roast as washing took nearly all day, and on Tuesday we had shepherd's or cottage pie to use up the left over meat, when the ironing was done. Friday was always the day for baking, when Mum made enough cakes and pies to last the week, buns and shortcakes by the dozen, and occasional sponge, apple and rhubarb tarts etc. We had a pantry with some stone shelves and stone floor to everything was kept cool. There was also a small window- no glass -but covered with a perforated zinc sheet to let the air in, and outside was a wooden shutter to close up in cold or windy weather. I cannot remember when electricity was installed, but water was not laid on until after 1955, probably about 1957 as I had left home by then. I cannot remember when the night cart or honey-cart was introduced to empty the toilet buckets -they called either late at night or early morning once a week and we knew when they had been ! !

I never remember being bored. Up to the time when I went to High School we rarely left the village -perhaps went to Yarmouth on August Bank Holiday Monday as a special treat, but I hated the crowds, so being small Dad carried me on his shoulders. Sunday School Treats varied -sometimes to Caister by coach for a shrimp tea and later by train to Cromer or Mundesley. I spent many hours with my uncle in his carpenters shop with a piece of wood, some nails and a hammer, Uncle Fred had ready made coffins in the basement under his workshop which fascinated me,or in the blacksmiths shop next door watching Mr. Anderson shoe the horses or working the bellows to blow up the furnace, also watching Mr .Knights in his saddler's shop making harness, collars and saddles for the local farms, or sometimes at Mattocks' farm taking the "elevenses" out to the fields or putting the swedes through the mangle machine for cattle feed. Summers always seemed to be hot and sunny. August was spent in the harvest field riding the horses or chasing rabbits with a big stick as they ran out from the corn when the combine harvester approached. Farm workers were paid 30 shillings a week and lived mainly in tied cottages, so when they received the extra money after extra hours harvesting they went to Norwich or Yarmouth to buy their new clothes for the winter.

Winters were very hard. We often had snow 3 or 4 feet deep which drifted off the fields, blocking the roads. Nearly all the farmers had a snow plough in their barn and came out to help clear the snow. Womack froze over and it was frequently cold enough for the river to freeze and for those with skates and enough energy they were able to skate to Potter Heigham and Thurne Mouth. I often woke up to scrape frost off the window and break the ice on the washing water in the jug in the bedroom. We had beef suet puddings, spotted dick, jam roly poly to keep us warm so we did not get cold or obese as most children walked 1 to 2 miles to school what ever the weather. Chicken was rarely eaten during the year it was usually kept for Christmas, but beef, pork and mutton must have been relatively cheap as we had these regularly. Cars were few and far between but there was a regular bus service between Norwich and Yarmouth, every hour in the summer and every 2 hours in the winter. We walked or cycled everywhere and thought nothing of cycling to the villages around when we were a bit older with no fears whatsoever .

The village policeman, Mr. Sissons, was a great force in the village. He lived in one of the tall houses in the Street near England's Butchers Shop. He was greatly respected and we dare not be caught scrumping apples or doing anything naughty as the greatest punishment was for him to tell our parents what we had been doing and the punishment was meted out at home. Together with the Headmaster , the Vicar and the Doctor , these were the most highly respected people in the village and had a great influence on village life. There was another Mr .England (nickname Loney- short for Lionel) who lived in a bungalow next door to a wooden house where his son Albert lived. They were wheelwrights and looked after the windmills in the area. I think the garage now stands on the site. Mr. Brooks had a garage next to the King's Arms and a showroom on the Catfield Road almost opposite the Chapel.

New comers were looked upon with suspicion and it took years before they were accepted. My father was only accepted because he was Fred Riches' brother-in-law and my mother was, of course, local, having been born at Catfield.

As I have been writing this, all sorts of memories have come flooding back, including the Walls and Eldorado ice cream carts on a Sunday afternoon in the summer -one had the slogan "Stop me and Buy one" but I cannot remember which one it was. My friends Rita Newton, (I see her occasionally in Yarmouth), Brenda and Eileen Cullum. Audrey Temple, Olive Watson, Gladys Grimmer, Gladys Gibbs, Dreda Thompson, Helen Sheldrake (died at the age of 36). Although I have been a widow since 1955 and my mother died at the age of 58 in 1954, I am grateful for the life I have had, for my daughter and grandchildren, for my many friends and the ups and downs that God has thrown at me, compared with some, although hard at times, I have had a good life and would not wish to be a young person today.

I was married at Ludham Church. My husband and mother are buried there. My only regret is that my father's ashes were not buried or scattered in the churchyard as he spent so much of his time there. He was cremated at St. Faith's Crematorium and his ashes left there by his second wife.

I hope some of this will help you to understand life in the village from 1926 up to 1939. The War period is another story but, no doubt there are plenty of people in the village who can remember those years.

Mrs. Helen Watson. nee Skillern