We continue with more memories from Bill Morton of growing up in Hethersett.
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH A SLOT MACHINE
One of my earliest memories was my first encounter with a slot machine. At the junction of the main road into the village and the London road, was a Public House called the Queens Head. Next to the Pub was a tobacconist sweet shop and one day a square box arrangement appeared fastened to the outside wall of the shop. Inquiries revealed that it was called a slot machine and that if you put a penny in the slot, a package of chewing gum would come out. Chewing gum was a fairly recent thing in the village and a slot machine was a mechanical marvel. The only problem was that very few of the boys had the necessary penny to make this contraption disgorge a package of chewing gum. One day one of the boys earned a penny and word went around that he was going to put his penny in the slot machine so we all went along to watch this encounter. He advanced upon the slot machine and with an assumed nonchalance inserted the penny into the slot, pulled the lever and lo and behold out came this small package marked Wrigley. Inside this package were four small peppermint objects which we all gathered around to admire. He made quite performance of chewing and we all watched him with envy.
Another wonder appeared in the village, a local man obtained a potato chip cart. This was a horse drawn cart with the capability of frying chipped potatoes. He would set up at a convenient spot in the village and French fry chipped potatoes which he then wrapped them in newspapers and sold a small bag for a few pennies.
The village would be visited about twice a week by ice cream vendors riding cycle contraptions with boxes on the front in which were stored ice-creams. They had loud bells which they rang to let us know they were in the village. There were two of these vendors on sold ice cream bars called Eldorado and the other was labelled Walls. Walls seems to have been a fairly large firm in the food business as I remember sausages made by them.
MY FIRST BICYCLE
Just before my fourteenth birthday and because I would need a bicycle to work in Norwich my mother advanced me the cash to buy a bicycle. I had to pay her back from my earnings .I was extremely proud of that bicycle. Again my mother’s basic law with everything bought for a boy was to allow for growing so I could hardly reach the pedals. However, she was right and wise to allow for growing. Carbide lamps were common for bicycles and I had carbide light for this machine. There was a lower chamber to the lamp which contained the carbide and a water chamber on top with a regulator to control the amount of water which went onto the carbide and gave off the gas. The lamp had to be lit by a match. The bicycle was basic with no variable speed, and just one brake plus a warning bell. This first bicycle was made by a firm call Hercules.
When I was about sixteen years of age I was able to buy second hand a Sunbeam racing bicycle and then join the local branch of The Cyclists Touring Club. This club organised excursions around East Anglia. By going on these trips I learned a lot about the local history as well as the geography and other interesting facts.
A bicycle was a wonderful machine for a young person, it permitted sufficient mobility to travel and explore villages and places of interest within reasonable distance. Excursions such as I was able to make prompted reading and research into the history of the places visited.
Just about everyone in the village owned a bicycle, it was an efficient and cheap means of transportation. Hethersett and the surrounding area were quite flat and a bicycle permitted easy access to just about everywhere.
Road racing on bicycles was not allowed in England so time trials had to be organised. There was also a restriction on the dress one wore for the time trials. One had to wear clothing covering the body from the neck to the feet. Early on a Sunday morning if one was on a main road around the area a person dressed in black tights would come speeding along on a stripped down bicycle trying to beat his last time to pedal twenty miles.
Norwich had a bicycle racing track and every year there would be competitive racing which would attract the big names from the continent where the sport was well organised I remember seeing men like Pete Van Vliet and Toni Merkens racing there.
The bicycle was used quite a bit as a delivery vehicle by many village businesses, such as butchers and grocers. The trade bicycle was sturdier built and had a smaller front wheel over which was a frame in which to carry a fair amount of goods. Getting an after school job riding these bicycles was greatly competed for. The boy had to be big enough to ride the bicycle and strong enough to pedal it.
An incident I witnessed when I was about eleven years of age involved a very dignified lady riding a bicycle through the village when a farmer was moving a herd of cows to a different field and had to move his cows through the village. The lady was an extremely dignified person and the bicycle she was riding was a popular ladies bicycle called a Videk, it was a tall machine with a guard on the chain drive because women were still wearing long skirts.
As she approached the farmer and his cows she rang her bicycle bell repeatedly as if expecting that the cows would heed her warning and move out of the way. Unfortunately for her the cows did not give her clear passage. As she got close to the cows one got a bit skittish and moved into her way causing her to half jump half fall off her bicycle. She finished up with her face pressed against the back end of a cow, not exactly the most hygienic or attractive end of the animal. On top of that her hat which was fastened on her head with a hat pin became dislodged which also loosened her hair which was fastened up in a bun. She became quite dishevelled and was most upset and angry accusing the farmer in an abrasive way of not giving way for people on bicycles. The farmer was equally angry, accusing the lady of upsetting his cows. This was a dispute which neither side was going to win. The lady retired to her home to repair her appearance, the farmer continued on his way with his cows.
There was great debate in the village over the merits of the different breads of cows. It seemed to me just about all herds were mixed, although the Dutch Friesland seemed to be popular. One smallholder bread goats and turned goats milk into cheese.
LOOKING FOR GHOSTS
I cannot remember at what age I became interested in ghost stories and there seemed to be a ghost story for almost every Norfolk village. Hethersett had a ghost story, a headless dog called old Chuck who ran around the village at night although I never found anyone who had ever seen him.
SPORTS AND GAMES
The village had a good football team (soccer) as well as a cricket team. The football team played on a field adjacent to the Rectory which field was also used by the National school team. The cricket team had its own pitch close to Hethersett Hall.
The two schools had football and cricket teams. There were area sports events and the two benevolent societies, the Odd Fellows and the Foresters, held their own sports days. For swimming we went to Barford and there was a boxing club in the town of Wymondham which some of us attended. Cycling was a good recreation and for a couple of years I was a member of the Cyclist Touring Club and attended their Sunday rides to various destinations in the County.
We played a game we called basketball with a ball about the size of a soccer ball which required two farm baskets (used for gathering fruit) at each end of our playground. We had to get the ball into the baskets and were only allowed to take a few steps when in possession of the ball.
The most popular sport among boys as I was growing up was soccer. Very few of us could afford a soccer ball, but anything we could kick such as a tennis ball or even an empty salmon tin would suffice. Often we resorted to kicking "road apples" left by horses but they disintegrated much too easily. One boy went to the local pork butcher and came back with a pig's bladder which turned out when blown up to be not much good for soccer but worked better for the form of basketball we played.
Organised sports for young people were not very well developed in the village. The school had a soccer team but the problem was getting soccer boots. Most boys could not afford to buy soccer boots and playing the game in the boots we wore to school was frowned on by the schoolteachers, not to mention the families who found it difficult to keep boys shod in any event.
There was another game we played called stick ball. It was played with a stick and a tennis ball. A device which was somewhat like a spoon was set in a block, the spoon was fastened in the block so that it could be tapped with the stick and the spoon would send the ball into the air and it could then be hit with the stick. The ball if hit would go a fair distance and the other players would try to catch it. We would play another similar game using a small piece of wood instead of a ball, the idea in this game was to hit the stick and send it as far as possible, the winner being the boy who could send the small piece of stick the furthest.
Quite often the Altar and Choir boys would be invited to a game croquet at the Rectory. One rector was very tall had very large feet and wore crepe soled shoes. He was adept at diverting his opponent’s attention while using his outsize feet to kick the croquet ball through the hoop.
I learned to swim in a widening of the River Yare at a place called Barford. There were no places in Hethersett where we could swim and Barford was only a bicycle ride away. The widening of the river was called Swans Harbour. The Yare where we swam was not very large and the fact that it broadened to form Swans Harbour made it possible for us to swim there. The bottom of the river was muddy. The banks of the river were grass and there were some convenient bushes behind which we could change. We could only swim in the summer. Later a swimming pool opened at Wymondham and when we had carpentry classes there we were given passes which permitted us to swim in the pool there.
Hethersett was not a place one would associate with fishing. The Village contained no rivers and no large bodies of water in which edible fish could live, nevertheless we boys found ponds and streams which provided habitat for minnows. To catch minnows we needed either a fine net or a fishing rod with a small hook. A net was hard to come by, but it was easier to make a homemade fishing rod from a bamboo garden stake a fine line and a bent pin.
WALKING
One of my fondest memories of Hethersett was the number of footpaths and pleasant walking opportunities the village offered. There were many footpaths, which afforded good walking without being bothered by wheeled traffic. Sunday afternoon was a favourite time to walk and as we grew up the thing to do was obtain a ground ash walking stick. One of my favourite walks was from Ketteringham Lane, along a footpath to Station Lane then pick up another footpath which crossed the Mulbeggar and the churchyard.
There was another pleasant walk, which started near the Prince of Wales public house and crossed the London Road to a footpath, which ran from Ketteringham Lane to Station Lane. This path was called Kissing Alley. All the roads in Hethersett were walk able in my early days and lots of people walked. It was just good exercise and one would meet all sorts of people and stop for a chat.
Narrow lanes around Hethersett were often called “lokes” and were ideal for walking .The house in which I was born was on a loke.
Walking in Hethersett on a Sunday afternoon in summer was the equivalent of the Spanish paseo. The young men and young ladies would walk in twos and would find excuses to stop and chat. In the Spanish Paseo the site was usually the town square. The young ladies would form a circle and walk in one direction the young males would form a circle and walk around in the opposite direction. This was how young people got to see each other and found out who they were; formal introductions would then be arranged.
Sunday afternoon walking played the same purpose in the country village a lot less formally but it often worked to the same end. Walking and stopping to chat was a sort of paseo and many closer relationships came about. As we emerged from childhood into our young adulthood it was the age of Brylcream. We slicked our hair back, wore grey flannel pants and roll neck sweaters, and carrying a ground ash stick, we must have looked like members of the Gravel Road Grenadiers , the Hedgerow Hussars or the Ditch water Dragoons. But walk we did and every opportunity were taken to stop and talk. It was not yet the time of instant news and much information was passed from individual to individual.
TALES WE TOLD AND PRANKS WE PLAYED
A lady on horseback was riding through Hethersett when she came to a cross road. Standing at the cross road was a local fellow, She said to him pointing to the left fork “is that the way to :Little Melton?” to which he replied “ I don't know' So she pointed to the right fork and asked “ Is that the way to Little Melton?” Again he said “I don't know” She said “you are a Fool” To which he replied “I may be but I arn't lost?
I was told this story and do not know if the incident happened in Hethersett. A man owned a horse of which he was very proud. He was visited by a friend who was an amateur ventriloquist. The two friends were admiring the horse in the company of the stableman who was responsible for the care of the horse. The owner patted the horse and said and said “You are good lad and look in good condition so I suppose they are feeding you well”. The ventriloquist threw his voice so that it sounded as if the horse was speaking and said “they are not feeding me well at all they did not feed me this morning” The stableman got very upset and said “that horse is a liar I fed him this morning” The ventriloquist through the horse said “that’s what he says on top of that he has been cutting down on the oats I am supposed to get”. The stableman became even more angry and indignant and really berated the horse. The two friends left with the stableman still arguing with the horse.
Near the junction of the main road into the village and the London Road were four cottages opening right on to the London Road. These were fairly old and were built as a row. The doors were fastened by what we called latches which had a handle underneath. One all hallows night we tied a cord from the latch on door number one to the latch on door number four leaving a small amount of slack in the cord. We knocked on both doors and a tugging match took place. The man living in number four was a very loud and bad tempered individual and he managed to get his head between the partly opened door and the door post. The more he yelled the more the other person pulled. How it finished I do not know. We took to our heels.
At the school I attended one boy had the bright idea of catching bees using match boxes and carrying them into school opening them surreptitiously in our desks and when we were told to take out books for the next lesson the bees would escape from our desks and make a bit of panic and confusion in the class room particularly as we were a mixed class. We found it easy to catch the bees as bees seemed to like the hollyhock flower which is trumpet like and when the bee is inside the flower it was easy to catch using a match box We did this and the panic and fuss came up to our expectations. The caning we all got was no more than we expected.
The eve of All-Hallows was an especial night for mischief and get up to mischief we did. Living in the Village was a family which had three sons, all much older than I was. These three boys were leaders in mischief, leaders they were but imaginative in their leadership. They could think of all sorts of ways to create mischief and I was the youngest and smallest in their following. There was one particular man who had a well-known dislike for the brothers and one Halloween a donkey of his was caught and the bridle was tied to a tree and the tail of donkey was tied to the door handle. A loud bang on the door brought the irate owner to the door which he proceeded to open and pull. This action pulled the donkey’s tail and he kicked loud and hard on the door, which prompted the owner to pull even harder which caused the donkey to kick a lot more. Someone in the house went out the backdoor to find out what was happening and untied the donkey. The owner was loud in his condemnation of us but we did not stay to listen to his imprecations and threats.
There was the story of the parson who lost his bicycle. He talked over his loss with the church sexton who suggested he should mention his loss when he made the church announcement which were traditionally made after the Ten Commandments were read to the congregation which he said he would do. The next Sunday the Sexton was surprised that he did not mention that he had lost his bicycle and asked the parson why he had not done so. The parson replied that he had not done so because when he read” Thou shall not commit adultery” he remembered where he had left his bicycle.
There was a large oak tree which had been pollarded so that the interior of the tree had a lot of leafy growth. The tree reached over the footpath along the road. We could climb the tree and hide in the interior growth. Ladies of the village would often stop to gossip under the tree. One day, someone had the bright idea, that we could urinate on the ladies as they gossiped, which we did. One of the ladies said “ its started to rain” and her companion said “it’s a very warm rain” Both ladies hurried off to get out of the rain.
THE WORK I DID AND STARTING WORK FULL TIME
On Saturdays from about the age of twelve, I pushed a box on wheels from door to door in Little Melton where my uncle by marriage had a green grocery store. My job was to sell as much as I could. For that I received one penny on the shilling of what I sold. What I earned went into a piggy bank and was used to buy my clothes.
At the age of fourteen I started work full time obtaining a job as an office boy. My day started at six thirty in the morning when I got up, washed and ate my breakfast my mother had left on the table before she went to bed. I would then cycle to Norwich carrying in my cycle bag my lunch and evening meals. I had already decided that if I was to get anywhere in life I had to get a better education than Hethersett National had given me so I enrolled at Crome Central in Norwich which offered evening courses. I was fortunate that most places in England in those days the midday meal was the main meal of the day and consisted of two hours. I was able to sit at my desk and do my homework for the lessons I would attend that evening. At six in the evening we stopped work and I would find a convenient place to eat my evening meal before school. In summer, a nearby park would suffice, in the winter a public building of some sort had to be found. School ended at nine o'clock after which I had to cycle home and so to bed.
Working as an office boy consisted in doing the mail which meant stamping envelopes, general filing and being a messenger for the rest of the office staff. There was a strict pecking order and everyone was called Mister or Miss. There was no deviation from this protocol and the male members of the staff stood at their desks. Only the female staff had chairs to sit on.
I was the only country person working in the office and I received my first introduction on how city people” viewed country folk. First I had a Norfolk accent as opposed to a Norwich accent and there was a general opinion that country people were slow and tended to stop and gape at things. What city folk failed to understand is that the countryman when he stopped to look at things could tell you what he saw in some detail whereas the city folk only got quick impressions and could not give you any detail about what he saw.
There was no doubt we did not have street lighting and flush toilets but there were compensating advantages to living in the country although it was difficult to persuade city people that what we saw as an advantage was in fact an advantage when viewed through their eyes.
It was difficult to persuade the city folk I worked with that tending a country garden took time and patience that seed cost money and that weeding and care of plants took time and some skill. Their general attitude was that things grew in gardens and there was no cost or labour involved.
ONE OF THE WORST DAYS I REMEMBER
One of the worst days I remember was when my father got notification that the small pension he had been awarded for injuries he had sustained in the Great War had been cancelled. Dad had served at Gallipoli and had been with the expedition that made the attempt to attack Europe at Salonika. He spent several winters lost in the Balkans. The attempt by the British to attack the underbelly of Europe was severely inadequate and my father suffered frostbite and lost toes off each foot a finger off one hand as well as impairment in one ear.
Because of economic conditions at the start of the depression the British Government brought in an accountant by the name of Geddes who used a system to reduce Government expenditure called the “Geddes Axe”. Dad’s small pension became a victim of the “Geddes Axe.” Dad was a man of great dignity and control, and when he received the notification the hurt and betrayal in his eyes was very apparent. However it was typical of the period and as it has been all through history when the danger was past, those who did the fighting and made the sacrifices were cast aside. It was noticeable that the well- heeled still drove their cars and the hunting crowd still galloped to hounds while the wounded ex-serviceman had his small pension cut.
Although the pension was small it was very important to our family and meant my mother had to take jobs as a scrub woman or cleaning the houses of people with more money to make up the deficit.
THE DEPRESSION YEARS AND THE EFFECT THEY HAD ON PEOPLES ATTITUDES
One particular incident I shall always remember and which took place during the depression years involved religion. It always seemed to me that when people came under pressure and uncertainty the more they would turn to unusual religious beliefs. The incident involved a man standing on a street in Norwich holding a large sign which said “after death, judgment’ He himself looked like an ancient prophet dressed in an outsize raincoat and a large deerstalker hat. He had long unkempt gray hair and an enormous beard. I came along the street and chanced to look up at his sign which he was holding up in front of a Fish & Chip shop. As I read the sign it led into the fish and chip shop sign which said “we fry in the purest fat”. I thought it funny “after death judgment we fry in the purest fat” and I laughed. The “prophet” thought I was laughing at his message and immediately started to berate me for my irreligious attitude and to consign me to the hottest corner of hell.
Passersby also started to get involved with remarks about irreligious boys. They automatically took the side of the “prophet” after all he was on the side of God and a young whippersnapper must be on the side of the devil to laugh at such a message. I tried to get away but he followed me down the street condemning me for my irreligious attitude. If there had been a stake and a bunch of fagots he would have had me burned then and there.
My sense of humour got me into several unfortunate situations. God as taught to me in my early life was a fearsome and unforgiving God and He certainly did not laugh and did not have a sense of humour. I, secretly was sure, if he was an all-seeing God and took a good look around where I lived; he would have a good chuckle and on some occasions a rollicking belly laugh.
The cause of much humour in the village was the use of words which could have two meanings. For instance the word relief could mean two things. There was Parish relief which was the providing of assistance to the extremely poor and was provided by the Parish in goods or supplies. The poor could not be assisted by the provision of money and buy what the needed, it had to be given in food, coal etc. as they could not be trusted to be wise in their spending. There was another meaning to the word relief it could be used to describe a bowel movement. The local doctor when examining a patient asked a woman when her husband last had relief, and she replied it was about two years ago and it was a hundred weight of coal and two loaves of bread.
TRAMPS AND THE HOMELESS
The post First World War period was a particularly bad period in England. It was a time of considerable social unrest and a great deal of unemployment.
In the village there was a gravel pit which was also used as a dump. In the gravel pit there was a hermit living in a shanty he had put together. If we boys would go down there he would hide and would not speak to us. Quite often we would find individuals and sometimes couples sleeping in ditches the men often were of the age that it was apparent they were veterans of the war.
Near where we lived was a wooded area which was a favourite place for the “tramps” as we called them, to camp. They would come to the house and mother would give them some food which we could barely spare. They were always polite and very grateful.
I remember standing on the side of the main London road during the general strike and watching the unemployed marching on London. It seemed to me many of the men who were marching were veterans of the First World War. They were carrying a black coffin as they marched and there seemed to be a great deal of bitterness in the signs they carried.
I have often thought about the veterans of the First World War and how they were treated after the conflict was over. I know how my Father was treated. Some years later I came across a book which dealt with the conditions in England after the Napoleonic wars and it was very clear that the Government of the day was intent on getting back to as they were and did not give a hoot about the men who had served in the navy or army. There was considerable anger and resentment among the veterans who had survived the war, to come back to unemployment and sleeping in a ditch must have been the bitter end for many of those men. While realizing that the depression required considerable belt tightening for the Government, it seemed the belt of the poorer people and veterans was pulled the quickest and much more tightly than the belts of the better off people.
DOGS
There were lots of dogs in the village. Most farmers had dogs of various types quite often an Old English sheepdog although the Airedale was popular. The Dalmation often called the English carriage dog was also a popular breed in the village. There was one dog, which was known as a “lurcher.” It was a first cross between an English sheepdog and a Greyhound and was popular with poachers. The local police and gamekeepers would view anyone who owned a “lurcher” with suspicion. Poaching for hares was a fairly common activity. Hunting with a pack of hounds was still a country activity and there was a pack of hounds kept in the village. The hunters and pack pursued hares not foxes, which was why poaching for hares was viewed as a serious crime by the gentry who supported this activity.
A friend of mine had an English sheepdog who was a friendly creature. He had a large leather collar to which we attached an old leather pouch. We would play at sending notes to each other by writing the notes enclosing them in the pouch and sending the dog back and forth. There was a woman living near us whose major activity was minding the business of everyone else and we noted that she would call the dog, look in the pouch and read any note that she found. With this in mind we put a note in the pouch with the word “snouts”.
This word was applied to anyone in the village who was always putting their nose in other peoples business. The next thing that happened was the woman complained to both my Father and the father of my friend saying that we had insulted her. She was asked what we had said to her and she had to say that we had not insulted her by speech. When asked how we had insulted her she said by putting a rude note in the pouch on the dog. When asked what she was doing looking in the pouch she became very angry and said anyone putting something in a pouch on a dog was asking for someone to read it.
There were several farmers who bred greyhounds and greyhound racing was a sort of inexpensive substitute for horse racing.
THE HERMAPHRODITE CART AND A FLATULANT PERCHERON
In the village there were a couple of hermaphrodite carts. The hermaphrodite cart was a simple way to convert the usual two wheel farm cart or tumbril into a four wheel hay wagon., The shafts of the farm cart or tumbril were fastened under a platform on two swivel front wheels so by doing this one could carry a fairly large load of hay, grains or other crops.
Depending on the weight of the load to be hauled it would be decided whether one or two horses were hitched to the hermaphrodite cart. The farmer we used to help out had a big old Percheron horse that was noted for his flatulence. The Percheron horse was originally bred in France to carry a Knight in full amour it was a large animal just about as big as a Clydesdale.
Also living in the village was a family who had relatives in London who would send a boy of about our age to spend part of the summer holiday in Hethersett. Now this boy from London was always telling us how behind the times we were and how much better things were in London, but he would always demand the best seat in the vehicle and he seemed to think his London status gave him some sort of priority. He demanded to know where he was to sit when the hermaphrodite cart was to be used and we put him right behind the Percheron a perilous position if you knew the habits and reputation of the horse.
We had not been going very long when the Percheron relieved himself of a load of gas with an explosion which would have knocked the bearskin off the head of a guardsman if one had been around and could be heard quite a distance away .The expression on the face of our London friend was something to behold. The names he called the Percheron were most impolite and of course the Percheron did it again and our London friend liked the second edition even less the first blast. Never again would he go anywhere near the Percheron he did not seem to realise that horses ate a lot of grass which in turn created gas this was something he had not learned in London.
DROVERS DRIVING CATTLE ETC THROUGH HETHERSETT
I remember drovers driving small herds of cattle and sometimes horses through Hethersett delivering them to farms etc. With the production of larger Lorries or other wheeled means of transport co-incidental with better roads the occupation of drover slowly petered out but in my early life it was an active calling. The drovers would attend the cattle market in Norwich where cattle and other domestic animals were bought and sold and the drovers would undertake to deliver them to the buyer’s farm or other destination.
Drovers were an important part of the transportation world up until after the First World War. The major method of transportation of goods was by water and before the building of the railroads for people it was by stage coach although the canal boat was often used. Moving cattle was mostly by droving, there just was not a conveyance large enough that it could accommodate quantities of animals particularly the larger beasts and in any event the roads were just not suitable for large vehicles. Over long distances the railways could be used but there was always the problem of getting the beasts from the railway to the ultimate destination
I remember along the turnpike which went through Hethersett there were pumps every so often which I was told were to provide water for stock being driven. I do not remember seeing these pumps being used but they were there, evidence of what had been the common method of moving animals for many years.
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The above are just some of the memories Bill has of growing up in Hethersett. By the year 1938 there was grave concern for what the future held for a boy in his late teens.
"Those of us who would be of age to serve in any immediate war were most concerned. We lived on tenterhooks and frankly had little confidence in the Government in power. As the days, weeks and months went by we became more concerned and disheartened. When Hitler invaded Poland our time had come. After the declaration of war I went down to volunteer and then waited to be called. It seemed to me that our approach to was was most lacksadaisical. Eventually I got the call and went to the Air Force. I was sent to a place called Cardington in Bedfordshire, was kitted out, medically examined, learned to march and experienced my first Commanding Officer's inspection."
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH A SLOT MACHINE
One of my earliest memories was my first encounter with a slot machine. At the junction of the main road into the village and the London road, was a Public House called the Queens Head. Next to the Pub was a tobacconist sweet shop and one day a square box arrangement appeared fastened to the outside wall of the shop. Inquiries revealed that it was called a slot machine and that if you put a penny in the slot, a package of chewing gum would come out. Chewing gum was a fairly recent thing in the village and a slot machine was a mechanical marvel. The only problem was that very few of the boys had the necessary penny to make this contraption disgorge a package of chewing gum. One day one of the boys earned a penny and word went around that he was going to put his penny in the slot machine so we all went along to watch this encounter. He advanced upon the slot machine and with an assumed nonchalance inserted the penny into the slot, pulled the lever and lo and behold out came this small package marked Wrigley. Inside this package were four small peppermint objects which we all gathered around to admire. He made quite performance of chewing and we all watched him with envy.
Another wonder appeared in the village, a local man obtained a potato chip cart. This was a horse drawn cart with the capability of frying chipped potatoes. He would set up at a convenient spot in the village and French fry chipped potatoes which he then wrapped them in newspapers and sold a small bag for a few pennies.
The village would be visited about twice a week by ice cream vendors riding cycle contraptions with boxes on the front in which were stored ice-creams. They had loud bells which they rang to let us know they were in the village. There were two of these vendors on sold ice cream bars called Eldorado and the other was labelled Walls. Walls seems to have been a fairly large firm in the food business as I remember sausages made by them.
MY FIRST BICYCLE
Just before my fourteenth birthday and because I would need a bicycle to work in Norwich my mother advanced me the cash to buy a bicycle. I had to pay her back from my earnings .I was extremely proud of that bicycle. Again my mother’s basic law with everything bought for a boy was to allow for growing so I could hardly reach the pedals. However, she was right and wise to allow for growing. Carbide lamps were common for bicycles and I had carbide light for this machine. There was a lower chamber to the lamp which contained the carbide and a water chamber on top with a regulator to control the amount of water which went onto the carbide and gave off the gas. The lamp had to be lit by a match. The bicycle was basic with no variable speed, and just one brake plus a warning bell. This first bicycle was made by a firm call Hercules.
When I was about sixteen years of age I was able to buy second hand a Sunbeam racing bicycle and then join the local branch of The Cyclists Touring Club. This club organised excursions around East Anglia. By going on these trips I learned a lot about the local history as well as the geography and other interesting facts.
A bicycle was a wonderful machine for a young person, it permitted sufficient mobility to travel and explore villages and places of interest within reasonable distance. Excursions such as I was able to make prompted reading and research into the history of the places visited.
Just about everyone in the village owned a bicycle, it was an efficient and cheap means of transportation. Hethersett and the surrounding area were quite flat and a bicycle permitted easy access to just about everywhere.
Road racing on bicycles was not allowed in England so time trials had to be organised. There was also a restriction on the dress one wore for the time trials. One had to wear clothing covering the body from the neck to the feet. Early on a Sunday morning if one was on a main road around the area a person dressed in black tights would come speeding along on a stripped down bicycle trying to beat his last time to pedal twenty miles.
Norwich had a bicycle racing track and every year there would be competitive racing which would attract the big names from the continent where the sport was well organised I remember seeing men like Pete Van Vliet and Toni Merkens racing there.
The bicycle was used quite a bit as a delivery vehicle by many village businesses, such as butchers and grocers. The trade bicycle was sturdier built and had a smaller front wheel over which was a frame in which to carry a fair amount of goods. Getting an after school job riding these bicycles was greatly competed for. The boy had to be big enough to ride the bicycle and strong enough to pedal it.
An incident I witnessed when I was about eleven years of age involved a very dignified lady riding a bicycle through the village when a farmer was moving a herd of cows to a different field and had to move his cows through the village. The lady was an extremely dignified person and the bicycle she was riding was a popular ladies bicycle called a Videk, it was a tall machine with a guard on the chain drive because women were still wearing long skirts.
As she approached the farmer and his cows she rang her bicycle bell repeatedly as if expecting that the cows would heed her warning and move out of the way. Unfortunately for her the cows did not give her clear passage. As she got close to the cows one got a bit skittish and moved into her way causing her to half jump half fall off her bicycle. She finished up with her face pressed against the back end of a cow, not exactly the most hygienic or attractive end of the animal. On top of that her hat which was fastened on her head with a hat pin became dislodged which also loosened her hair which was fastened up in a bun. She became quite dishevelled and was most upset and angry accusing the farmer in an abrasive way of not giving way for people on bicycles. The farmer was equally angry, accusing the lady of upsetting his cows. This was a dispute which neither side was going to win. The lady retired to her home to repair her appearance, the farmer continued on his way with his cows.
There was great debate in the village over the merits of the different breads of cows. It seemed to me just about all herds were mixed, although the Dutch Friesland seemed to be popular. One smallholder bread goats and turned goats milk into cheese.
LOOKING FOR GHOSTS
I cannot remember at what age I became interested in ghost stories and there seemed to be a ghost story for almost every Norfolk village. Hethersett had a ghost story, a headless dog called old Chuck who ran around the village at night although I never found anyone who had ever seen him.
SPORTS AND GAMES
The village had a good football team (soccer) as well as a cricket team. The football team played on a field adjacent to the Rectory which field was also used by the National school team. The cricket team had its own pitch close to Hethersett Hall.
The two schools had football and cricket teams. There were area sports events and the two benevolent societies, the Odd Fellows and the Foresters, held their own sports days. For swimming we went to Barford and there was a boxing club in the town of Wymondham which some of us attended. Cycling was a good recreation and for a couple of years I was a member of the Cyclist Touring Club and attended their Sunday rides to various destinations in the County.
We played a game we called basketball with a ball about the size of a soccer ball which required two farm baskets (used for gathering fruit) at each end of our playground. We had to get the ball into the baskets and were only allowed to take a few steps when in possession of the ball.
The most popular sport among boys as I was growing up was soccer. Very few of us could afford a soccer ball, but anything we could kick such as a tennis ball or even an empty salmon tin would suffice. Often we resorted to kicking "road apples" left by horses but they disintegrated much too easily. One boy went to the local pork butcher and came back with a pig's bladder which turned out when blown up to be not much good for soccer but worked better for the form of basketball we played.
Organised sports for young people were not very well developed in the village. The school had a soccer team but the problem was getting soccer boots. Most boys could not afford to buy soccer boots and playing the game in the boots we wore to school was frowned on by the schoolteachers, not to mention the families who found it difficult to keep boys shod in any event.
There was another game we played called stick ball. It was played with a stick and a tennis ball. A device which was somewhat like a spoon was set in a block, the spoon was fastened in the block so that it could be tapped with the stick and the spoon would send the ball into the air and it could then be hit with the stick. The ball if hit would go a fair distance and the other players would try to catch it. We would play another similar game using a small piece of wood instead of a ball, the idea in this game was to hit the stick and send it as far as possible, the winner being the boy who could send the small piece of stick the furthest.
Quite often the Altar and Choir boys would be invited to a game croquet at the Rectory. One rector was very tall had very large feet and wore crepe soled shoes. He was adept at diverting his opponent’s attention while using his outsize feet to kick the croquet ball through the hoop.
I learned to swim in a widening of the River Yare at a place called Barford. There were no places in Hethersett where we could swim and Barford was only a bicycle ride away. The widening of the river was called Swans Harbour. The Yare where we swam was not very large and the fact that it broadened to form Swans Harbour made it possible for us to swim there. The bottom of the river was muddy. The banks of the river were grass and there were some convenient bushes behind which we could change. We could only swim in the summer. Later a swimming pool opened at Wymondham and when we had carpentry classes there we were given passes which permitted us to swim in the pool there.
Hethersett was not a place one would associate with fishing. The Village contained no rivers and no large bodies of water in which edible fish could live, nevertheless we boys found ponds and streams which provided habitat for minnows. To catch minnows we needed either a fine net or a fishing rod with a small hook. A net was hard to come by, but it was easier to make a homemade fishing rod from a bamboo garden stake a fine line and a bent pin.
WALKING
One of my fondest memories of Hethersett was the number of footpaths and pleasant walking opportunities the village offered. There were many footpaths, which afforded good walking without being bothered by wheeled traffic. Sunday afternoon was a favourite time to walk and as we grew up the thing to do was obtain a ground ash walking stick. One of my favourite walks was from Ketteringham Lane, along a footpath to Station Lane then pick up another footpath which crossed the Mulbeggar and the churchyard.
There was another pleasant walk, which started near the Prince of Wales public house and crossed the London Road to a footpath, which ran from Ketteringham Lane to Station Lane. This path was called Kissing Alley. All the roads in Hethersett were walk able in my early days and lots of people walked. It was just good exercise and one would meet all sorts of people and stop for a chat.
Narrow lanes around Hethersett were often called “lokes” and were ideal for walking .The house in which I was born was on a loke.
Walking in Hethersett on a Sunday afternoon in summer was the equivalent of the Spanish paseo. The young men and young ladies would walk in twos and would find excuses to stop and chat. In the Spanish Paseo the site was usually the town square. The young ladies would form a circle and walk in one direction the young males would form a circle and walk around in the opposite direction. This was how young people got to see each other and found out who they were; formal introductions would then be arranged.
Sunday afternoon walking played the same purpose in the country village a lot less formally but it often worked to the same end. Walking and stopping to chat was a sort of paseo and many closer relationships came about. As we emerged from childhood into our young adulthood it was the age of Brylcream. We slicked our hair back, wore grey flannel pants and roll neck sweaters, and carrying a ground ash stick, we must have looked like members of the Gravel Road Grenadiers , the Hedgerow Hussars or the Ditch water Dragoons. But walk we did and every opportunity were taken to stop and talk. It was not yet the time of instant news and much information was passed from individual to individual.
TALES WE TOLD AND PRANKS WE PLAYED
A lady on horseback was riding through Hethersett when she came to a cross road. Standing at the cross road was a local fellow, She said to him pointing to the left fork “is that the way to :Little Melton?” to which he replied “ I don't know' So she pointed to the right fork and asked “ Is that the way to Little Melton?” Again he said “I don't know” She said “you are a Fool” To which he replied “I may be but I arn't lost?
I was told this story and do not know if the incident happened in Hethersett. A man owned a horse of which he was very proud. He was visited by a friend who was an amateur ventriloquist. The two friends were admiring the horse in the company of the stableman who was responsible for the care of the horse. The owner patted the horse and said and said “You are good lad and look in good condition so I suppose they are feeding you well”. The ventriloquist threw his voice so that it sounded as if the horse was speaking and said “they are not feeding me well at all they did not feed me this morning” The stableman got very upset and said “that horse is a liar I fed him this morning” The ventriloquist through the horse said “that’s what he says on top of that he has been cutting down on the oats I am supposed to get”. The stableman became even more angry and indignant and really berated the horse. The two friends left with the stableman still arguing with the horse.
Near the junction of the main road into the village and the London Road were four cottages opening right on to the London Road. These were fairly old and were built as a row. The doors were fastened by what we called latches which had a handle underneath. One all hallows night we tied a cord from the latch on door number one to the latch on door number four leaving a small amount of slack in the cord. We knocked on both doors and a tugging match took place. The man living in number four was a very loud and bad tempered individual and he managed to get his head between the partly opened door and the door post. The more he yelled the more the other person pulled. How it finished I do not know. We took to our heels.
At the school I attended one boy had the bright idea of catching bees using match boxes and carrying them into school opening them surreptitiously in our desks and when we were told to take out books for the next lesson the bees would escape from our desks and make a bit of panic and confusion in the class room particularly as we were a mixed class. We found it easy to catch the bees as bees seemed to like the hollyhock flower which is trumpet like and when the bee is inside the flower it was easy to catch using a match box We did this and the panic and fuss came up to our expectations. The caning we all got was no more than we expected.
The eve of All-Hallows was an especial night for mischief and get up to mischief we did. Living in the Village was a family which had three sons, all much older than I was. These three boys were leaders in mischief, leaders they were but imaginative in their leadership. They could think of all sorts of ways to create mischief and I was the youngest and smallest in their following. There was one particular man who had a well-known dislike for the brothers and one Halloween a donkey of his was caught and the bridle was tied to a tree and the tail of donkey was tied to the door handle. A loud bang on the door brought the irate owner to the door which he proceeded to open and pull. This action pulled the donkey’s tail and he kicked loud and hard on the door, which prompted the owner to pull even harder which caused the donkey to kick a lot more. Someone in the house went out the backdoor to find out what was happening and untied the donkey. The owner was loud in his condemnation of us but we did not stay to listen to his imprecations and threats.
There was the story of the parson who lost his bicycle. He talked over his loss with the church sexton who suggested he should mention his loss when he made the church announcement which were traditionally made after the Ten Commandments were read to the congregation which he said he would do. The next Sunday the Sexton was surprised that he did not mention that he had lost his bicycle and asked the parson why he had not done so. The parson replied that he had not done so because when he read” Thou shall not commit adultery” he remembered where he had left his bicycle.
There was a large oak tree which had been pollarded so that the interior of the tree had a lot of leafy growth. The tree reached over the footpath along the road. We could climb the tree and hide in the interior growth. Ladies of the village would often stop to gossip under the tree. One day, someone had the bright idea, that we could urinate on the ladies as they gossiped, which we did. One of the ladies said “ its started to rain” and her companion said “it’s a very warm rain” Both ladies hurried off to get out of the rain.
THE WORK I DID AND STARTING WORK FULL TIME
On Saturdays from about the age of twelve, I pushed a box on wheels from door to door in Little Melton where my uncle by marriage had a green grocery store. My job was to sell as much as I could. For that I received one penny on the shilling of what I sold. What I earned went into a piggy bank and was used to buy my clothes.
At the age of fourteen I started work full time obtaining a job as an office boy. My day started at six thirty in the morning when I got up, washed and ate my breakfast my mother had left on the table before she went to bed. I would then cycle to Norwich carrying in my cycle bag my lunch and evening meals. I had already decided that if I was to get anywhere in life I had to get a better education than Hethersett National had given me so I enrolled at Crome Central in Norwich which offered evening courses. I was fortunate that most places in England in those days the midday meal was the main meal of the day and consisted of two hours. I was able to sit at my desk and do my homework for the lessons I would attend that evening. At six in the evening we stopped work and I would find a convenient place to eat my evening meal before school. In summer, a nearby park would suffice, in the winter a public building of some sort had to be found. School ended at nine o'clock after which I had to cycle home and so to bed.
Working as an office boy consisted in doing the mail which meant stamping envelopes, general filing and being a messenger for the rest of the office staff. There was a strict pecking order and everyone was called Mister or Miss. There was no deviation from this protocol and the male members of the staff stood at their desks. Only the female staff had chairs to sit on.
I was the only country person working in the office and I received my first introduction on how city people” viewed country folk. First I had a Norfolk accent as opposed to a Norwich accent and there was a general opinion that country people were slow and tended to stop and gape at things. What city folk failed to understand is that the countryman when he stopped to look at things could tell you what he saw in some detail whereas the city folk only got quick impressions and could not give you any detail about what he saw.
There was no doubt we did not have street lighting and flush toilets but there were compensating advantages to living in the country although it was difficult to persuade city people that what we saw as an advantage was in fact an advantage when viewed through their eyes.
It was difficult to persuade the city folk I worked with that tending a country garden took time and patience that seed cost money and that weeding and care of plants took time and some skill. Their general attitude was that things grew in gardens and there was no cost or labour involved.
ONE OF THE WORST DAYS I REMEMBER
One of the worst days I remember was when my father got notification that the small pension he had been awarded for injuries he had sustained in the Great War had been cancelled. Dad had served at Gallipoli and had been with the expedition that made the attempt to attack Europe at Salonika. He spent several winters lost in the Balkans. The attempt by the British to attack the underbelly of Europe was severely inadequate and my father suffered frostbite and lost toes off each foot a finger off one hand as well as impairment in one ear.
Because of economic conditions at the start of the depression the British Government brought in an accountant by the name of Geddes who used a system to reduce Government expenditure called the “Geddes Axe”. Dad’s small pension became a victim of the “Geddes Axe.” Dad was a man of great dignity and control, and when he received the notification the hurt and betrayal in his eyes was very apparent. However it was typical of the period and as it has been all through history when the danger was past, those who did the fighting and made the sacrifices were cast aside. It was noticeable that the well- heeled still drove their cars and the hunting crowd still galloped to hounds while the wounded ex-serviceman had his small pension cut.
Although the pension was small it was very important to our family and meant my mother had to take jobs as a scrub woman or cleaning the houses of people with more money to make up the deficit.
THE DEPRESSION YEARS AND THE EFFECT THEY HAD ON PEOPLES ATTITUDES
One particular incident I shall always remember and which took place during the depression years involved religion. It always seemed to me that when people came under pressure and uncertainty the more they would turn to unusual religious beliefs. The incident involved a man standing on a street in Norwich holding a large sign which said “after death, judgment’ He himself looked like an ancient prophet dressed in an outsize raincoat and a large deerstalker hat. He had long unkempt gray hair and an enormous beard. I came along the street and chanced to look up at his sign which he was holding up in front of a Fish & Chip shop. As I read the sign it led into the fish and chip shop sign which said “we fry in the purest fat”. I thought it funny “after death judgment we fry in the purest fat” and I laughed. The “prophet” thought I was laughing at his message and immediately started to berate me for my irreligious attitude and to consign me to the hottest corner of hell.
Passersby also started to get involved with remarks about irreligious boys. They automatically took the side of the “prophet” after all he was on the side of God and a young whippersnapper must be on the side of the devil to laugh at such a message. I tried to get away but he followed me down the street condemning me for my irreligious attitude. If there had been a stake and a bunch of fagots he would have had me burned then and there.
My sense of humour got me into several unfortunate situations. God as taught to me in my early life was a fearsome and unforgiving God and He certainly did not laugh and did not have a sense of humour. I, secretly was sure, if he was an all-seeing God and took a good look around where I lived; he would have a good chuckle and on some occasions a rollicking belly laugh.
The cause of much humour in the village was the use of words which could have two meanings. For instance the word relief could mean two things. There was Parish relief which was the providing of assistance to the extremely poor and was provided by the Parish in goods or supplies. The poor could not be assisted by the provision of money and buy what the needed, it had to be given in food, coal etc. as they could not be trusted to be wise in their spending. There was another meaning to the word relief it could be used to describe a bowel movement. The local doctor when examining a patient asked a woman when her husband last had relief, and she replied it was about two years ago and it was a hundred weight of coal and two loaves of bread.
TRAMPS AND THE HOMELESS
The post First World War period was a particularly bad period in England. It was a time of considerable social unrest and a great deal of unemployment.
In the village there was a gravel pit which was also used as a dump. In the gravel pit there was a hermit living in a shanty he had put together. If we boys would go down there he would hide and would not speak to us. Quite often we would find individuals and sometimes couples sleeping in ditches the men often were of the age that it was apparent they were veterans of the war.
Near where we lived was a wooded area which was a favourite place for the “tramps” as we called them, to camp. They would come to the house and mother would give them some food which we could barely spare. They were always polite and very grateful.
I remember standing on the side of the main London road during the general strike and watching the unemployed marching on London. It seemed to me many of the men who were marching were veterans of the First World War. They were carrying a black coffin as they marched and there seemed to be a great deal of bitterness in the signs they carried.
I have often thought about the veterans of the First World War and how they were treated after the conflict was over. I know how my Father was treated. Some years later I came across a book which dealt with the conditions in England after the Napoleonic wars and it was very clear that the Government of the day was intent on getting back to as they were and did not give a hoot about the men who had served in the navy or army. There was considerable anger and resentment among the veterans who had survived the war, to come back to unemployment and sleeping in a ditch must have been the bitter end for many of those men. While realizing that the depression required considerable belt tightening for the Government, it seemed the belt of the poorer people and veterans was pulled the quickest and much more tightly than the belts of the better off people.
DOGS
There were lots of dogs in the village. Most farmers had dogs of various types quite often an Old English sheepdog although the Airedale was popular. The Dalmation often called the English carriage dog was also a popular breed in the village. There was one dog, which was known as a “lurcher.” It was a first cross between an English sheepdog and a Greyhound and was popular with poachers. The local police and gamekeepers would view anyone who owned a “lurcher” with suspicion. Poaching for hares was a fairly common activity. Hunting with a pack of hounds was still a country activity and there was a pack of hounds kept in the village. The hunters and pack pursued hares not foxes, which was why poaching for hares was viewed as a serious crime by the gentry who supported this activity.
A friend of mine had an English sheepdog who was a friendly creature. He had a large leather collar to which we attached an old leather pouch. We would play at sending notes to each other by writing the notes enclosing them in the pouch and sending the dog back and forth. There was a woman living near us whose major activity was minding the business of everyone else and we noted that she would call the dog, look in the pouch and read any note that she found. With this in mind we put a note in the pouch with the word “snouts”.
This word was applied to anyone in the village who was always putting their nose in other peoples business. The next thing that happened was the woman complained to both my Father and the father of my friend saying that we had insulted her. She was asked what we had said to her and she had to say that we had not insulted her by speech. When asked how we had insulted her she said by putting a rude note in the pouch on the dog. When asked what she was doing looking in the pouch she became very angry and said anyone putting something in a pouch on a dog was asking for someone to read it.
There were several farmers who bred greyhounds and greyhound racing was a sort of inexpensive substitute for horse racing.
THE HERMAPHRODITE CART AND A FLATULANT PERCHERON
In the village there were a couple of hermaphrodite carts. The hermaphrodite cart was a simple way to convert the usual two wheel farm cart or tumbril into a four wheel hay wagon., The shafts of the farm cart or tumbril were fastened under a platform on two swivel front wheels so by doing this one could carry a fairly large load of hay, grains or other crops.
Depending on the weight of the load to be hauled it would be decided whether one or two horses were hitched to the hermaphrodite cart. The farmer we used to help out had a big old Percheron horse that was noted for his flatulence. The Percheron horse was originally bred in France to carry a Knight in full amour it was a large animal just about as big as a Clydesdale.
Also living in the village was a family who had relatives in London who would send a boy of about our age to spend part of the summer holiday in Hethersett. Now this boy from London was always telling us how behind the times we were and how much better things were in London, but he would always demand the best seat in the vehicle and he seemed to think his London status gave him some sort of priority. He demanded to know where he was to sit when the hermaphrodite cart was to be used and we put him right behind the Percheron a perilous position if you knew the habits and reputation of the horse.
We had not been going very long when the Percheron relieved himself of a load of gas with an explosion which would have knocked the bearskin off the head of a guardsman if one had been around and could be heard quite a distance away .The expression on the face of our London friend was something to behold. The names he called the Percheron were most impolite and of course the Percheron did it again and our London friend liked the second edition even less the first blast. Never again would he go anywhere near the Percheron he did not seem to realise that horses ate a lot of grass which in turn created gas this was something he had not learned in London.
DROVERS DRIVING CATTLE ETC THROUGH HETHERSETT
I remember drovers driving small herds of cattle and sometimes horses through Hethersett delivering them to farms etc. With the production of larger Lorries or other wheeled means of transport co-incidental with better roads the occupation of drover slowly petered out but in my early life it was an active calling. The drovers would attend the cattle market in Norwich where cattle and other domestic animals were bought and sold and the drovers would undertake to deliver them to the buyer’s farm or other destination.
Drovers were an important part of the transportation world up until after the First World War. The major method of transportation of goods was by water and before the building of the railroads for people it was by stage coach although the canal boat was often used. Moving cattle was mostly by droving, there just was not a conveyance large enough that it could accommodate quantities of animals particularly the larger beasts and in any event the roads were just not suitable for large vehicles. Over long distances the railways could be used but there was always the problem of getting the beasts from the railway to the ultimate destination
I remember along the turnpike which went through Hethersett there were pumps every so often which I was told were to provide water for stock being driven. I do not remember seeing these pumps being used but they were there, evidence of what had been the common method of moving animals for many years.
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The above are just some of the memories Bill has of growing up in Hethersett. By the year 1938 there was grave concern for what the future held for a boy in his late teens.
"Those of us who would be of age to serve in any immediate war were most concerned. We lived on tenterhooks and frankly had little confidence in the Government in power. As the days, weeks and months went by we became more concerned and disheartened. When Hitler invaded Poland our time had come. After the declaration of war I went down to volunteer and then waited to be called. It seemed to me that our approach to was was most lacksadaisical. Eventually I got the call and went to the Air Force. I was sent to a place called Cardington in Bedfordshire, was kitted out, medically examined, learned to march and experienced my first Commanding Officer's inspection."
