Autobiography
Patricia was the only child of William Moore the local policeman. His nickname in the village was pony as he kept a pony on the common.
My dad Bill Moore was a police constable stationed at Roughton but in late 1951 we moved to Southrepps moving into the police house in Chapel Street which had been vacated by PC Cooper and his family.
I remember dad saying what a large village it was with everything we would need there which was important because people didn’t have cars in those days and the bus service to Cromer and North Walsham wasn’t particularly good.
As you came into the village from the Thorpe Market direction there was a Bake Office and Shop on the right-hand side run by a member of the Drury family. I remember him building a one story house opposite the Chapel in Chapel Street not long after we moved to the village. As you came into the village proper on the left hand side was a garage that sold petrol and I think did some repairs, on the same side a little up the hill was the village library which opened on a Monday night and I think one afternoon each week and was run by an elderly man whose name I can’t remember, a little further on the same side was a man who dealt I think in radios and certainly TVs because my mum and I where invited to watch the Coronation at his house with the rest of his family and we purchased our first TV from him. On the opposite side of the road was Codlings Fish and Chips. I attended Southrepps Village School with their sons Roger and John. Further up the street on the same side was a row of houses and one of the Doctors from North Walsham had a surgery in the front room of these houses. I remember seeing both Dr Fee and Dr Benwell there on occasion. A little further up the street was Carr’s Shop and Post Office,when we first went to Southrepps food was still rationed and our ration books were there. I remember quite clearly in 1954 taking our books in for the final time when rationing ended. Next to the shop was the New Inn which I think also provided accommodation. Over the other side of the unmade up road leading to the Village Hall and Recreation Ground was Birds the Butchers and across the road was the Vernon Arms and a little further up the road leading to the Church was another village shop which was a grocers but also I think sold some hardware as well.
I don’t think many vegetables were sold in the village because most of the people who lived in Southrepps in those days worked on the land and grew their own vegetables in their gardens and there were some allotments just behind the houses in Chapel Street.
There was also a shoe mender who had a little hut across the street from the old Council Houses. This hut was a good meeting place for some of the old retired men in the village. I particularly remember this hut because when I left Southrepps school and went to school in North Walsham we caught the school bus from just outside the hut.
Although mostly we biked to school, in winter when it snowed the roads between Upper and Lower Street frequently became impassable and then we would walk to school no doubt messing about on the way. Coming home we’d often walk across fields called the Dutchman’s fields from Lower Street and I think the footpath came out at the allotments. Schools weren’t so inclined to close for bad weather in those days I think we must have been a hardier bunch than now and both the headmaster, Mr Hare and his wife, who was also a teacher, lived on the premises in the schoolhouse.
During the 1953 east coast floods in February I had been at a Sunday School Party at the Rectory when the Rev Barclay was rector. My mother came to collect me and it had turned from just a windy afternoon to almost hurricane force winds. My Dad was called out to help with the rescue work on the coast and we didn’t see him any more for about two days although a few trees came down in the village the real impact of this wind was on the coast.
I wonder if anyone has mentioned I think his name was William or Willie he lived in Chapel Street in one of the Cottages on the opposite side to the Police House. He had suffered from shell shock during the First World War. He was quite harmless but if you saw him for the first time he could be a little unsettling. He talked to himself a lot and I think he would sometimes shout. He was very poorly dressed but I think quite well spoken.
Opposite Carr’s shop there was a house(The Grange), still there but much altered, behind a high wall. In those days the house looked neglected and almost unlived-in. But someone did live there her name was Dorothy De-Waal and I think she lived a reclusive life with her mother, but when her mother died she opened up the house and there was a house contents sale which raised a lot of money.
Because people were less able to leave the village for entertainment it was often home-grown. There was a children’s Christmas Party in the old Village Hall. Also frequent whist drives. Someone would also come on occasion with a mobile picture show, black and white of course and from the 30s but I don’t think we much cared as it was somewhere to go. Also the village would organise the occasional Concert Party with sketches etc put on by people living in the village. These Concerts where very good but would have been lost on the people in the next village if they had seen them as there were lots of “in” jokes and good natured stories about people who lived in the village.
I remember as a young girl I used to work in Norwich and come home on the train getting off at Gunton and cycling to Upper Street. In the early evening I would sometimes see Geoffrey Key the founder of Keys of Aylsham milking his Guernsey cow which he kept on the common at Lower Street opposite the School. It always struck me as a funny sight as Geoffrey was quite a smart dresser and had a good line in bow ties.
On the subject of the common as I said Dad was the local policeman and quite strict as anyone will tell you who remembers him. One night it was quite late and I never liked the dark I got off the train and went for my bike and discovered that the front light wasn’t working. There was no way I was willing to pass the common walking so I decided to risk it and cycle. As I was cycling along suddenly someone stood in my path and grabbed hold of the front of my bike and stopped me and said you’re the policeman’s daughter and I’m going to tell your dad that you nearly ran me down because you had no lights on your bike – I spent a very worried month wondering when Dad was going to bring up the subject of bikes without lights.
When I worked in Norwich I caught the train from Gunton each day. The men at the Station took great pride in it – it looked lovely in the summer when the flowers were out and in winter there was always a lovely fire in the waiting room so we could warm ourselves before we caught the train this would be just after 7 in the morning.
Well I think I have written more than enough notes I’m sure they don’t cover everything I remember but it’s a few ideas you might find helpful.