Looking back over the years I have come to the conclusion that I was fortunate to have been born and brought up in Orford and I can understand now, why a certain family spent the whole of their summer holidays there camping out in the Boathouse though it was beyond my comprehension then .
For a schoolboy in the late 1940,s Orford was something of a paradise. It was a large village with many amenities and one of which that was not always appreciated by those who attended was the village school. Orford School took pupils up to the age of 16.The headmaster’s name at the time was Mr.MacMillan and he took responsibility for the older pupils. I started in the Juniors in 1946 but cannot remember my teachers name though I can remember chanting tables, with a weekly progress test and then names put on the wall against the tables we knew by heart - a slow and laborious process for many of us! We learnt to read with grubby "Janet and John" books following the text with our fingers as previous countless pupils before us, though having gained some expertise in this field there was precious little in the way of other books to practise on.
Breaktimes were altogether better with a large playground to run around in after we had been forced to drink our 1/3rd of a pint of milk. In winter time we could have our milk warmed up and it was this experience which probably put me off milk for life.( Later when I was old enough I was entrusted to collect the family’s milk from the dairy at Chantry Farm and I still remember that huge stainless steel vat with the different size ladles but mostly it was the sight and smell of all that milk that made my tummy turn!)
In the playground boys either played marbles for "keeps" or cigarette cards. Marbles was usually played nearest the hole and then flicked in or else they were put into a large circle and then had to be flicked out using a larger alley.(The best alleys for this purpose were ball bearings from the wrecks of tanks and other military vehicles abandoned on the battle school at Sudbourne Hall.)The best pitch for playing marbles was not at school at all but along the pathway in front of Albert Friend’s garage. It was a great place to congregate after school but I don’t think Albert would have agreed!
Cigarette cards had great appeal. They were colourful, small enough to carry in vast quantities and covered a multitude of subjects sufficient to interest any schoolboy. The game was simple to play .You flicked a card against a wall and the nearest one then picked up all the cards and tossed them into the air. He then kept any which came down heads, after this it was strictly in turn until all the cards were accounted for.
Whereas all pupils met at school during the day, after school it was a different story . There were basically two clearly defined areas. North of Front Street were the council houses and we didn’t venture into this area unless we had to because the boys were considered "rough." We roamed mainly to the south of the village though the Castle Green and the Rec.were usually shared on a fairly amicable basis.
Cowboys and Indians was our preferred game with cap guns though we did make guns out of matchboxes ,clothes pegs and elastic bands. These fired half a matchstick with considerable force and accuracy and were usually confiscated at school.We played football on the Rec. but because of the close proximity of the Chillesford Polo Ground took to playing our own version of cycle polo with sticks cut from the hedge.
Our pocket money was spent at Mrs. Brinkley’s sweet shop in Quay Street and we got our hair cut at Sharman’s Garage. Mr. Sharman or "Sharmy" as we called him always wore a bowler hat whether he was repairing cars, serving petrol or cutting hair. He was also very short – sighted and you could almost feel his nose and moustache on your neck as he worked the clippers backwards and forwards for his standard "short back and sides." There was a weekly film show at the Town Hall (on Tuesdays I think) and I can still remember the serial which frightened us all. It was called the "Clutching Hand."
Village boys roamed far and wide especially in the school holidays. In the Spring it was bird nesting and egg collecting and in the Summer it was following the harvest and chasing rabbits. We fished for sticklebacks in the ditches on Sam Cordle’s marshes with traps made out of old wine bottles. We would also fish for river crabs on the Quay with bait we could scrounge (usually animal lights) from either Whayman’s or Martin’s butchers shops.
Vehicles were something of a rarity in Orford at this time though we collected car registration plate numbers and would race around the village on our cycles if we thought a car had come in and we had missed it.
It was difficult for us to imagine that people would actually want to come to Orford for their summer holidays. We knew this one family regularly came to the Old Boathouse and spent most of their time on the river but village reserve and suspicion of outsiders meant we did not make contact. We would occasionally creep down Boathouse Lane to spy on them and perhaps throw a stone in their direction but nothing more until aquaintances were finally made in the mid 90’s to mutual surprise all round!
Nice to know you all !!
Richard