Sound recordings 4
Here you can listen to more recordings of oral history relating to Stanhoe. Most of the recordings were made by current and past residents of the village and collected by Stanhoe Archive.
Unless otherwise noted, all the sound recordings on stanhoe.org are copyright © Stanhoe Archive. Please do not re-use them without permission. All photos are copyright © Rosemary Brown.
Doreen Cox (1924–c2017)
(7 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Doreen Cox was born Doreen Ayres in Stanhoe in 1924. In this short recording she describes how after starting her working life looking after the Tidd children she graduated to farm jobs, including a spell in the Women’s Land Army where she worked with German prisoners of war. After the war she looked after the Symington children at High Barn until her marriage.
Ellen Finch (1922–2022)
(30 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Ellen Finch was born in Snettisham in 1922 and came to Stanhoe in the mid-1960s when her husband worked for Major Ralli as farm secretary at Ivy Farm. She talks about farm work in the 1960s and her lively 21st birthday party when she was stationed at RAF Bircham Newton during the war. Ellen then explains how she grew up in the licensed trade in Snettisham and Hunstanton, and how she came to work in the officer’s mess at Bircham Newton and ran the bar at RAF Docking. Wartime memories include packing up the personal belongings of flyers who did not return, hazards of the blackout, and being driven over an unexploded bomb.
Betty Holmes (1931–2020)
(21 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2008)
Betty Holmes was born in County Durham in 1931. In 1960 she came to Stanhoe with her family to take over the grocery shop, which was one of three shops in Stanhoe at the time. In conversation with Rosemary Brown, Betty talks about life behind the counter.
Douglas Hurn
(28 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2009)
Douglas Hurn was born in Stanhoe in 1948. He talks about Stanhoe school, farm work for Mr Symington at High Barn, gangs of village women picking carrots, the youth club, the car accident which injured his mother, Red Cross training run by Mrs Symington, bonfire night, the two village shops, the Post Office, and Tom Curson’s cobbler’s shop.
Ray Birch
(43 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2012)
Ray Birch and his twin brother Mick were born in Suffolk in 1940 and came to Stanhoe in 1952. In this extended conversation with Rosemary Brown, Ray – who has inherited his father Cecil Birch’s storytelling skills – tells of his 11 years in Stanhoe working for Mr Sanderson at Barwick, for the Calvers at Station Farm, and finally for Major Ralli in Stanhoe.
Many of Ray’s anecdotes are about farming mishaps. They include a tragedy with a boar pig; the death of Harcourt Calver following an accident in 1957; Dick Seaman and the bull; how Reg Hinton died after touching an electricity cable; and Jack Walker’s suicide at Barwick Hall Farm.
Lighter moments include dancing lessons in the Reading Room, the time Fred Rayner threatened the dustmen with a shotgun, and how the 60-year-old Sid Trundle carried 18 stone (114 kg) of wheat plus two men.
Roland Axman
(23 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2012)
Roland Axman was born in Docking in 1932, but his grandparents, Mr and Mrs Arthur Margetson, lived in Stanhoe. Here he talks about the Margetson family and their cottage (later Mrs Blackburn’s); coppers, tin baths, net curtains and geraniums; gardening; unusual plum and apple trees; cricket and football; sawing firewood; joining Wagg’s as a baker’s roundsman in 1946; night soil and bin collections introduced; new council houses in Station Road, and other new buildings; sale of the Hall; gardening at home and at work; dripping and cheese; the working man’s midday meal; village shops; a close community; Mr Bloy’s taxi; cycling to work and social events; inter-farm sporting competitions in the 1940s; Mr Axman’s maternal grandmother moves back to Stanhoe in 1943, from relative comfort in Fakenham to buckets of water and paraffin lamps in Stanhoe; population changes after the war.
Mark Roche
(24 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2012)
Mark Roche was born in Douglas, Lanark, Scotland in 1943. In 1978 he came to Stanhoe to live at the Old Rectory. Here he tells Rosemary Brown about the history of the house, its architecture, and how it has served the Roche family as a happy home for more than 30 years.
Ian Holmes
(13 minutes, recording by Rosemary Brown, © Stanhoe Archive 2012)
Ian tells of the people and the hard work behind Stanhoe Football Club from its formation at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 to its closure at the end of 2007. Although the club enjoyed modest success in the league, perhaps its main achievement was as a social activity. Many members of the original team played through almost the entire history of the club, often with their sons as well.
