CLIFTON HEATH
Surname
|
Heath
|
Forename
|
Clifton
|
Date of recording
|
2015
|
Year of birth
|
1932
|
Place of Birth
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Aldeburgh
|
Occupation
|
Farm worker, labourer in construction, roadworks
|
Fathers occupation
|
Longshore Fisherman
|
Present Address
|
Aldeburgh
|
Location Interview
|
Aldeburgh
|
Interviewer
Summary |
Colin Fletcher
|
Duration
|
191 Mins
|
No of tracks: 17
|
This interview is on 17 tracks.
Track 1 (20 seconds) Introduction Track 2 (12mins 40 secs) Birth in Aldeburgh. 1930’s house. Infestation. Wash-day. Brothers and sisters. World War Two suspected invasion. Parents. Maltese ancestors. Good mother. Poverty. A new council house: heating, water, cooking, outside toilet. Mother’s cooking. Father a fisherman. Drying fish. Herring, cod, plaice and sprats. The Fishermen’s Guild. Abundance of fish. Dozer Thorpe. Fishermen characters. Track 3 (12 mins 40 secs) Collis’s diving raft. Life on the beach. Sunny Collis. Father’s drinking. Fishermen and alcohol. The ‘Victoria’ public house. Bullard’s beer. Father’s illness. Witnessing father’s death. Burials. Funeral customs. Aldeburgh families: Strowgers, Burns, Tibbenhams, Nicholsons, Fishers, Trickers. Taylors. George Knowles the builder. W C Reade, builders. Children’s toys and games. Playing outside. Ice skating. Playing on the dykes. Bad winters. Playing on the marsh. Guy Fawkes bonfires at Slaughden. Allotments. Funfairs. Bert Stocks. Track 4 (12 mins 40 secs) Circuses on the marsh. Horses on Lantern Marshes. Dubby Pettitt’s laundry on Fort Green. Christmases. Sunday School. Miss Percy-Smith. Thorpeness Meare. Policemen. Sergeant Cole. Instant punishment. Naughty boys. Scrumping. Joy’s Orchard. Class differences in Aldeburgh. Corruption. Sergeant Baxter. The wireless. Accumulators. Mr Noller’s radio shop. Bobby Hands. Track 5 (12 mins 40 secs) Aldeburgh Primary School. School air-raid shelters. Collecting shrapnel. Teachers. Corporal punishment. Woodwork and cookery lessons. Parental involvement at school. Classroom behaviour. School sports. School gardens. School celebrations. Desks. Playtimes. High Street shops. Track 6 (12 mins 40 secs) High Street shops. Stealing sweets. Plymouth Brethren. Boats on the River Alde. River people. Races on the river. Caddying at the Golf Club. Class differences at the Golf Club. Helping his father, a fisherman. Aldeburgh lifeboat. Launching and landing. The capstan. Track 7 (12 minutes 40 secs) World War Two shipping disaster. The ‘Magdepur’. Lifeboat rescue. The shoals and sandbanks. Swimming in the sea. Outbreak of war. The beach in wartime. Beach defences. Naval guns. Guns at Slaughden. Soldiers based in Aldeburgh. Billets. Doodle-bugs. Air-raids. High Street bombing, December 1942. Track 8 (12 mins 40 secs) Aldeburgh children evacuated to Warsop: Given new clothes from the Chapel; Christmas in Warsop; Nottinghamshire coalmines; coal for the fire. Personal tragedy; best friend killed in air raid. Local families. Returning home from evacuation. Schooling for evacuees. End of WW2. Track 9 (12 mins 40 secs) Leaving school. Gardening work. Farm work. Wentworth estate. Church Farm, Aldeburgh. Farm horses – ploughing, harrowing, pulling carts. Jimmy Somerville and his father. Farming Linden Road. Muck-spreading. W C Reade buying farmland. Mrs Parsons. Glynn and Frank Hollister. Developing Linden Road. The first Fordson tractor. Church Farm Dairy and Hill Farm Dairy. Eddie Driver – delivering milk. Billy Moutell. Somervilles’ dairy business. Delivering milk by horse-and-cart. Farm work – long hours, hard work. Church Farm and Hill Farm. Jimmy Stone. Track 10 (12 mins 40 secs) Jimmy Stone – chewing tobacco. Clay pipe. Hard manual work. Threshing machine. Fordson Major. Bnding sheaves. Stacking and thatching. Cutting corn. Church Farm fields in Leiston. De-horning cows. Picture Post. TB precautions. Burning calves’ horns. Clifford Sharp the cowman. Driving cows through Aldeburgh. Hand milking. Church Farm bottling plant. Driving a milk tanker. Milk Marketing Board. Digging a well. Track 11 (12 mins 40 secs) Aldeburgh geology. Digging for water. Farm water supply. Jimmy Somerville buys vehicles. Modernising his Church Farm cottage. Walter French, builder. Mrs Somerville. Hard day’s work. Driving the Somervilles. Unfulfilled promise after 27 years service on the farm. Tanners buy the dairy. Cheated out of his house. A very low point in his life. Exempt from National Service. Farm rations. 1953 floods. Track 12 (12 mins 40 secs) Rescues from flood water. Kenny Unsworth. 1953 floods. Drowning of Mac Mann. River Alde and North Sea. Slaughden. The railway branch line. Loading sugar-beet onto the train. Teenage years. Aldeburgh Young People’s Club. Traveling by bike. Meeting Jean, his wife. Courting. Thunder storm. Track 13 (12 mins 40 secs) Sex before marriage. Girls. Their wedding on a snowy day. Tied cottage. Church Farm cottages. Church Farm Camping and Caravanning Site. Aldeburgh Town football pitch. The pavilion. Aldeburgh Town footballers. Fred and Phyllis Barber. Track 14 (12 mins 40 secs) Construction work at USAF Bentwaters. Folly End council house. Nuclear shelters. Colchester bypass roadwork. ‘Bungalow’ the general foreman. Comeraderie among working men. Subcontractors. Places of work: Ipswich bypass, Martlesham bypass, Lakenheath, Toys-R-Us. Building site industrial accident. Broken leg. At Ipswich Hospital. Compensation. Track 15 (12 mins 40secs) Court case. Construction work – subcontracting. Wages dispute. Pipe-laying. Learning to drive. Driving test stories. Wightman’s Garage, Sternfield. First cars. Teaching his wife to drive. His wife’s stroke. Invalid buggy. Caring for Jean, his wife. His children. Track 16 (12 mins 40 secs) Adoption dilemma. A lovely granddaughter. Losing his daughter. Addenbrokes Hospital. A long operation. Children and grandchildren. Family stories. Reflection: Aldeburgh changed for the worst; young people today; a hard working life; falling standards; happiest days. Track 17 (42secs) A difficult life. |