Surname
|
Fryer
|
Forename
|
Dudley
|
Date of recording
|
Aug 2008
|
Year of birth
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1934
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Place of Birth
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Aldeburgh
|
Occupation
|
Retired
|
Fathers occupation
|
Grocer
|
Present Address
|
Aldeburgh
|
Location Interview
|
Aldeburgh
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Interviewer
Summary |
Heather Mabey
|
Duration
|
40 mins
|
No of tracks: 5
|
his recording consists of 5 tracks.
Track 1 - 3Mins 29 secs Dudley started by describing how he had traced his family back to the 1600's through the Ipswich Records Office. Describes his father as being one of 13 and his mother was born at Martlesham and then worked in service at the Belstead School for girls in Park Road, Aldeburgh. Describes how she also worked in the laundry at Aldeburgh Lodge Boys School. Describes his grandfather as being a Company Sergeant Major in the Suffolk Regiment (Cyclists Battalion) Describes how he lost a leg in the First World War and on his return worked for Dr. Dudley Summers and helped run the tennis courts in Park Road. Describes how in the summer he would drag sacks over the loose red core of the tennis courts and managed very well only having one leg. Describes how when he (Dudley) was 11 or 12 years old his grandfather would ask him to paint all the court lines and in those days the lines were lead strips that had to be painted over in white. He did this after school during the summer months and earned £1 10 shillings. Track 2 - 10 mins Describes how his grandmother used to invite tramps in for something to eat. Describes how there were a lot of tramps roaming about after the war. Describes how she would never refuse them and the children had to sit and eat their meals with the tramp and call him 'sir'. Describes how they lived in a little cottage at the far end of Aldeburgh High Street bordering on the marshes. Describes it as 2 up 2 down housed Mother, Father and 13 children. Describes how his father went to school in Aldeburgh as did all the brothers and sisters and when they left they all got good jobs. Describes one of his uncles becoming a Lt. Colonel in the Grenadier Guards. Describes how his father worked for George Constance, a builder who in those days did everything, as a foreman. Describes how Mr. Constance owned gravel pits in Blaxhall and Reydon near Southwold. Describes how he was responsible for 2 pits and 6-8 lorries would pick up the sand and gravel and take it to various building sites. . Describes how in the 1960's Mr. Constance supplied sand and gravel for the building of Sizewell A and that they were very busy. Dudley then describes how he became a plumber working for Mr. Constance when he left school. Describes how when the war started he was 5 or 6 years old and finished when he was 12 years old. Describes how he remembers his youth during the war years. Describes how his bedroom faced the river and he would watch the doodlebugs come over night after night as they went on their way to London. Describes the doodlebugs as having a red flame coming out of the back. Describes that there were artillery had guns at Sudbourne and these guns would try to shoot them down. Describes how he could see the explosions, and flashes in the sky. Describes how more and more V1 and V2 bombs came over and his father thought they were getting too close, so his family moved to Leiston Road. Describes how the school children used to form gangs 'the uptowners' from Saxmundham Road and Leiston Road and 'the downtowners' from the bottom end of Aldeburgh. Describes how he felt he was caught in the middle as he was downtowner and then moved to where the uptowners were. Describes how it was all good fun. Describes how he left school at 15 when he went to work for George Constance as a plumber but did not like the work and decided to join up for his National Service. Describes how he trained at Deepcut on the Surrey Hampshire border, and remembers it had a bad reputation. Describes how he joined up on 1st January 1953 and was away when Aldeburgh was flooded. Describes how he was doing his basic training and did not know that Aldeburgh had flooded until he picked up a newspaper (thinks it was the Daily Mirror) that was a few days old and saw the headlines "Many lives lost after East Coast Floods". Describes how he immediately went to his commanding officer stating that he lived on the east coast and wished to know whether his family were o.k. Describes how he was given compassionate leave and came home. Describes how the floods had receded and his family were o.k. and the army were still in Aldeburgh helping with the clearing up. Describes how his parents were living upstairs in their house as there was a lot of water downstairs which came up to the window sills approximately 4 feet high. Describes the floods as coming across the allotments up as far as the roundabout and Aldeburgh Hall Farm. Remembers a Mr. Mann whose nickname was 'Macmann' died when he was working on the sea wall and the flood waters took him away. This being the only death he can remember. Track 3 7 mins 39 secs THIS TRACK IS MUDDLED Describes how he went back to the army and finished his National Service. Describes how when he came back to Aldeburgh working as a plumber and then he worked at Sizewell A for the duration of the building work. Describe how Dean, his son is a fisherman and has his own boat and he believed this came down from Anne's (his wife) side of the family. Describes how he met Anne in 1960 at a dance. Some discussion of wartime. Track 4 8 mins 37 secs Describes how during the war the young children would play amongst the rubble, and used to find sweets in the rubble as the sweet shop and been bombed. He could not remember where the sweet shop was. Describes one of the most frightening things as hearing a huge explosion in the High Street. Describes how he put his hat and coat on to go and see what had happened and only got halfway there. Remembers there being a lot of smoke and people running about, police, fire engines. Describes how sailors had been working on mines in Oakley Square and the mines had exploded, blowing up 4 or 5 people. Describes how, when he was walking up the High Street, his father took his coat off the put it over his head and his mother's and sisters to they could not see what was happening and turned them around and sent them home. Describes how Sgt. Cole put a ladder against Baggots and newsagents which is now the Amber Shop and went up the ladder to retrieve pieces of body off the roof. Describes how he did not find out what had happened for a long time after as his parents had kept it from him. Describes how the post office and hospital were blown up, there being plaque in the post office saying how many were killed, and that Mr. Knights the postman was blinded. Describes the hospital as being opposite the cinema. Describes how bombs dropped by the Catholic Church in Lee Road. Describes how his parents never kept the children in as there were only occasional air raids during the day, most happening after dark. Describes the 4 shelters at the school as being underground and in the school playground. Describes how the children had to go down the steps and through a tunnel when the air raid siren went off. Describes how it was very dark and not very pleasant. Describes how on a Sunday he went with his father, mother and sister to the beach and remembers seeing a lot of people on the beach. Describes lots of fishing boats coming in and the town people going to the beach to see what fish had been caught. Describes how there were also lots of military people on the beach as well. Describes seeing two planes circling overhead and coming in from the southern end along the beach and spraying bullets down on the people. Describes how the guns were way of target and the planes were so low you could almost touch them. Describes how his father pushed him under a boat for safety and he was very frightened but doesn't remember if anyone had been killed. Track 5 8mins 10 secs Describes how his mother worked at Belstead School in Park Road but knew nothing about the school during the war and most the houses in Park Road were taken over to be used as army barracks. Describes how his mother came to Aldeburgh as a young girl and married a local boy (Arthur). Describes where the school was, mentioning that the Bromages lived there recently, and the playing fields were opposite. Remembers the owner as Gresilda Harvey possibly an actress, and describes the stained glass window in the church donated by GH. Describes how the children were sent from London to Aldeburgh at the beginning of the war and remembers having two children living with his family in Park Road. Describes how these children from London had never seen cows before. Describes how the cows came up from the marshes every day and went down Park Road to the dairy for milking. Describes how as the war went on there was an increasing number of V1 and V2 rockets coming over making Aldeburgh a dangerous place to live. Describes how children, including local children were moved to Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire although it was not compulsory and he did not go. Describes how he met Ann, his wife, at a dance in the Market Hall, Halesworth. Describes how she caught his eye and he asked her to dance, and it went from there. Describes how they have been married for nearly 50 years and he does not forget their anniversaries. Describes that they have two children, Beverley, who is married to Steven Saint who is the lifeboat No.2 and they have 3 children, and Dean who also has 3 children. Describes how proud he was this year (2008) because his eldest granddaughter was Carnival Queen and 2 of his other grandchildren were her attendants. Describes Dean as being a fisherman and how he (Dudley) likes to go with him occasionally. Describes how he went to the Ipswich Record Office and found out that his wife's family were called Scarlett and came from Westleton, and that one of them was a fisherman up in the north of the country and had a large fishing boat. Describes how he thought he got the name Dudley from Dr. Dudley Summers. |