JOAN FISH

Surname

Fish

Forename

Joan

Date of recording

Dec 2008

Year of birth

1924

Place of Birth

Wickham Market

Occupation

Retired

Fathers occupation

Coalman

Present Address

Aldeburgh

Location Interview

Aldeburgh

Interviewer

Summary

Heather Mabey

Duration

26 Mins

No of tracks: 9

This recording consists of 9 tracks.  
Track 1 (2.39) 

Interview by Heather Mabey.  Joan Fish 193 High Street Aldeburgh on 1st  December 2008.  Born 1924 at Wickham Market and moved to Aldeburgh with her parents to live with 'granny'   (father's mother) at 193 High Street.  Mentions granny died in 1938 and family continued to live at 193.  Mentions that during the war her mother's brother, uncle George Woodgate, came to live with them but only stayed weekends, described how he had to have a permanent address to enable him to obtain rations.  Mentions he was a steam roller driver.  Her  father was a coal carter and worked for Mrs. Joy at the Priory, which was situated further down the High Street, past what is now the fish shop.

Track 2 (1.08) 

Mentions Herbert, a cousin of her father, who 'was bought up like his brother', but did not live with them.  Herbert lived at the bakehouse and was a baker whose shop was where the florist is now. The bakehouse was at the back.  Mentions that on the site of the present bakers, this was owned by Seers who were also bakers with a shop further down the High Street.

Track 3(6.10 ) 

Describes going to Aldeburgh Council School and remembers Miss Cooper as being the infant school teacher and Mr. Witham the headmaster.  Mentions that Mr. Witham had a cane but doesn't  remember his using it, perhaps he used it when some of the boys became 'rumbumptious', believes it may have been used as more of a deterrent.  Describes school sports day, and remembers playing cricket, tennis, hockey, skipping and playing with balls.  Remembers using tops and hoops out of school.  Describes the school field as being near Kings Field, near the school, but sports days were always held at the recreation ground which is now the caravan site.  Remembers the town  having a football team, and there being a hockey pitch and a bowls green.  Remembers walking to the recreation ground or riding her bike.  Describes how she left school on her 15th birthday, and was allowed to leave mid-term as she had a job.  This was with Watson and Allen, (now the book shop) which was a department store, selling  everything including children's clothes, ladies clothes,  underwear, material, haberdashery, and at the far end sold jewellery, radios, and even had a photographic studio.  Remembers she was there for one year and then the store closed down due to the war and the fact that many people were evacuated from Aldeburgh.  Describes how she was 'on the dole' for three months and then got a job at Atkinson's, a clothes shop, at the bottom of Choppings Hill, where the book shop and Avocet are now.  She was there for 3 years.  Describes how she left there after being called up and worked in munitions at Girdlestones, where Peggs is now.  Her mother died in 1943.  Remembers she stopped working at munitions in 1945, the end of the war.

Track 4 (6.03)  

Describes how she stayed at home after the war looking after the house, cleaning and cooking but after about a year she got bored and started working in the bakers during the summer months.  Describes how she eventually got a part time job, doing relief, with Timothy Whites, which is now David's Place, and then the job became permanent.  Remembers Timothy Whites being taken over by Boots who applied to have the premises made larger but planning permission was not given and after six months it closed down.  Describes how she then went to work at Stephens the chemist and she was there until she retired.  Describes how during the war, in 1939, evacuees came from London to Aldeburgh but because there were no shelters and nothing much was happening in London, they all went back.  Describes how the school was evacuated from Aldeburgh to Worksop.  Remembers the bombs dropping on Aldeburgh  across the marshes, in Lee Road,  at the back of the catholic church, the chapel and house at the top of Choppings Hill, the post office, hospital, dairy and some shops.  Describes how people died and the High Street was machine gunned.  Remembers an incident in Oakley Square, where the navy had a mine store, and one Sunday there was a huge explosion and they had  blown themselves up. Many sailors were killed.  Describes how the army took over the large houses that had been left empty, as the residents had been evacuated, on the sea front, in Lee Road and Park Road.   Remembers when the hospital was bombed, Dr Nora and Dick Smith quickly had to look for alternative premises and found the house in Park Road, where the hospital still stands, and managed to get it just before the army.  

Track 5 (2.45)  

Describes how the shops in the High Street seem to change weekly.  Remembers in her day there were a lot more ordinary shops, like greengrocers, grocers, butchers and bakers.  There was an International Stores.  Remembers there being one fish and chip shop and 2 fresh fish shops.  Remembers that the St. John Ambulance office was at the Custom House and moved to what is now The Regatta, where there was also a toy shop.  Remembers Thompson's Gallery was a jewellery shop owned by Hedley Ing.  Remembers there being a hotel at the bottom of Church Hill called The Cross Hotel, where Fairweather Stephens are now, on the corner of Market Cross Place.

Track 6 (1.52)  

Describes her memories of Slaughden, most ruins as the houses were dismantled for the bricks.  Remembers she was about 10 or 11 years old.  Remembers her father discovering the brick outline of  a well at Slaughden which all the houses probably used.  It is now under the sea.  Describes how she was able to walk all the way around the Martello Tower on the ground, not the beach.  Remembers there being lots of races at the Yacht Club, much the same as today.  

Track 7 (1.58)  

Remembers the names of the fishermen, Wards, Cables, Strowgers, Collis.  Remembers Ward's garage in the High Street, in fact there were two garages owned by Wards the second being where MCT  Electrical and the pine shop are today.  Describes how she never married and has lived in the same house all her life. 

Track 8 (3.13)  

Describes her house as having two upstairs bedrooms, and remembers sharing a bedroom with her parents until she was a teenager.  Describes how her grandmother used to sleep in the back bedroom and later in the front room downstairs, but Joan could not use the bedroom as it was full of her grandmother's belongings.  Describes how she used to have a bath in the kitchen and eventually then a shed was  built  in the garden.  The water was heated from a copper in the kitchen and carried out.  Remembers it being very cold in the winter as there was a lot of condensation that used to drip down and there was also an oil stove.  Remembers the house being cold  no central heating, with ice on the inside of the windows which made pretty patterns.. Describes taking her clothes to bed with her and getting dressed in bed.  Describes lino on the floor with rugs.  Describes the outside toilet also being full of coal at one end. 

Track 9 (.55)   

Since this recording was made Joan would like to mention that in the early 1930's she remembers people who owned the big houses on the front and who were on holiday in Aldeburgh, walking along Crag Path in their evening dresses going to dances the Jubilee Hall.  She also mentions, but doesn't actually remember, that in the 1920's these holiday makers  applied  to have Crespigny cottages pulled down to make way for garages for their use and their guests.  Apparently the Town Council refused this permission.
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