MICHAEL WILSON

Surname

Wilson

Forename

Michael

Date of recording

Dec 2011

Year of birth

1937

Place of Birth

Thorpeness

Occupation

Fathers occupation

Present Address

Aldeburgh

Location Interview

Leiston

Interviewer

Summary

Colin Fletcher

Duration

120 Mins

No of tracks: 12

This recording cosists of 12 tracks.
Track 1    Introduction
Track 2    12mins                                                                       
Born at Thorpeness Fen, 1937. No electricity or water in house. Water from a well. Siblings. Health Authority condemns water. House bought by ‘posh’ incomers – the ‘knobs’. Family move to Knodishall. Bathing, cooking and washing clothes on The Fen. The range. The outhouse. Sleeping arrangements for large family. Keeping warm in winter. Children outside in all weathers. Family food: rabbits; pheasants; vegetables from garden; mother’s cooking. Christmas. Captain Ogilvie’s pheasants. Ferreting. Wildfowling. Poaching. How ferreting was done.
Track 3    12mins 40secs   
Ferreting. Selling ferrets. Playing truant. Slow learner. Difficulty with reading. Learning to read in the army. Poor teaching. Leiston schools. Biking to school on County Council cycle.  Families on the Fens. World War Two bomb. Harry Shipp and Nipper Knights. Michael’s love of The Fens. Mother working for ‘toffs’. Michael’s grandfather. Drifters and smacks. Accident at sea. The Magdapur. Leiston Works. The foundry. Father’s army service in India. Mother from Norfolk. Parents meeting.
Track 4    12mins 40secs   
Grandparents from Cricklewood, Norfolk. Grandfather a horseman. Farming accident. The Home Guard. Doodlebugs. Soldiers at Thorpeness. Sergeant Britten. Michael joins the army. The ‘Bofers’ gun. Doodlebugs on North Warren, The Meare and the holt. Beach defences. Fishing in wartime. Numbers of fishing boats at Aldeburgh and Thorpeness. Changes in local fishing industry. Names of Aldeburgh fishermen. Aldringham Primary School. Leiston Secondary Modern School. Working on farm: driving tractor; cowman.
Track 5    12mins 40secs    (                      
Pop Gooding. Tenant farmer. Wentworth Park Farm. Jersey and Red Poll cows. Poor conditions for agricultural labourers. Major Wentworth. National Service. Signing on for the regular army. Army life in Germany. Army football in Germany. Relations between Germans and British. Finding work after the army. Blackheath. Henry Baldry. Farm work. Peas to Birds Eye in Lowestoft. Fishing with Syd Strowger. Dairy farming. Jimmy Somerville and the Church Farm, Aldeburgh.
Track 6    12mins 40secs  
 Syd Strowger, Aldeburgh fisherman – his death at sea in his fishing boat. Gregory Peck and Moby Dick. Michael invests in his own boat. Ken Wall the policeman. Fishing through the year: cod; soles; skate; herring; sprats. Fishing quotas. EU regulations. Selling the fish. A glut of herring. Fishermen’s Guild. Selling salted herring to Russia. Lobsters and crabs to Billingsgate market. Selling fish off the beach. Lowestoft fish market.
Track 7    6mins                                                                             
Giving up his boat. Selling fish at Lowestoft. How to catch cod. Long lines. Baiting-up in baths. Bait: whelks; sprats; squid. Shooting and hauling lines. Problems with trawlers from West Mersea. Catching soles. Trawling. Drift nets. Trawl nets.
Track 8    12mins 40secs   
How fishermen navigate. Using a lead line, compass and watch. Modern navigating – GPS. Colours of seabed mud. Wrecks. Searching for fish. Cooperation between fishermen. Aldeburgh and Thorpeness characters. Games fishermen played in pubs: ‘yuka’; shove halfpenny; crib. Fishing boats built by Frank Knights at Woodbridge. Cost of new boats. Modern fibre-glass boats. Improvements for fishermen. Capstans. Winching boats up beach. Fishing gear: lobster pots; parlour pots; Parsh fishers. Making nets in winter – the tools.
Track 9    12mins 40secs   
 Aldeburgh Fishermen’s Guild. Salting herring and sprats. Fish on the train. Sending fish to Russia. Fish to Lowestoft. Problems with Billy Burrell. Running the Guild: George Constance; Simon Steer; Ken Brown. Problems with the Guild. Power of the Guild. Watching the weather. Fishing boats staying ‘in the garden’. Surprised and caught out by the weather. Accident at sea. Off Bawdsey. Sudden swell. Waves getting bigger. Lifeboat launched to help them – Michael, Syd Strowger and Yummy (David) Keane. Lifeboat searching for them. Life jackets saved their lives. Trying to get ashore. Huge wave. Boat sinks. Mick couldn’t swim. Swallowing sea water. Rescued by lifeboat. Fred Barber. Trying to save Yummy Keane. Three attempts.
Track 10    12mins 40secs               
Cleft pallet. Communication problems on board. Reuben Woods takes wheel during rescue. Drop of brandy. Yummy Keane unconscious. By ambulance to Cottage Hospital. First aid. CPR. A close call. Maurice Smith saved their lives. Worst moment during rescue. 10th April 1972. Sea was cold. Reuben Woods’ good seamanship. Thanking the rescuers. Celebrities on beach. Benjamin Britten. Festival opera singers. Harry Blackburn. Amber. Trips out to sea. Sir Alf Ramsey. Reg Varney. Danny La Rue. Maggie Hambling. The scallop. Native Suffolk folk and the gentry – how class relations have changed. Better  in past.
Track 11    12 mins 40 secs                                                         
Captain Ogilvy at Thorpeness. Thorpeness Estate. ‘The Captain’. The Country Club. The golf course. The meare. Glen Ogilvy. Death duties. Changes. Michael, aged eleven, moves to The Fitches, Knodishall. Unhealthy water on The Fen. Landlord. Better house. Meeting Mary his wife. The Yanks. Courting. Getting married. Registry Office. The Workmen’s Club. Living in damp house. Moving to Leiston council house. Changes in Leiston. People moving into the town. Housing Association. High rents. Son, daughter and grandchildren.
Track 12    2mins   
Advice to grandchildren- “Emigrate”. Poor state of Britain. Immigration. Population too big. Happiest time of his life – childhood, on fen. Wildfowling.