PAT CABLE

Surname

Cable

Forename

George Patrick

Date of recording

2015

Year of birth

1938

Place of Birth

Aldeburgh

Occupation

Merchant seaman, diver, various

Fathers occupation

Present Address

Aldeburgh

Location Interview

Aldeburgh

Interviewer

Summary

Alan Cartwright

Duration

155 Mins

No of tracks: 14

Pat Cable  
Track  1  Born in Aldeburgh at 10, Victoria Road. Two up two down, gas lighting, outside toilet cooking range
 Track 2
Sent to Sproughton to spend the war with Grandparents. Remembers doodlebugs collecting bomb fragments in fields near the farm. Facilities very basic. Bathed once a week. Water from spring. Oil lights and candles. Grandfather shot rabbits which were turned into meals. Hens kept for eggs. Hand me down clothes, boots with “bleakes” on. No school uniform. Best clothes for Sundays. Grandfather a Methodist Lay Preacher.
Track 3
Church on Sundays, morning, afternoon Sunday School summer evening service. Grandfather worked horses on the farm pack up for lunch. Bramford School. Christmas at the farm. Back to Aldeburgh School age 7. Aldeburgh School. Family life at 10, Victoria Road. Police force.
Track 4
Cross Hotel Aldeburgh. Fishing on Aldeburgh beach. Bathing huts. Lifeboat Tales about fishing. School holidays Hector and Billy Burrell. Spratting (catching sprats) at Thorpeness record catches. Brian and Ernie Cotton. Curing the herring and selling them. Fisherman’s Guild Oakley Sq. Fishermen on the beach. Going after lobsters and crabs. Reades yard for wood shavings. Billingsgate Market London.
Track 5
Catching lobsters 1953 Aldeburgh floods. Evacuation of residents. The Kentbrook running aground 1953 (actually 1954). The lifeboat who went on the rescue. Rocket cart breeches boy, names of volunteers. British Sailors Society. Prince of Wales training school Dover. Went in at age 15yrs.Flew to Canada on a Vickers Viscount . Joined as a deck boy.
Track6
Spent 16 birthday on the St. Laurence river. Merchant Navy....discipline, conduct. Tramp Steamers. Travelled the world. General cargo...Ford car parts, newsprint. Jobs done by different ranks in the Merchant navy. Watches. Wages shore leave taking certificates to make rank.
Track 7 
Ships. The Sussex. Then ship Rongarowa (spelling could be Whangaroa or Rangiroa) signing articles to join ship. Journeys. Montreal to New Zealand. Mess bills. Left  October 13th 1961 with£800.2s 6d.  Aldeburgh Post Office. Council Mortgage. Family move to Franklin Road Aldeburgh. How he met his wife Joy.                                 
Track8      Gifts from America. Construction of Sizewell A October 1961.Worked as a labourer and a diver. Worked on sea platforms and tunnels. Bad weather at Christmas left him stranded.
Track 9 Decompression when diving. Nuclear Electric, Taylor Woodrow. Working with Frank Manders at Ipswich Hospital. C.E.G.B. Worked as a rigger on operational staff. Worked for CEGB for 33years. Retired age 54. Family. Building his bungalow in Linden Road. Changes in Aldeburgh. Boys Brigade Sea rangers. Youth Club. East Suffolk Hotel.
Track 10      Youth Club concerts. Activities. Dick Smith, Dorothy Knights Stella Knights. Electricity Generating Station. Watsons Garage ex war department equipment. Aldehouse woods, Alde house. Doctors and dentists in Aldeburgh. Anglesea Road Hospital Ipswich. Train from Liverpool St.to Aldeburgh. National Service. Life in retirement, holidays.
Track 11           Holidays. House in Victoria Road. Life as a young boy. Goods washed up on the beach. Cotton. flour, lard, wood, amber. Salmon Trout fishing. Diving raft and bathing huts.
Track12        Diving raft, duck shooting. Hector Burrell. Flight ponds near the old Town dump. Aldeburgh Wildfowlers. Aldeburgh Marshes collecting mushrooms. Old Mr. Baggott man of many hats. Kenny Unsworth. Crag Pit horse and cart. Church Farm dairy.
Track 13   Nissan huts on the Leiston Road. Knights and Churchill families. Wildlife in Crag pit.3 wheeled delivery cart used at the Railway Station. Aldeburgh Railway Station Collecting watercress from the ditches. Aldeburgh School. Archie Christy George Barnes, milk deliveries, Drew family.
Track 14    Eeling on the marshes. Catching and cooking eels.