ORAL HISTORY - ALDEBURGH VOICES
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      • Jim Cadbury-Brown
      • Pat Cable
      • Cliff Caley
      • Joan Carter
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      • Alan Cartwright
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      • Nancy Clarke
      • Derek Cook
      • Celia Cooney
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      • Clive Curtis
    • D - G >
      • Peg Davies
      • Pansy Ehlert
      • Derek Filby
      • Lee Firman
      • Joan Fish
      • Colin Fletcher
      • Jake Forman
      • Dean Fryer
      • Dudley Fryer
      • Bill Gallant
      • Wilfrid George
      • Pam Goodchild
      • Edward Greenwell
    • H - L >
      • Doris Hallas
      • Susan Harrison
      • Nigel Hartley
      • Clifton Heath
      • Dulcie Hill
      • Dudley Holland
      • Glyn Hollister
      • Betty Horrex
      • Trevor Hughes
      • Geoffrey Hunting
      • Derek Jeffs
      • Pauline Kerridge
      • Mary King
      • Stella Knights
      • Doris Bob Ling
      • Roderick Linsell
      • GRANT LOHOAR
      • Pat Lord
      • John Lovett
    • M - S >
      • Barbara Maddocks
      • Richard Marson
      • Nina Maskell
      • Shirley Mower
      • Tony Moore
      • Dick Murphy
      • Dennis Pegg
      • Michael Pritt
      • Bill Roberts
      • Richard Roberts
      • Elizabeth Roney
      • Vernon Rose
      • Ivy Sharman
      • GORDON SIMPKIN
      • Alan Smith
      • Jean Smith
      • Maurice Smith
      • Victor Smith
      • Michael Stagg
    • T - Z >
      • Ian Tait
      • Rita Thomson
      • Rosemary Unwin
      • Jumbo Ward
      • Ron Ward
      • IVAN WATLING
      • George Watson
      • Betty Webster
      • Dorothy Whately-Smith
      • Terry Wightman
      • Eric Williamson
      • Michael Wilson
      • John Wright
  • USING THE SITE

SAM CORDLE

Surname
Cordle
Forename
Samuel Herbert
Date of recording
March 2008
Year of birth
1913
Place of Birth
Holbrook
Occupation
Retired farmer
Fathers occupation
Farmer
Present Address
Orford
Location Interview
Aldeburgh
Interviewer

Summary

Jane Allen
Duration
56 Mins
No of tracks: 3

This recording consists of 3 tracks.  

Interview conducted at Mr Cordle's house, The Randalls, Front Street, Orford on Thursday 13 March 2008 from 3.00pm to about 4.20pm. Interviewer Jane Allen.

Notes: 

(1) Mr Cordle's son-in-law, Canon Norman Davis, sat in throughout. His voice can be heard making occasional interjections.

(2) Mr Cordle is rather deaf so I had to speak up, with the result that my voice is very loud

(3) Extensive building work is being done at the house, so there is some background noise of hammering and drilling.

Track 1 (2 mins 17 secs)
00.05 Date of birth and circumstances of arrival in Orford.

Track 2  (44 mins 46 secs)
00.40: Father's purchase of Chantry Farm in sale of the Sudbourne Park estate in 1918. Didn't actually view the farm before buying it. A keen Baptist family, was told there was a chapel opposite the farm but found after the sale that it was a Methodist, not Baptist, chapel.

00.42 - 02.32 Sam's baptism in the river Ore

[02.32 - 03.01 JA explains about John Anderson's scrap books - irrelevant to interview]

03.08 Number of farmworkers at  Chantry Farm

03.52 First tractors on farm

05.01 Description of Jim, last Suffolk Punch horse on farm, and his eventual slaughter

07.34 Shoeing horses

08.31 The marshes, drainage and use for summer grazing

09.52 Description of the river walls

10.18 The 1953 floods

         Cattle swimming to safety

12.49 Calves being rescued, taken into kitchen and given whisky

14.06 Calves being warmed by 'Esse' solid fuel cooker

14.24 Machinery and cars spoiled by flood

15.18 Lord Mayor's flood relief fund

15.39 Gypsum spread on fields to neutralize effects of salt water. Slow recovery of     land. Trees killed

17.55 Farming on Orford Ness

18.20 Drainage problems

19.18 Airfield on Orford Ness [at 19.52 refers to 'the island' which is what the locals call Orford Ness]

20.38 Era of Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Shooting large numbers of  hares on Orford Ness

22.21 Keeping livestock on Orford Ness

23.14 Combine harvester going over on ferry. Crops on the Ness; state of the land

22.45 Government land drainage grants in World War II

26.00 Schooldays

27.00 Love of sports

27.46 Headmaster of school Mr J W Petley

31.13 Love of shooting, game shooting and wildfowling

31.34 Wildfowling at harvest time

32.25 'Havergate Drift'

32.32  Sisters, one in 'WAAF' (Women's Auxiliary Air Force), another going to live at 'Wetheringset'(village in mid-Suffolk)

33.44 No holidays, just visits to relatives. Train spotting when staying in 'Willoughby Road', Ipswich

34.55 Member of Middle Alde Drainage Board

         other local landowners: 'Sir Peter Greenwell', 'Mr Tom Arkle'. 'Gedgrave Hall' and    'Richmond Farm', combined acreage of 900 acres - same as that required for expansion of Stansted Airport. [Pretty good for a 94-year-old!]

37.01 Butley River. Oyster shed near Orford Quay. 'Tom Brinkley'. 'Macfisheries'.

[38.51 - 39.27 References to Richard Pinney - irrelevant to interview]

39.29 Wallmen (labourers who kept river walls in repair) 

40.48 'Havergate Drift'

41.20 Alder wood used for piling. 'Alder Carr' at 'Sudbourne'

42.45 Secretary to Sir Bernard Greenwell and Sir Peter Greenwell acted as secretary to Drainage Board.


As the recommended hour of interviewing for over 80s was up, I stopped recording. Mr Cordle then started talking about World War II so I resumed recording, but not quite at the beginning.


Track 3 (9 mins 3 secs)
00.29 Description of being on duty with Home Guard, watching for enemy aircraft from observation post just north of Gedgrave Road. Very long and tiring periods on duty in early part of war.

01.25 Fires from Dunkirk visible

02.25 Italian air raid. Plane coming down on Orford Beach. 

03.19 Description of fighter planes attacking enemy bombers

05.00 German air raid on Orford October 1942. 13 fatalities. Was milking cows. 

07.47 Help given to John Macdonald, scientist working on Orford Ness, whose house was damaged in the air raid. 
​
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