Mary Olley.

I was born on the 19th of August 1949 in Little Cressingham. We then moved to Church Farm Cottages, Sporle and then we moved to Hills Close in Sporle when I was 4 years old. I went to school in Sporle, which had about 70 pupils and 3 teachers in all. The school day started at 8-45 and ended at 3-30. The discipline was quite tough. The infant teacher was Mrs Whiteside and the Headmaster was Mr Parker, Mrs Gooch and Mrs Roberts also taught there. In the playground we played hopscotch and Jacks marbles. I can remember for lunch on a Friday we were given hot beetroot and mash with semolina for afters.
We lived at Sporle for 12 years and then we were at Swaffham for 6 years. We lived in a 3 bed roomed house with 3 rooms downstairs. There were 5 of us living there altogether. For entertainment we played outside, riding bikes and roller-skating. I had to help my mum in the house and I had to help my dad with the pigs. After we’d had tea we’d be off to bed at 7 o’clock. When I was 4 I can remember having the best Christmas ever. I got given a pram from mum and a walking doll from Nan.
There were 2 holidays I can remember having during my childhood. They were to Hemsby and going to Suffolk and sleeping in the car for the night on the way.
It was when I was about 10 in 1959 that we went to Hemsby for one week for our only proper holiday. My dad had some ferrets so a neighbour said she would look after them. It was when we got back that we found out they had got out the first day we were away and had been terrifying all the people on Hills Close.
Sporle used to have 4 shops, a chip shop and 2 pubs. A big event in the village was the fete. If there was any mischief in the village the local policeman would clip you round the ear. Our family doctor at the time was Dr Pilkingdon at Swaffham.

We had a number of our relatives live close to us including my Nan and Granddad Emma and William Boughen, and my aunt Gladys and uncle Pip Garrod with their son Keith. In about 1950 my cousin Rodney Sturdivant who was about 2 had been born in America. His mother had been a GI bride and his father had died out there. His mother came back to England with him on a banana boat as she had very little money. They came to live with us. Room was rather tight with only 2 good size bedrooms but we made the best of it at Church Farm cottages. When Rodney was about 5 my dad sent him to Applegate shop to get some wire netting, seeds and some left handed screws. Mrs Applegate did not see the funny side of this and sent back a nasty letter and never let us forget it.
Another relative of ours was called Padding Garrod. He was quite harmless but when Saturdays came it was quite different. He would spend most of his day in the pub either at Sporle or Swaffham, then knowing he would be in trouble at home, he would crawl in an old chicken hut on the allotments at Sporle. The problem was the chicken hut was only about 5 ft long and he was about 5 ft 6 in so his feet would stick out. Then us children would know he was in there sleeping it off, so lovely children that we were we would go up there and throw clods of earth at the hut so he would try to get out by standing up, crashing and banging about to try and catch us.
In about 1955 my grandad and grandmother moved from Barn cottage to The Street, Sporle in a small terrace cottage. My grandad took on the job as village mole catcher. He had a shed at the bottom of the garden and when he had caught the moles he would skin them and pin the skins out to dry in the shed and sell them for coats and handbags. The smell was terrible! I can smell it just thinking about it. Next door to him lived Tit Thompson the chimney sweep. We were all frightened of him. I do not know why, perhaps it was because he was always black and never looked like he washed.
When I left school in 1964 I went to work at Brooks firework factory in Swaffham. Then in 1965 I went to work in Woolworths when it first opened in Swaffham. I used to walk to work and there were about 30 people working with me.