Recent content by Big Gee

I attended 58 - 64. I've tried explaining to my friends and family about Porky Walker and his violence. A Yorkshire phsycopath who'd raise your forelock , slap your face or punch you in the back if you didn't know how many beans made five. He'd be under lock and key today. I was at GD from...

A few years ago I had a nasty attack of norovirus which kept me in bed for well over a week, and caused serious dehydration and muscular weakness for some time afterwards. My wife called the NHS Helpline when I first had the (horrible) symptoms, and I was told not to leave the house for any...

My old man never said a lot about his work, but I do recall him saying he was spending time doing some kind of maintenance in the Titanium Division. I know he spent a lot of time at IMI on a general basis, and he liked it as he could walk there and back home for lunch! G

Hi Genmac, my father Eddie Bryant worked for Birlec in those days, and did a good deal of furnace installation and serving at IMI. Much later I was sales manager for a small company supplying high-temperature materials, and we did some business at IMI, my contact being Alan Bratt. Do these...

Another possibly little-known fact about Southwold is that it was shelled, in 1917, by ships and a submarine of the German Navy. No-one was killed, but a very few buildings were damaged. Precisely why the Kriegsmarine decided to shell Southwold, I really don't know. Were they aiming for Adnam's...

On the aforementioned 'touring' holiday in 1982, we went and had a look at Dunwich, which was and is subject to erosion by the sea. It didn't look too bad in 1982, but I've just looked on the net at what it's like in 2020... I was once advised that if I was looking for a used car to buy one...

That's a great photo! In the late 60's and early 70's I worked for Triplex Safety Glass, just up the road from the Co-Op. I'm sure I went to a colleague's wedding-reception in the Co-Op Hall, but it was so long ago I could well be mistaken. I always thought that the Pershore Road South down from...

We'd both love to repeat that holiday, but in the intervening almost 40 years my ability to drive more than a few miles has all but disappeared, and my wife doesn't drive at all. I always thought that East Anglia was undersold as a part of England to visit. Get those notes typed up for us to...

I think it was The Jolly Sailor we stayed at in Orford - very close to the water. Just about skint us as well! G

M Pubs, back in the early 1980's we had a holiday wholly in East Anglia, one of the best we can remember. Blue skies every day for a week and a half. Started off in Kings Lynn, and worked our way along the coast, stopping off where we fancied and staying each night preferably in pubs. Wells and...

Thanks, Pedrocut. 'Rescue' sounds a bit ominous to me... G

Ref: my earlier post, Mom used to say about Heathfield Maternity that some of the staff gave her the impression that she'd 'done something wrong' - which makes me wonder if it was originally built as a maternity home for unmarried mothers! Anyone know? G

I was born there in 1946 and spent the first few months of my life in and out of various hospitals with one thing and another. My mother used to say the conditions at Heathfield Road weren't very good, and she thought this was why I had breathing difficulties at a very early age. Could be. Does...

I had a bike (my brother's old one) when I was a nipper, but after I came off it that was that - Mom grabbed it and gave it away and I never had another. But I love to watch Le Tour, and also Le Tour de Yorkshire. In both cases I usually know some of the places the riders pass through. We had...

OK, this might sound like a load of old you-know-what, but it isn't. Way back in the Sixties, the Salutation Arms (corner of Snow Hill and Summer Lane) was a favoured Friday night spot for trad jazz. A load of crazies and weirdoes gathered there, but few so barmy as a bloke who was a genuine...