www.albiestales.co.uk part one

PICTURE IF YOU WILL a little flint-faced cottage in a quiet cul-de-sac in the sleepy seaside resort of Sheringham back in the dark days of the 1940s, when the entire world was plunged into the evils of a second global conflict. But life still went on, and it was here, on a snowy February morning, that Albie first opened his eyes to the world. Let Edie Middleton, his great-grandmother, who he was later to call ‘Nanny’, tell you all about it in her local dialect.

WHEN MY GLADYS and Albert Gray got married in 1940 there wun’t no houses t’ be had, fur love nor money, an’ as I hed room here at Regis Cottage in Regis Place (see map below) it seemed on’y nat’ral fur them t’ live alonga me!

Gladys had met Albert when she wus about sixteen, an’ a Songster in the Salivation Army. I s’poose yew’d call him a ‘furriner’ on account of him a-comin’ from Wyndham Park, near Cromer, but he wus a luv’ly hard-warkin’ blooke who wus a manager with the Co-op at Holt.

I sear t’ Gladys at the time, ‘he’ll go far, Mawther, he will an’ tha’s no mistearke, yew mark my wuds! He did too! He wus a good husband t’ the mawther, an’ he wus good t’ me an’orl.

So, as I sed, they got married, in the May of 1940. That wus at St Peter’s chuch in town, ’though Albert wus a Methodist an’ Gladys wus Army.

Arter the weddin’ we orl come back here, to Regis Cottage, an’ hed the recepshun, Then they went orf on honeymune t’ furrin paarts. Dunstable, that wus! An’ when they come hoome orf honeymune they come here t’ live.

They hen’t bin here long, afore Albert hed his callin’-up pearpers, that wus on 27 June o’ that year.

Soon arter, we heared our Gladys wus gorn t’ have a bearby, an’we wus all hoolly pleased, that we wus, but sadly our Albert hatta report to Nelson barricks in Norridge an’ go inta the Army.

ALBERT JOINS THE NORFOLK REGIMENT

He joined the ‘Norfolks’, he did, but wus told he hatta be a cook, an’ he hatta be a good ’un tew as the Army marches on his stomick, or tha’s what they sear.

Like they do in the Army, they ‘volunteered’ Albert to be a cook, so his Commandin’ Orficer sent him on an emergency cook’s course, what they held at the Ritz in Lunnen, to git orl trearned up. An’ tha’s jist what he did an’orl, an’ passed his test on 22 Jan’ry 1941, just a fortnight afore his Gladys wus due to hev har bearby.

He come back from Lunnen as a Cook Class BII, an’ he wus hooly good at cookin’ an’orl by then, he med some luv’ly batta pudduns he did too, an’ tha’s a fact! An’ we hatta thanks the Good Lord fur that we do.

Not the batta pudduns, but fur sendin’ Albert t’ Lunnen. ’Corse, when he come back, he went on inta th’ Tank Corps, ’corse they needed cooks rearl bad, they did. Then his ole regiment, the Norfolk’s, searled fur Singapore an’ got there jist as it fell in 1942! An’ we orl know what happened t’ orl them poor boys, some on ’em cearme from Sheringham an’orl. Tragic, that wus. But, you know, I reckons that searved our Albert’s life, that did, an’ we have the Lord t’ thank fur that. I allus sear He warks in mysterious ways, dorn’t He?

A HAPPY EVENT IN REGIS PLACE

Well, come the end o’ Jan’ry o’ forty-one, that ole wind hooly got up an’ tarned orl easterly, like that do, an’ that got orl wintry-like. That snew an’ snew fur dears on end. Feb’ry wun’t no betta, an’ sune we hed sno all over the throshall an ’ half way up the scull’ry door. Tha’s then that our Gladys began havin’ learbour pearns, so, the Draycotts from next door went fur the doctor and his nurse.

Afore Doctor Lawson come we all hatta muck in an’ clear a path through the sno t’ the back door an’ the outside WC. That wun’t a lotta cop, ’corse the the toilet wus all frooze up, wun’t it?

‘Merry an’ Bright’ we orl called the doctor in those days – an’ he wus. Whatever the weather, come rearn or shoine, he allus mearde yew larf. Come from Scotland he did, an’orl, although we never thought of him as a furriner, accordin-lie how good he wus to all on us. A rearl gentleman he wus, an’ that go without sayin’.

Well, him an’ the nurse, they soon tarned up, an’ right away he med hisself at hoome, he did, an’ took a cuppa tea along o’ us, while I set to boilin’ up another kittle o’ water fur the necessaries. Then, him an’ the nurse mawther went upstairs. They hen’t bin gone along o’ an hour when, arter a lotta huffin’ and puffin’ we all heard the little’un hallerin’ its first wuds – though we din’t understand them at the time, o’ corse!

“Och, me dear,” I heared Dr Lawson sear, “ you’ve a bonny wee laddie, Gladys!” An’ she had too, even though he looked a bit like our Mr Charchill, but, tha’s a rummun, din’t they orl in those dears?

Sadly, the little’uns father din’t mearke it hoome fur the birth, although, a few dears learter he turned up on th’ throshall. His orficer hed given him a one-week pass, on compashunitt grounds, or so he sed, an’ fur the next week we wus a complete fam’ly agin!

As wus tradition in these here parts, the little lad wus christened with his father’ fust nearme, Albert, though whether tha’s loikely t’ stick, I really dorn’t know – on’y time’ll tell, I s’poose!

NEXT: What was Regis Place like in wartime?

SOME OF ALBIE’S FAVOURITE WEBSITES A Norfolk Entertainer A Moment in Time Enjoy North Norfolk Enjoy Norwich Flint Holiday Cottages Norfolk Churches Norfolk Dialect Norfolk Village Signs Norwich City Hall and the Lions Picture Norfolk Remember Norfolk Sculthorpe Spyplanes

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