Starting work

The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

children, Eva, my age, Jack, Spencer and Babs. They lived in Lime Tree Place and the Dennys, Mother’s brother Walter and two children who still lived with them, Olive and Jack, lived in Stowupland Street.

Clifford was born at 73 Surbiton Road on 2nd October 1921 and of course having been an only child for so long I was delighted, so much so that I wanted to take my pal Bert Garrod to see him the same day he was born, but that didn’t come off. About this time the building trade was going through a bad period, there wasn’t the bomb damage to clear up as after the war and Dad was finding it hard to get a job. Knowing him as I subsequently did he was not the type to sit down under the threat of unemployment so he looked around for a small building business which would give him the chance to be his own boss, something I would imagine was always his ambition. Eventually he found one at Needham Market and this was the beginning of a hard time for us all. The business was purchased from Mr. Alf Folkard and was supposedly a thriving business with workshops and a yard beside the river in Crown Street, hence the title ‘Riverside Works’ which has been dropped since Clifford took over. There was an electric circular saw, a horse called Tommy, a dog called Bob, five or six men and two boy apprentices and nothing for them to do. Mr Folkard came to the yard one morning while I was there but he was soon gone, Dad told him in no uncertain terms to get out or he’d find himself in the river and he went! Pronto!

I finished school when we left Ipswich and had to decide what I wanted to do, whether to go into the building trade or try something else. At the time Hayward and Son, Solicitors, wanted an office boy. I applied and well remember running all the way home which was 38, Stowmarket Road, Needham to proclaim the great news that I had secured the position with a ‘salary’ of 5/- (shillings) per week. 19

The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

Dad was struggling to get going and a lot of my time was spent, most unwillingly I’m afraid, helping in any way I could e.g. sweeping out the carpenters shop, cleaning out the stables and odd simple clerical jobs. I joined a group of local lads and we would go to Stowmarket to the cinema, the Palladium in Ipswich Street, or chasing Stow girls. On Easter Mondays we would have a day out in Ipswich (cheap day return by rail) and go to Portman Road for the Suffolk Senior cup final in the morning, Pooles Picture Palace (now the Arts Theatre) or the Flea Pit in Tower Street where you were always sure of a good cowboy film in the afternoon and one of the ‘posher’ cinemas or the Hippodrome in the evening.

About this time I became interested in cycling and bought myself a racing model on which I would tear about the countryside, on one occasion winning a prize on it at Bildeston Sports. Cycle racing was a very popular sport at that time and one of the best riders in the Eastern Counties was Cyril Battle from Barking, (he came to an untimely end when he died from blood poisoning after cutting his leg while felling trees.) He had a brother who had an old Ford covered truck and on Whit Tuesdays when there was a big cycle meeting at Norwich would organise a load to go from Needham. Once or twice I went with them being very much the ‘boy of the party but nevertheless having a good time.

Wireless was by now getting into homes in the form of crystal sets. Great powers of concentration were needed when you sat in front of the little square box, headphones fixed lightly to the ears to cut out external noises, and wiggled the ‘cat’s whisker’ until you found the right spot on the crystal for maximum output. Two of the songs played by the Savoy Orpheus were ‘Why did I kiss that gal’ and ‘ Yes, we have no bananas’ and poor old Tom Brown threatened to leave if ‘the guvner didn’t stop that damned boy from whistling those tunes.’ Mr Waters who was manager of the old Eastern Electricity Co. at Stowmarket and lived at ‘Montrose’ on the corner of 20