PICTURES: JOAN BARLOW / IAN WARD
Local Life
ABOVE: Joan Castleton (nee Barlow) and her sister Cissy (right), who was killed during an air raid over King’s Lynn on Remembrance Day 1941. Today, Joan – now in her 90s – remembers her days in the town’s fishing community of the North End as the happiest of times
Remembering the best and the worst of times... The fishing community of King’s Lynn known as the North End may have gone, but the memories it produced have lasted lifetimes. Sylvia Steele talks to former NorthEnder Joan Barlow
T
hey were known as the North Enders, the thriving fishing community of King’s Lynn living in the area behind Pilot Street and North Street. Once known as Fishers End, the area had its own shops, school and chapel. It was a close community, with St. Nicholas Chapel at the heart of the conclave of narrow streets. The North Enders seldom left the area, staying to marry, bring up their families and support each other throughout their lives. Memories go back a long way to the folk who lived here. One lady born in
KLmagazine January 2018
the area 94 years ago and who still lives close by, loves nothing more than to review those nostalgic moments. “I loved the North End,” says Joan Barlow. “Everyone looked after each other, and parents and children all got along together – most of the time! I remember I was seven years old before we had electricity in the home, but we always managed.” Joan’s reminiscences go back to the days of Southgate’s shop and Plowright, Pratt and Harbage. Joan’s mother, Maggie Castleton, owned The Victoria Hotel in the 1930s and one memory that’s still very clear to Joan is running
home from school to help in the pub. “Before starting work I would always have a small glass of beer,” she says. “It wasn’t really permissible because I was only 12, but I just thought it was the natural thing to do.” Joan had one half-brother, Maurie, and two sisters, Monica and Cissy. But the night she lost Cissy was one episode of her life in the North End that saddens her to this day. It was Remembrance Day 1941, and Cissy had been out in the centre of King’s Lynn selling poppies. “We were in bed that night when the area was bombed, and one bomb took
31