Bungay Market Place A group of spectators, standing in Bungay Market Place, appears to be fascinated by something unusual but there isn't a clue in this photograph, which was published on July 21, 2007.

Bungay Market Place

A group of spectators, standing in Bungay Market Place, appears to be fascinated by something unusual but there isn't a clue in this photograph, which was published on July 21, 2007.

Brian Knight, of Sandy Lane, Dereham, worked at the wet fish shop while still at school and thought that the photograph was probably taken just before the second world war.

The shop, London Central Merchants, was owned by Leggetts of Beccles, and next door was WA Warnes the seed merchant, seller of dog and cat feeds.

John Thirtle, of Howell Road, Drayton, who lived in the town until 1955, used to lived at 4, St Mary's Street until the autumn of 1942. “I think I recognise the larger of the two motor cars in the picture. It was a taxi (or perhaps I should say private hire car) and was well known in the Market Place during the 1930s. He thought that Austin, which was pre-1930, was owned by a Mr Butcher.

After the war, the taxi was replaced by a Mr Gardiner, who drove either a Daimler or Lanchester.

With coast road at Walcott

Work is in progress on the last section of the sea defences at Walcott on the Norfolk coast in the middle of October 1955. This photograph appeared in the EDP on Friday, June 29, 2007.

The task was expected to be completed by the end of the week, noted our photographer.

There is plenty of sand on the beach between the groynes, which stretch into the distance. In the foreground, the crane operator has lifted the block ready for placing in the concrete sea wall. Mike King, of California Avenue, Scratby, and of Great Yarmouth Marinet Coastal Concern, was fairly certain that the crane operator or driver was his father Jack King.

No bus driver's holiday

Three busmen take a professional interest in the new shelter in Broad Street, Harleston, which has just been completed. The photograph was re-published on June 27, 2007.

Margaret Taylor, of Palm Close, Wymondham, identified her father, Harold Gamble, (centre) who was the bus driver, the conductor Laurie Baldry and the other driver was Cecil Snowling.

The one-man operated buses started to run from Tivetshall to Beccles in 1953 when the line was closed. The service, number 71, ran for 18 years. Her father was the first to drive the 71 on the first Monday in January 1953 and the last in 1969. He worked for 39 years on the buses, having started as a tram conductor in Norwich. The Harleston service to Brockdish - the 11B - was listed to proceed via Brooke and Bungay.

Richard Dixon, chairman of the Eastern Transport Collection Society, wrote with details about the bus. “It is a Bristol KS5G with an 8ft body on 7ft 6in chassis. The white steering wheel signified to the driver that he was driving a vehicle wider than normal.

The fleet number is LK300 registration LNG300 as the other buses in the range has square number plates. This one is oblong.

The vehicle was new in 1951 and lasted until 1967 when it was withdrawn,” said Mr Dixon, of Park Road, Spixworth.

Patrick Burnside, of Prior Road, Thorpe, said that the bus was a Lowestoft-built Eastern Coach Works body, seating 55 passengers (28 on the upper deck and 27 on the lower deck).

Some readers may well remember having to negotiate the sunken gangway on the right hand side in order to take their seats when travelling on the upper deck of these buses!

Mr Burnside said that the bus shelter is still there and for quite a few years had a mural covering its interior walls. But it has since disappeared, following a repaint sometime last year,” he added.

Milk copes with the floods at Geldeston

It takes more than a few inches of water to stop the milk deliveries as can be seen in the photograph published on June 23, 2007. The remains of the snow and ice can be seen in the floodwater at Geldeston on February 3, 1979.

The van, which has brought the milk crates, contains a mixture of Waveney Dairy and Dairy Crest bottles. The customer, who is clutching a “pinta” has walked through the water in her wellies.

The co-op milkman, Charlie Wildfred Crowe, complete with fingerless gloves, was clearly dressed for the bitter weather, said his daughter, Pamela King, of Ash Tree Close, Worlingham, near Beccles,

Laying down memories

When a photograph of laying tarmac in the 1960s at Shipmeadow, Beccles, was published on June 13, 2007, it brought back memories for John Shambrook, of Framingham Earl, near Norwich.

He was then area manager for Tilbury EARAT, which then normally employed three machine gangs plus another four or five hand laying gangs.

The gang was using a Barber Green surfacing machine and an Aveling Barford Diesel 8/10 ton roller, and operated mainly from the Leiston area and sometimes into Ipswich or Essex.

The foreman, in charge, Charlie Johnson, is the man wearing dungarees on the rear plate of the machine. Tom Kerridge is on the right of the machine holding a shovel. Mr Shambrook thinks that the driver was probably Dennis Skipper.