Peter Banyard's life and times:
I am indebted to Mr Peter Banyard, ex-RAF aircrew and Suffolk policeman, for permission to reproduce these snapshots from his childhood in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The first picture shows a group of dignitaries at the opening of a model boating pool and the second was a tree planting cereony. Both events took place in 1935 to mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary.
The picture at the lower left shows Peter with his grandfather, and lower right is a typical mixed business and leisure scene on the Deben when the river was a busy navigable waterway. Two sailing barges can be seen in the left background with the edge of the Tide Mill just visible behind them. The barges were a common sight on the river, carrying bulk coal and corn. Other pictures on this page are of his grandfather's boat, Phoenix.
Peter also has many tales to tell of fishing and mudlarking in his youth. A length of iron rod, sharpened at one end, made a good fishing spear and hewould paddle out in the mud at low tide and get a good catch of dabs - and sometimes a good hiding if he got home covered in mud!" Eels were plentiful too, and he would go with his friends, first to catch lug-worms as bait and would take their catch of eels to The Boat Inn on the quayside, where the landlady would either buy them or persuade her customers to contribute some pennies to the boys so that they could buy fish and chips for supper. "Fish and chips cost 4d (four pre-decimal pence)and there were usually four of us, so we needed to collect 16 pence," he recalls. "The old woman, Mrs Borrett her name was, was a real Romany. She lived in the pub - it was a 'spit and sawdust' kind of place - and had her caravan parked out in the yard."
The Boat Inn is now a private dwelling but traces of the name can still be seen under the pink paint and the new owners now use it as a house name on a sign over the front door.
At the outbreak of World War 2, Peter joined the RAF straight from school and served as a bomb-aimer in Lancasters flying from Suffolk bases. After the war he swapped his RAF uniform for that of the Suffolk Constabulary.
This article first appeared in Wordsweb Magazine in 2005. If anyone else has any snapshots or memories they would like to share, please email me or post to Wordsweb Forum
I am indebted to Mr Peter Banyard, ex-RAF aircrew and Suffolk policeman, for permission to reproduce these snapshots from his childhood in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The first picture shows a group of dignitaries at the opening of a model boating pool and the second was a tree planting cereony. Both events took place in 1935 to mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary.
The picture at the lower left shows Peter with his grandfather, and lower right is a typical mixed business and leisure scene on the Deben when the river was a busy navigable waterway. Two sailing barges can be seen in the left background with the edge of the Tide Mill just visible behind them. The barges were a common sight on the river, carrying bulk coal and corn. Other pictures on this page are of his grandfather's boat, Phoenix.
Peter also has many tales to tell of fishing and mudlarking in his youth. A length of iron rod, sharpened at one end, made a good fishing spear and hewould paddle out in the mud at low tide and get a good catch of dabs - and sometimes a good hiding if he got home covered in mud!" Eels were plentiful too, and he would go with his friends, first to catch lug-worms as bait and would take their catch of eels to The Boat Inn on the quayside, where the landlady would either buy them or persuade her customers to contribute some pennies to the boys so that they could buy fish and chips for supper. "Fish and chips cost 4d (four pre-decimal pence)and there were usually four of us, so we needed to collect 16 pence," he recalls. "The old woman, Mrs Borrett her name was, was a real Romany. She lived in the pub - it was a 'spit and sawdust' kind of place - and had her caravan parked out in the yard."
The Boat Inn is now a private dwelling but traces of the name can still be seen under the pink paint and the new owners now use it as a house name on a sign over the front door.
At the outbreak of World War 2, Peter joined the RAF straight from school and served as a bomb-aimer in Lancasters flying from Suffolk bases. After the war he swapped his RAF uniform for that of the Suffolk Constabulary.
This article first appeared in Wordsweb Magazine in 2005. If anyone else has any snapshots or memories they would like to share, please email me or post to Wordsweb Forum
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