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November 2005
"It is fifty years this month since I moved from the little village of Fishlake (pop. 400) in the West Riding of Yorkshire to Feltwell." So begins Mrs Betty Brown's recollections of her arrival in our village. If any of you are in contact with Betty please encourage her to write down further memories. Her recollections are now up on the website together with several new articles about RAF Feltwell. Paul Whiteside has finally changed the link on the old "front end" to connect to the site at its new location which means that we are back in business again, folks!
We held the first Quiz Night of the winter season about 2 weeks ago so were able to see inside the newly refurbished school hall. The old wall of windows has been removed to be replaced by brick. New lights have replaced the old ones together with a new climbing frame and the hall has been painted throughout. The impression one gets on first entering the hall is that you are walking into a solarium! It is that bright. A new motorised projection screen has been added above the stage. When it is dropped down a full 4m (well, it's very large anyway) screen means that we can project a score sheet that everyone can see as long as you turn off about half the lights! And then you realise that something is missing, something that has been a presence in Feltwell school hall for as long as I can remember. The mural of Sir Edmund De Moundeford has been painted over. It's gone for good... unless one of you has a photograph of it. I never took one because of the wall bars, they were always closed in front of the painting thus spoiling the image. The biggest drawback to the improvements, as a quiz master, is the acoustics. The echo is awful because there are no curtains or soft surfaces anywhere. Several teams had real difficulty hearing me clearly and I had problems trying to project over my own voice coming back at me from all sides. Very frustrating!
I've had a request from Maureen Basford, nee Judkin, for a copy of a photograph of or containing Lesley "Chip" Sparrow. This is for Maureen's cousin Doreen Giniel, nee Sparrow, who doesn't have a photograph of Lesley, her father. If you can help Maureen and Doreen, please get in touch with me.
Some sad news this month is that Feltwell Cricket Club may well have to fold due to lack of players; and this in the year that England took back the Ashes! Having been the first Chairman of this current Feltwell Cricket Club I am, of course, disappointed at this news. I hope that they can find the 6 new members (minimum) required to keep things going next year.
On a far happier note Mrs Gladys Baxter turned 102 on Sunday 18th September. Our new GP, Dr Michael Pullen, is due to start work on Monday together with Mrs Sharon Wilson, the new Practice Manager. They will replace Dr Nisbet and his wife Deannie respectively. Ian is retiring after 28 years and I'm due to go to his retirement "bash" in about an hour!
Finally, a request from Brian O'Neill and myself. Please click on this link http://www.feltwell.org/raffeltwell/p4raf_personel.htm and let me know if you recognise and can name anyone in the photograph. It is of the Feltwell Station Armoury 1941-42 Football Team. Brian's father James is second in from the right, back row. In Brian's words this is the reason why we are asking for your help. "I have looked at the "Feltwell at Play" page on the site. The football team 1946/47 shows the trainer as O'Donnel. I think this should read James (Jim) O'Neill, my father. I know my father was playing football early in the war but I understand he was injured in an air raid and later took up training a football team. I was born 23 June 1946. This must have been a good year!" We need the discrepancies in the dates sorting out.
