Tag Archives: council houses

Peter Smith: Thorley 1950s smokers

When we moved into our council houses at Thorley there were only eight houses. There was space further up the road, past number 8 for some more houses to be built, but for a number of years it was just an overgrown plot with long grass. It was here in the long grass that several of us council house children had our first introduction to smoking. Fortunately I can’t recall where the cigarettes came from, but many a ciggy was shared in the secrecy of the long grass!

Andrew Budden and I were exploring the Marsh at the bottom of Tattels Lane, when our co explorer Johnnie Holtom, who was a year or two older than us, pulled out a pipe and amid much coughing and retching, lit it up. Eventually he offered us a go, with the same result. Cigarettes, I had found were much easier to get on with.

Eventually the council started work on new houses so we lost the use of our secret place. Peter Smith b 1946

Peter Smith: Thorley North View, 1950s

Thorley houses EAST

Thorley houses  with North View


We moved from my Gran’s in South Street, Yarmouth into a new council house at North View, Thorley in 1952. It had two inside flush toilets and a bathroom…. very impressive for me as I’d been used to using a cold, dark outside toilet and no bathroom in my 6 previous years of childhood.

Moving to the new council houses also meant new neighbours with children and new friends to play and argue with. Mostly we got on well with each other and invented our own entertainment in the open air.

Eileen Smith: Thorley, North View 1950s

Thorley from Broad Lane

Thorley from Broad Lane

The Smith family

Ralph and I had applied for a house in Yarmouth, but with no success. Then one of the chaps who was offered a house at Thorley, turned it down because it was too far from the shops. We didn’t mind!

The women in the cottages opposite North View, Elsie Squibb and Miss Drake, came out and said they didn’t want Council Houses in the village. We said, ‘Dont you think that people who have done their bit in the War, deserve somewhere decent to live?’
Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Eileen and Peter Smith: Thorley, Blacksmith’s cottages

When Ralph came back from the war, he didn’t want an indoor job so he went to work at Wellow Farm, and we lived in one half of Blacksmith’s Cottages. That didn’t last long. Ralph had arranged to play cricket one Saturday when they’d been told they would have the afternoon off. The foreman changed his mind and told him he’d have to stay on, haymaking. Ralph told him the hay wasn’t fit, and he’d committed to play in the team. The foreman told him to collect his cards, and we had to move out of the tied cottage. We moved back to stay with my parents in Yarmouth, and applied for a Council House. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921

Ralph Smith as a boy, with Mr. Kingswell of Wellow Farm in the rickyard with lurchers

Ralph Smith as a boy, with Mr. Kingswell of Wellow Farm in the rickyard with lurchers ready for hare coursing, 1920s

My earliest memory of Thorley is from when we lived at Blacksmiths Cottages, the one nearest the church. We didn’t have an inside toilet there, only an Elsan chemical toilet in the shed. As I write this I can smell it even though 63 years have gone by since I last used it!

Blacksmith's cottages 2013

Blacksmith’s cottages 2013

Peter Smith b 1946