Tag Archives: Downs View

WWII: Thorley Marsh mystery

War Time – Strange Goings-on over the Marsh

When I was about nine I used to visit my Mum and Dad in Yarmouth. I lived at the Toll Gate just outside Yarmouth with my Great Uncle, Gran, and Aunt Alice, and if it was dark I used to get a bus in Yarmouth Square and get off the bus right outside my Uncle George’s bungalow. I can’t quite remember why, I think I might have missed the bus, but one evening in the winter I had to walk back home. I did not mind the dark.
Because of the black-out in the war it was always dark with no lights on except for some natural light from the sky and sea. I walked past the Mount, a big house on the Common (not there any more), past a few yards with trees called the shrubbery. Then you came to a low hedge and you could see over the marsh. It was a fine night and you could see a bit.

As I got to this part I heard a drum drum of a plane’s engine. I did not know if it was a German plane or an English one, so I got under a tree and watched. You could just see the outline of a big plane flying low towards the marsh. It seemed to circle round the marsh and round Thorley Copse twice. It dropped two white flares and two red ones, then flew off. I ran as fast as possible in the dark. It only took a few minutes to get to the Toll Gate and home. I told my Great Uncle, who did fire watch. He went out and looked around but could not see anything. Next day when I went to Yarmouth I told my Dad. He said I must not talk about it as in the war you had to be careful what you said. But my mum told me afterwards he did go down to the police station, so I suppose he told them.

I’ve often wondered about this, and would love to know if anybody else saw it that night. I would love to hear about it. I think it must have been between seven and eight p.m.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

WWII Canadians at Rofford House: Delia Whitehead

War Time at Rofford House in Thorley Road

Now during the war, Rofford House in Thorley Road was used by service men. One day Granny Hunt and Aunt Alice and I were sitting in the kitchen at Downs View, Thorley Road, when suddenly the back door opened and two young men with shirts over their arms walked into the house, much to our surprise. One looked at Gran and said: ‘ Hello Ma, we are living in Rofford House. Can we borrow your iron?’
The other one explained they were (I think) Canadian. They had dates with two young women that evening, and there were no irons in Rofford House to iron their shirts.

Gran went out to the shed and came back with two flat irons because this is what she used then, and said: ‘They will take a while to heat up, boys, I have to put them on this range.’ Their faces were a picture. ‘What are they, Ma?’ one said. They could not believe it when Gran explained. They had had electric irons for years at home they said.

Gran decided if they tried to use the irons there would be two young ladies, with young men who had shirts full of holes, so she did it for them. Next day they came back and brought Gran several packets of biscuits. She said, ‘I can’t take them, it’s not right when things are rationed.’ They laughed and said they had plenty. Gran did bits of ironing for them and Gran got several lots of biscuits and then one day they came to say they all had to go back to the mainland.

They certainly had a forward approach but they were very nice young men. It seems that people just walked in and out of people’s houses in their home town. It seemed rather strange to us but then lot of things were strange in the war years.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934