Reepham Life

The happy band of volunteer firefighters shown in the December photograph of the Reepham Life 2018 Calendar dates from May 1936 when the disused Primitive Methodist Church on Dereham Road had been purchased for the Fire Brigade by Edward Gibbs.

Reepham Fire Station on Dereham Road, possibly late 1930s.

Newspaper reports said the building had a “splendid frontage which affords a clean take-off from any angle. Mr Edwards Gibbs, sen., has had alterations made so that the brigade can stand both their engines and all their equipment in one place.”

Previously the old hand-engine had been stored on land in the area of Old Brewery Lane.

Reepham’s fire brigade had been established for about 100 years, beginning with manual pumps carried on a horse-driven van.

Putting out a fire required a source of water and one report of a fire in December 1938 tells of the pump being placed at Sun Barn Pit (a large pond that existed in front of the present fire station) with more than 2,000 feet of hose run out through Church Street to the back of the Old Rectory.

Inches of ice had to be broken before pumping could begin and several lengths of hose burst, the escaping water turning into sheets of ice within minutes.

Whitwell Road showing Sun Barn Pit.

In 1938, at the fire brigade’s annual dinner held at the Sun Inn, Edward Gibbs “recalled the days of the old manual engine. Those were the days of plenty of thrills, first in clashing the church bells, then the process of loading the engine onto a waggon, and then, upon arrival at the fire to have a look around, send someone straight away for bread and cheese and beer.”

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. Email: reephamarchive@gmail.com

Buy the Reepham Life 2019 Calendar HERE

The October picture in the Reepham Life 2018 Calendar shows several cyclists in Reepham’s Market Place, photographed after 1987.

The photograph below shows men from a First World War cycle regiment on parade in the Market Place, possibly 1916. Some may have been billeted in the area. (An archive photograph shows two soldiers on Reepham Moor with rifles on their bicycles.)

A bicycle was an ideal means of transportation as it was comparatively lightweight. It could be carried over obstructions and, as well as being ridden, could be loaded with equipment and pushed. A motorcycle was faster, but a bicycle was silent.

Volunteer cyclist units started in Great Britain in the 1880s. The official Army Cyclist Corps was formed in 1914.

In the early days military cyclists proved their worth, and there were numerous reports of their bravery in the British cycling press. But trench warfare forced the reassignment of soldiers from cyclist units to infantry units, and although bicycles were still used extensively throughout the war by all sides, there was less need for actual cyclist units.

A cyclist’s duties included reconnaissance, security patrols and courier work. Cyclists were used to cycle along communications trenches, which was particularly important if the security of the trench telephone system was found to have been compromised by enemy receiving stations.

The British Army’s Cyclist Training Manual 1907 (as revised in 1911) was replete with items as how to salute while standing by, sitting on and riding the bicycle, drill movements such as “Ground Cycles”, “Take Up Cycles” and “Stack and Unstack Cycles”, and helpful advice on care of bicycles such as “Bicycle tyres should be wiped with a damp cloth after a march, so that all grit, which if left might cause a puncture, may be removed.”

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. Email: reephamarchive@gmail.com

The August picture in the Reepham Life 2018 Calendar shows the Cawston Road/Wood Dalling junction as it was before the new houses were built on Crown Meadow.

On the site of the former Reepham Railway Station can be seen the old granary buildings (now Kerri’s Farmhouse Pine), the station building itself and the disused railway line leading down the view, which has become Marriott’s Way.

The group of small modern industrial units next to the station, known as Coller’s Way, was named after R. Coller & Son, coal and corn merchants, with the large older building (now Reepham Garage Services) still showing some old signs. Other businesses based at the yard were Stimpson & Hurn and William Freeston.

The bridge that took the road over the railway line is now a footpath. One of the highest points in Reepham, it was used as a lookout post by air raid wardens in the Second World War. Part of the original road still exists behind the wooded area as the road bends round towards Cawston.

Six roads met at what was once called Station Plain. However, the railway reduced it to five by making the Wood Dalling and Cawston Roads use the one bridge.

In the 1901 census this area near Reepham Station was still called Six Crossways. The main buildings here were The Crown Inn with a few surrounding cottages, one of which was a laundry business run by Matilda Timbers.

In the 1920s Philip Hunt opened a general supplies store and pork butcher’s, moving from a previous site in Reepham Moor. This later became Station Stores (now The Cutting Station hairdressers).

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. Email: reephamarchive@gmail.com

Does anyone know what and where these patterns were?

The June picture in the Reepham Life 2018 Calendar shows the grand parade in the Market Place, which was part of Reepham Shopping Week in 1950.

In that year the average diet was still influenced by rationing and there was a heavy reliance on bread, milk and vegetables.

Fruit, vegetables and fish were not rationed, although, with a shortage of foods being imported, many fruit and vegetables were only available when they were in season.

Photo: © IWM (D 7958)

Before the war, more than two thirds of British food was imported. But enemy ships targeting merchant vessels prevented fruit, sugar, cereals and meat from reaching the UK.

At the time of the picture, petrol rationing had only just ceased in May 1950, followed by soap in September, but many essential items like tea, sugar, eggs, butter, meat and cheese were still on ration.

It took another four years before all rationing ceased. Tea was still rationed until 1952 and then in 1953 sugar and eggs became freely available and, finally, cheese and meat in 1954.

The continuance of rationing after the official end of the war encouraged people to carry on growing their own food in back gardens and allotments. Queueing outside shops to buy a family’s rations continued to be a way of life.

There were also severe shortages of most consumer products, which prompted the continuance of the wartime “make-do-and-mend” culture. Clothing did not come “off the ration” until 1949, four years after the war had ended.

Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at midnight on 4 July 1954, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were finally lifted.

Janet Archer

• The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. Email: reephamarchive@gmail.com