My mothers family
My Great grandfather on my mothers side lived in a small village named Bunwell, in Norfolk, and one of his fortés was bell ringing at the local church. With this in mind I think it should have been called Bangwell!
My mothers parents lived in Banham, actually they were about a mile outside the village at a place called Forest View, Hunts Corner. They lived in a tiny block of six cottages without running water, gas, electricity or flush toilet. The toilet was a Wild West type two seater at the end of the garden at the back of the cottages. The toilet had a smell you could almost see when you went to answer nature's call. The water was drawn up from a very deep well which was sited facing, and about six feet away from the toilet. When we required water we would attach a bucket to a hook which hung on the end of a chain which was wound round a large wooden roller, and at the end of the roller was a large winding handle. Once the bucket was attached it would whizz down the well, about 20 feet deep, splosh in the water, and you would have to peer down the well to see when the bucket was full. Hauling the water up was a strong arm job as there was no rachet on the handle, so you had to keep winding until the bucket appeared and then you kept hold of the winding handle with one hand and grabbed the bucket with the other and put it on the brick surround of the well. Quite often you would bring up a newt. This exercise would have to be carried out a number of times a day, hail, rain or snow.
The cottages were three roomed, one tiny downstairs room which had an oven which was heated by the fire, the room was lit by an oil lamp, there was a door which opened straight onto the road, on the wall housing that door was a window which measured about 3 feet wide and about 2 feet deep, this window was almost at ground level, occasionally, very occassionaly a car would pass and a stone would hit the window, as the road was surfaced with very coarse gravel. On the opposite wall was
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