© The New Buckenham Society 2015 (rev 2023)
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Wysteria, Market Place in the 1950s
Janice Hales, née Lord, recounts her memories of living with her sister and parents in Wysteria,
now called Wisteria House. (The photograph dates are aproximate.)
There was a 5-barred gate leading to the garden that faced the Market Place. In the left hand
photograph (a detail of a wider view taken in the 1950s) the pale building to the left was where
Mr Reeve the blacksmith stored his equipment and spare parts of farm machinery. The
blacksmith’s forge and house still stand opposite but the store was demolished. The low dark
shed in the corner of the garden held a copper to be stoked up for hot water but was cracked and
not used by the family. This shed was also demolished.
The front door facing the Market Place was never used. Inside was
a narrow entrance to a stairway leading directly to the floor above,
running alongside the wall separating them from Mrs Barber’s
house. At the other side of Wisteria, facing south, there used to be
a long landing window which gave light to both houses and it was
possible to see next door’s curtains from a narrow gap in the wall.
This window has now gone.
The house’s kitchen window is on the right,
next to a back door leading into a poorly
constructed lean-to which then contained a sink
and the only tap supplying water for the house.
Beyond the back door in the gloom was the
only toilet, an Elsan.
Behind Angela is a barn with its double door
(1952). The barn is obscured by the dark shed in
the first photograph. Inside were mangers but
we children were forbidden to go in there.
There was a village pump opposite Wysteria, here seen being used by Janice and her sister
Angela (November 1950). Next to Wysteria was a dwelling now called Weavers; in the early 1950s
it had no supply of water of its own so Mrs Barber had to fetch it from the pump. On the right are
Janice’s parents in front of Wysteria which they rented for about five years while awaiting the
completion of their bungalow in Hethersett. Bricks at the time were in short supply.
On the left is Mr Lord with Angela washing his car behind Wysteria on a cold winter’s day (1951).
On the right the car can be seen partly in the barn at the far end of the house. Grandpa Lord and
Angela are standing by the ‘front’ door which is no longer there but was between the doors to the
current Weavers and Wisteria. If that door was left open in warmer weather frogs tended to hop
in unless it was protected by a mesh fire guard.
Janice recounts her memories of the Fair on the Market Place opposite her house.