A collection of memories and photographs from our many trips to Southwold
This project — and the subsequent Blurb book — has taken a long time to produce, perhaps the years needed to pass and the memories age before it developed enough reverence and meaning to justify creating this collection. This is a small collection of some of the photographs — many painfully restored — and memories from that time.
Looking north along Southwold's beach on a particularly blustery day, note the pier is still under reconstruction in the background. Circa September 2000
Arriving in Southwold
Every year we stayed in the same house on Stradbroke Road; rented for the week,
this house would become our home. When we arrived it was always chaos, the car — sometimes cars — had to be unloaded and my father would always head for the town’s one supermarket to buy food. Having grabbed our bags from the car, and helped unload, we’d head for our rooms to unpack. Over the years I stayed in several rooms; always austere, with old wallpaper which had not been replaced since the 1970s, uncomfortable spring beds, unwanted furniture, complete with wash basin and hot water tank
in the corner.
For entertainment in the evenings the front room had a small television, a collection of old playing cards and an upright piano. There was also a large round dining table with uncomfortable wicker chairs in front of the Victorian bay window where my parents would eat in the evening.
Towards the back of the house was the kitchen, complete with picnic wallpaper and large bench table where we would have our supper. It was equipped with a large array of old cutlery and crockery, abandoned or lost by the house’s many guests over the years. There was a small pantry next to the back door and access to the downstairs toilet towards the rear. I remember the pantry having a cold stone floor, uncomfortable when raiding the food supply’s late at night!
Steps onto Walberswick beach made in the sand and local flora
Hannah walking down the beach, somewhere near Gun Hill
Beach-combing and walks
We usually did the same things year in, year out. This included walks to Walberswick via Southwold Common and the Bailey bridge, and then returning via ferry across the harbour and walking up the beach to Gun Hill. I was interested in the route of the old Southwold Railway which was a narrow gauge railway between Halesworth and Southwold. The railway was closed in 1929 and the track removed, but much of the route remains as footpaths and earthwork embankments. One year coming home from the harbour we could not agree which way to go, so Hannah decided that we shall return via the common and cow fields — let’s just say it was a muddy experience!
On the walk into Walberswick there was a small antiques shop selling old furniture and crockery. There was usually nobody in the shop and you could leave the money for items purchased in a plastic cup near the entrance.
Harriott, Tony and Yvonne in Southwold Harbour, circa September 2002
When not walking there was always the beach, sometimes with rather questionable British weather. Using our old, but venerable windbreaks we’d set up camp on an unoccupied piece of sand, or shingle as was often the case, and set about building sandcastles or body-boarding in the surf. One year a sand-spit formed near the pier, beyond the groins and we’d challenge ourselves to reach it and then stand upright in the middle of the sea! If we were unlucky and the tide came in whilst we were building our sandcastles, we’d have to quickly evacuate, and hope we did not lose our buckets and spades. I’m sure this happened one year as I can remember my father paddling around — rather cross — trying to retrieve floating plastic buckets and spades.
Luke photographing Hannah’s foot on the beach near Gun Hill
For years you could not go on the pier, there was nothing to see until it was refurbished in the late-1990s and transformed into an amusement arcade. During the pier’s redevelopment extra length was added to accommodate visits by sea-going steam passenger ships, the PS Waverley and MV Balmoral.
One of the towns best features, Adnams & Co have been brewing the dark stuff since 1872. I always loved the smell of hops in the morning and in later years a pint or two in The Harbour Inn before walking back legless across Southwold Common.
Looking north towards Kessingland
Covehithe & Beyond
Walking to Covehithe with the entire family was difficult and seldom happened, more often than not I’d walk there on my own, however one
year we all walked there together and spent the afternoon beach-combing. We discovered an old shipwreck buried in the sand, which we excavated
and photographed. Searching on the Internet years later I discovered that it was possibly the Eiderstedt, a Dannish paddle steamer, run aground in stormy weather in 1872. I love Covehithe’s desolate windswept feel, the trees and plants weathered by the harsh salty environment.
Yvonne photographing on Covehithe beach, circa September 2003
Windswept tree near Covehithe
The Southwold Boat Race
I cannot remember how the whole thing started, we might have been bored and looking for new things to do, but anyhow, it was suggested that we hold a boat race down at the boating lakes. In the weeks before we all feverishly set about constructing our challengers, I built a single-hull boat from old bottles and papier-mâché. That first race was a disaster, most of the boats either sank or sailed in the wrong direction. The following year, lessons learned, we returned with new boats and a championship of five races — suddenly this whole endeavour became serious and we held our annual boat race for the next five years.
Random spectators gather at the start
Several boats lined up at the start
Abigail’s boat racing mine in a boat race
Inevitably due to the event’s serious nature arguments and quarrels existing — eventually leading to the race’s termination — one year Nicholas entered a boat with a kite for a sail. At first nobody paid any serious attention, believing the boat to be either uncontrollable or at serious risk of floundering on the start line, however, come the race the boat easily beat all other boats in contention. This caused uproar amongst fellow contestants and a technical clarification was issued banning kites from being used to power boats.
My boat participating in the race, circa September 2003
One morning we came down to the boating lake to find an unlikely competitor with a remote-controlled boat. 04.09.2003
Exploring the local area
Inevitably over time we became bored and started to venture further out, with day trips around Dunwich, Orford Ness and Aldeburgh. One year we even brought our bicycles and went on several great rides around Walberswick and Blythburgh before heading back to Southwold via Reydon. Another year Tony, Luke and I explored Walberswick and Dunwich, discovering a vintage World War II pillbox overlooking the River Blyth and an abandoned windmill near the Dunwich River which runs south from Walberswick to Dunwich.
Sitting there on the beach like some gigantic structure transplanted from outer space, Sizewell nuclear power stations. Circa September 2003
Walberswick beach, looking towards Southwold
An abandoned windmill in the marshes along the Dunwich River. The Dunwich River was created when coastal storms shifted the harbour’s exit 2.5 miles north to Walberswick, causing Dunwich to lose its raison d’être, the town was subsequently largely abandoned.
Aldeburgh
These days whenever we talk about Southwold, we compare it to Aldeburgh and comment on how much things have changed. That it is no longer the Southwold we frequented for so many years and how it has become popularised by the Waitrose set from London and marketed to the middle-class in glossy food magazines. The Southwold we all knew and remember is personal and in the past. Encapsulated through memory and photographs. Perhaps we discovered Aldeburgh, with its shingle beach which merges into the town and Martello tower, too late and therefore have relegated it in system to ‘that other place to visit’. Perhaps we went to Southwold too many times, when really we should have had a holiday in Aldeburgh.
Luke jumping over old World War 2 anti-tank defences
Orford Ness
Tucked away in an unassuming corner of the Suffolk coastline near Aldeburgh is the former Ministry of Defence and Atomic Weapons Establishment facility of Orford Ness. Now a National Trust nature reserve, complete with old bunkers and buildings slowly being consumed by nature. The area has quite a desolate feel, befitting its secret past, much of which is probably still guarded by the Official Secrets Act. During its long life, the facility was used to spy on the Sputnik satellites, test nuclear weapons and develop over-the-horizon radars.
Remaining buildings from the original 1920s RAF airbase
All things come to an end, and you seldom realise it until afterwards; this was the case with Southwold. There came a year when we were all too busy, some of us by this point were in university and found it difficult to commit the time. I have returned only once since, but was shocked by how much everything has changed. The Southwold we all knew still exists, in photographs and memory.
Thank you for all these memories....
