Continuing our weekly column where readers remember the past

Re: Ponies delivering hot cross buns near Wickham Market

The ponies’ names are Snowy and Earwig, both from Valley Farm Equestrian. The baker’s van was bought from Cambridge market by Stephen Ling. The hot cross bun delivery was to Glevering Hall.

The picture shows Christopher Hurlock and his wife Angela. My daughter, aged five, Amanda Ling, now Melton, is peering over the buns.

The ponies, children and I covered many miles in that van. One time driving them to Ipswich for the Wheels event in Christchurch Park. In the summer I drove them to shows with all the kit in the van and then the children would do local gymkhanas on the ponies before I drove them all home again.

Often the children fell asleep in the back of the van on the way home.

SARAH ROBERTSON.

By email.

Re: Stowmarket District Scout Show

I refer to the photograph in your edition of January 21 – it is a picture from the 1966 Stowmarket District Scout Show and the title of the show was “Double Up”.

The show was performed at the Grammar School Hall (now High School), Onehouse Road, Stowmarket, from Wednesday to Saturday, 7-10 December, 1966.

The picture is taken of the sketch “Sitting Pretty” and unfortunately we have not been able to identify everyone in the picture but those identified are (from left to right): Peter Richardson, Phil Hayward, Terry Mulley (in bowler hat), Mike Robinson, Nicholas Pearce, unknown, Brian Rose, Graham Monk, Trevor James, unknown and unknown.

Our records show that Roy Alexander, Robert Delf, Chris Scarlet, Michael Chapman and Carl Kirkwood also appeared in the sketch and cannot be identified or were not in the picture.

The sketch was by the late Hazel Addis and the show was produced by the late Cliff Cook and Rick Durrant was the musical director with me as stage director.

Rick Durrant and I are attempting to write the “History of the Stowmarket District Scout Shows - 1946-2010” having first been involved in the 1950 show. We decided that if we did not attempt to write the history now, then another generation would be lost and the history never recorded.

The first show was held in 1946 and we believe that there are only about 10 people still alive from that first show and if anybody can supply information regarding the 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949 shows, Rick and I would be extremely grateful.

We are very fortunate that we have a complete set of show programmes from 1946 to 2010.

PAUL HILL,

Stowmarket.

Re: Easton Hunt

With regard to the photograph in Flashback. The hunt meet at Easton is of my two lifelong friends - Jim Wickham, who was kennel huntsman to Mr Tony Harvey former master of the Easton Harriers and Jim’s daughter Maria, now Mrs Maria Adlam.

Jim was kennel huntsman to these hounds from 1975-1987. He showed some excellent sport during those 12 seasons and bred an excellent pack of hounds.

His daughter is riding her pony, Ping Pong, and Maria was about six years old at the time. She is now married and has a daughter who is following in her mother’s footsteps.

Behind Maria on the pony is possibly Ruth Ellwood and the man with the cap on near Maria’s right shoulder is Mr Russell Mayes.

Jim is now retired and lives in the village of Barham with his partner Sheila. The horse he is riding I think is Connors.

The fun that was had at the Easton Harriers during those 12 years was unbelievable, never a dull moment. One such incident springs to mind when Jim gave me some scouring powder in a cup of tea. Needless to say Jenson Button wouldn’t have beaten me from Easton to my home in Hadleigh that particular day. Wonderful memories.

MR S J GRIMSEY,

Hadleigh.

Re: Alice in Wonderland school production, The Abbey

The photo in the EADT is the Abbey school production of Alice in Wonderland.

My daughter, Becky Sledmere, was Alice and on the right of the photo is the white rabbit played by John Bridson.

The interesting thing is that Alice married the White Rabbit in 2006 and they have a little boy called Thomas!

They are still in touch with the other members of the cast from the photo.

SANDEE SLEDMERE,

E-mail.

Further to the photo in the EADT I have been given a little bit of additional information about the play and can relay this to you.

I am told by the Master’s wife, Ruth Garrett, that the play actually took place in May 1998, and was the first outdoor performance ever held by The Abbey.

In fact it was very nearly marred by a bell-ringing practice as the bells of nearby St Mary’s suddenly rang out during the performance! The Master, Nick Garrett, managed to persuade the bell-ringers to stop with a bit of light refreshment!

CLARE HIRST,

Woodbridge School,

Woodbridge.

Re: Suffolk Ladies’ golf team at Thorpeness

The photograph in the EADT would have been taken during County week when Suffolk would have played Cambs and Hunts, Bedfordshire and Norfolk on consecutive days.

The ladies in the picture are as follows:- Sitting on the ground are Judy Barnard on the left and Joanna Eke (now Moore) on the right.

Sitting on the bench from left to right are Sally Dawson, Vivienne Cullen, Shirley Batt, Julie Latimer-Jones, Sheila Aldred and Diana Marriott.

The winning team would have progressed to the sub-divisional finals.

I joined the squad in 1982 and enjoyed many good tussles!

LINDA WARNER,

Woodbridge Golf Club,

By e-mail.

I’m sure the girl on the left at the back is my wife, who died six years ago aged 47 from breast cancer. She would have been 22 at the time. She played for Suffolk Ladies when she was just 17 and reached a handicap of seven.

My wife’s name at that time was Sandra Baxter.

We were married in Hong Kong in 1987. She was a member (as was her father) of Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club.

I also think the girl seated on the grass far right may be Julie Wade who my wife used to play golf with and went on to be Ladies Amateur champion of Britain and Australia, and went on to work at St Andrews for the Royal and Ancient.

STEVE WELLS,

By e-mail.

Re: Adopt a calf

RE. The photo in Flashback was taken at our farm from a project called ‘adopt a calf’.

Various other farmers took part – Tim Wild from Tendring, Bob Clear from Cornard and others.

The project involved a class from local primary schools and encompassed arithmetic, cookery, nutrition, art, poetry etc in their school work which was displayed and judged at the Essex Show.

A group from each class was taught to look after the calf, groom it and teach it to lead on a halter.

It was then taken to the Essex Show and walked around the grand ring and again judged.

Those who took part obviously enjoyed it as we are still sometimes ‘accosted’ by locals at the supermarket aged 35 saying how they enjoyed the experience.

ROBERT FULLER,

Sible Hedingham.