Extra Time – for the last time – at Britten Court

When Miriam went into labour, her husband drove her to Ditchingham Hospital, handed her into the care of the nuns – and then drove on to Carrow Road in time to watch the Norwich City vs Manchester Utd match.

Miriam was glad he went, she wouldn’t have wanted him to miss it, but she was relieved when an elderly nun approached her bed later and reassured her, saying – “It’s all right, Norwich won, 2-1.”

David recounted the mad dash – on bicycles – on a Saturday, leaving the printing works in Bungay and pedalling like fury all the way to Norwich, where he and his pals would pay thruppence to leave their bikes in someone’s front garden.

Meanwhile, Jeff talked wistfully about watching Sir Stanley Matthew play – and how the lads would try and run up and down the wing with him, but could never keep up.

The conversation veered towards the sounds of football, from chanting crowds to the personal catch-phrases, and then took us off in the direction of sirens – with Marie recalling hearing Moaning Minnie (the national air-raid siren) for the first time on 3rd September 1939 and then, later, the regular testing of the alarms at Broadmoor Hospital. As she said, you could set your watch by it.

“Every Monday morning at 10am they’d test the alarm system. Roll call wasn’t until 3pm, so if an inmate got their timing right, they would have a five hour lead before anyone knew they’d gone.”

And whilst we nattered about ways of leaving, we were also hearing about ways of arriving – as in “The cow when she enters the stable says Moo” which is a German saying, used to remind children to say hello to the family, when entering the house.

It was such a lovely session; thank you to everyone at Britten Court for making us feel so welcome.