Surfing on the web I found Lavenham - a village I lived in on and off with my mother's relatives (she was born in Little Waldingfield) prior to and during WWII. I stayed with my Uncle Stan Carter at 13 Church Street - why has someone stripped the old plaster and the plaster Flemish reliefs from its walls?

Thanks for the map of the old US bomber base where I used to cycle to carrying laundry to the US guys washed by my Aunt in return for pay for my aunt and sweets (candy) for me - so much a premium in those days. I remember sitting in the aircrew billets awaiting their return in their Liberator bombers. (The base security must have been appalling as we kids were never challenged on entry!!)

Lavenham is a wonderful place of history but I must admit some sadness when I visited with my U.S. wife and found so much changed even though the façade still remained maybe somewhat the same. What do I mean? A walk down Water Street from the Swan where I expected to find the blacksmith shop where I took a few horses to be shod was now a gift shop, opposite stood the dairy farm where I learned to milk a cow and assisted in a cow giving birth to twin calves was now a residential unit and the farm manager's house apparently a place of interest. Tracing my steps up past the Church I found that the Cock Inn had somehow migrated along the street and past this and round the corner the old Glebe Farm belonging to a Mr Steed where my Uncle Stan was head horseman (the Suffolk Punches there were a sight to be seen!!) was a housing estate.

Jack Ashby
jacksby@earthlink.net