Reader Peter Driver sent a photograph used in a recent Days Gone By of a Bickers bus at Monewden and it has brought back memories for other readers, says David Kindred.
Richard Turner, of Colchester (formerly of Witnesham), said: “I rode on a Bickers bus to school in 1967/8. I went to Claydon Modern School. The bus stopped and picked up in several villages on the way, Coddenham, Henley and Hemingstone.
“The bus driver was a Mr Osborne, I cannot recall his first name, (not Cecil who also drove for Bickers mainly on a service to Ipswich). I believe the bus was quite old, perhaps dating from the 1950s. We had great fun on the bus, singing and generally creating mayhem and teasing the driver until he shouted at us.”
Ruth Bassett (nee Pemberton), of Walberswick, said: “We Young Conservatives at Charsfield hired the Bickers bus to take us to various quizzes, dances, seaside visits, whist drives etc run by other branches.
“We also used Albert Soames bus. Soames also ran to Ipswich every Tuesday and Saturday. They would take peoples accumulators (which ran wireless sets) and return them for a small fee. All part of the service.”
A reader, who did not include a name, sent the above photograph and names of pupils at Springfield Junior School, Ipswich, in 1945.
“Top row from the left: Breeta Parrish, Jean Laughlin, Margaret Parrish, Beryl Downing, Helen Keen, Pauline James, ? Yvonne Roper and Gillian Hardy.
“Middle row: Margaret Death, Thelma Farthing, Muriel Blake, Betty Trenter, Margaret Whitmore, Avril Bright, Lillian Gibson and Ann Field.
“Front row: Carol Hudson, Moyna Brake, ? Jean Page, Dawn Pead and Janet Heffer.”
A recent Days Gone By featured greyhound racing in Ipswich, asking readers if they knew of racing at another site in the town.
Gillian G Welton, of Ipswich, said: “With reference to the greyhound racecourse in the Bramford Road area. I was told, many years ago, by an elderly gentleman neighbour, Mr Rapier, that this was situated in the Broadmere/Euston Road vicinity. I do enjoy reading your articles in the Ipswich Star.”
She also sent the photo above and said: “My father, William ‘Bill’ Hardy, was the goalkeeper for the Bramford Road School football team in 1926.”
If you have any memories to share about this part of Ipswich, email me here
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