Life for newspaper delivery boys and girls has probably not changed a great deal over the decades. Cold dark mornings and evenings in rain and snow, or the heat of mid summer with a big bag of newspapers, is not every body’s idea of being the best way to earn some pocket money. George Brunning of Cromarty Road, Ipswich, told us in a recent Kindred Spirits, of his adventures delivering papers in the Stoke area of Ipswich in the early 1930s. Frank Symonds of Derwent Road, Ipswich, was a “paper boy”. Frank said, “My newsagent was “Scott’s” on the corner of Handford Road and Alderman Road, Ipswich, which has been demolished a number of years now. Daily paper deliveries were carried out by schoolboys, but Sunday was delivered by a man, the delivery area was the whole of the London Road and Hadleigh Road area. When the Sunday man was called up to the army I was asked if I would take it over for seven shillings and six pence (37�p). I accepted this and started the round the next Sunday. The round wasn’t made up for you, you had a trade cycle with a carrier section in the front with four canvas bags, containing batches of papers, which you took from as you went along. The round finished at 11am and I collected my wage, and a packet of ten cigarettes. Christmas week was the best, as every customer gave you either a silver three penny piece or sixpence, this usually amounted to �7, which was as much as two weeks wages for a man. I only had the round for two years until I was 17-years-old, then I went into the Royal Navy.

Mr E Keeble was born in Great Whip Street, Ipswich, next to the Britannia Inn in 1916. The inn closed in May 1966. Mr Keeble can recall Halliday’s newsagent in Vernon Street recalled in a recent Kindred Spirits by George Brunning who delivered papers for rival newsagents J V Foster in Bath Street. Mr Keeble said “When I was young newspapers cost a penny and cigarettes between four and eleven pence. I was a pupil at Wherstead Road School where Mr Patmore was the headmaster. I worked at the Ipswich Malting Company seven days a week with no holidays for thirteen years and a wage of �3 a week. I am the last survivor of a family of thirteen.

Mrs M Veitch of The Walk, Felixstowe, has written asking for help from Kindred Spirits readers. Mrs Veitch said, “I can only recall part of a rhyme I used to recite as I travelled from Ipswich to Felixstowe in my childhood before the Second World War. We used to name the public houses on our way to the beach. It started with; The Shepherd and Dog (Foxhall) went Hand in Hand (Trimley) with the Three Mariners (Trimley) to the Half Moon (Walton). That’s all I remember”. Can you recall the rhyme?

I recently published a photograph taken of the Churchman’s stand during a match at Ipswich Town Football Club asking if anybody could see a familiar face. Mrs S J Banyard of Luff Meadow, Needham Market, said “ I spotted my baby brother Richard Twaits, then 14-years-old, with two of his friends John Gere and Graham Gunner. They are on the front row. Richard is fifth from the right with his two friends on his right. Now aged 63 he still follows the town and has a season ticket on the same site.”