Ray High's story

They could come to Salthouse you see, and get a whole cartload, whereas they’d have to go a long way to get as much in other villages. They’d take them inland where they’d be fattened up. Powder puffs? That’s what they said, but—it may have happened, I don’t know . . . They couldn’t have made them into powder puffs could they?
My father bought some Indian Runner ducks. Walcey Hills was one of his fields, and he took them down there after the harvest, to pick up the corn. I can’t remember how many he had, all I remember is the row about it! They got out and got in the marshes, and got among these Aylesbury ducks!
So you see it was different from a lot of villages. They had a means of getting a living, and of course they had the heath with rabbits and the fishing in those days. After I left Salthouse, at the beginning of the war, I was courting a lady, and she became Post Mistress at Cley post office, and I of course went to live there. Then I went into the army.
The first year I came back, after the war, some of the young men from Salthouse asked me to be a trustee of the Heath. Ronald Deterding was Lord of the Manor, and he had a seat on the Council. I was also on the Board of Governors for Kelling School —till they bought the computers, and I said “I don’t know anything about computers, and ‘the time has come, the Walrus said’ for me to retire.”

Ray High 2003

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THE FIRST WORLD WAR I don’t know whether I remember, or whether I was told, but the soldiers used to drill on the Green. Of course you know the army flooded the marsh; they shut the sluices on the east bank. They used to call our marshes Salthouse Broads! When I first remember, it was one sheet of water. It was deliberate. They built duck-boards all the way down the beach road. They had to have troops down on the beach, and the army built these boards along the side of the road to walk on above the water level. They stayed there for years after the war, up to the twenties and thirties. I used to run along there. It was an invasion area in that war as well as for the second, and the Rocket House was an observation post. In the second world war, you weren’t allowed on the beach at all, They put a big barrier up and dug a big ditch. After the first war, they suddenly realised that the marsh was full of eels. I remember as a little boy sitting in the back of the boat and they got no end of eels. That had been covered for four years. There used to be lorries lying there waiting for the boats to come in, it didn’t last long Then if you lived along the edge of the marsh as so many did, you could keep ducks; but only Aylesburys. Some people had six or seven. Right from the bungalow at the Kelling end of the village they all had ducks. My Mother had some when we were at the post office. Spring time, they’d lay the eggs, and then they’d hatch them. The dealers would come down in the pony and traps, I remember there was one from Briston. back to Dick High's family page Home		They could come to Salthouse you see, and get a whole cartload, whereas they’d have to go a long way to get as much in other villages. They’d take them inland where they’d be fattened up. Powder puffs? That’s what they said, but—it may have happened, I don’t know . . . They couldn’t have made them into powder puffs could they? My father bought some Indian Runner ducks. Walcey Hills was one of his fields, and he took them down there after the harvest, to pick up the corn. I can’t remember how many he had, all I remember is the row about it! They got out and got in the marshes, and got among these Aylesbury ducks! So you see it was different from a lot of villages. They had a means of getting a living, and of course they had the heath with rabbits and the fishing in those days. After I left Salthouse, at the beginning of the war, I was courting a lady, and she became Post Mistress at Cley post office, and I of course went to live there. Then I went into the army. The first year I came back, after the war, some of the young men from Salthouse asked me to be a trustee of the Heath. Ronald Deterding was Lord of the Manor, and he had a seat on the Council. I was also on the Board of Governors for Kelling School —till they bought the computers, and I said “I don’t know anything about computers, and ‘the time has come, the Walrus said’ for me to retire.” Ray High 2003
© Val Fiddian2004

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