Ellingham and Kirby Cane photograph archive

This romantic card simply says from Edgar

This letter was written in pencil and is very feint. Below is the contents:

My Dear Sister

I received your letter on 27/6/18 dated 23/5/18 very many thanks for same. I had been looking for a letter from you for a long time and couldn't make out what had happened as I have already received 2 letters from Millie and one from Alice. Was very glad to hear you are all well and that the boys are still going strong, give my love to them all when you write but tell them not to come over this side. I am getting on A1 and have nothing much to grumble about only the time passes so slowly have been here 13 weeks and it seems like 3 years, have plenty to read so that's how I pass the time away. have just received my first parcel, they are sent through the Central Prisoners War Committee 4 Thurloe Place London SW7. Mrs Pigot is secretary. She is the wife of one of our officers. Alice proposed sending out some books but I don't know if that is allowed, should like some magazines if it is possible but don't worry about them. Address was alright you will see it has been altered a little but they are redirected by our own people in the post office when we move. Please write as often as possible as I am always anxious to receive a line from home. it makes you feel more contented when you know things are alright at home. Please write only on one side of the paper but you may send more than one sheet as it is better for censorship. Well chur O for the present. Fondest love and Best Wishes  to all from your loving brother Edgar (don't seal letters)

Brian Asquith wrote of his experiences during five years as prisoner of war. On returning to England he married  the girl who had waited for him and they settled in Ellingham and ran the shop opposite The Bird In Hand. (Book donated by Grace Titlow and available to loan out. Contact the website for details)

Ron and Doreen Letheren ( their daughter Jane Clarke posted this for the VE day celebrations)

The Home Guard on the bowls green. Louis Shillings (Kirby Cane Church bell ringer) house behind. Back row from left: 3rd Herbert Bale, 5th Harry Love, 8th Cliff Hancy, 13th Alf Smith, 14th Sgt Harry Adams(Derek Hinsley)(Thelma Southgate)

The War Memorial, St Mary's Ellingham, 

Grace Cossey at her brother's grave (Nelson Cossey) in France. Plot 6 Row C Grave 1A 

Etaples Military Cemetery (Alma Harvey) 

Mr Ray Burcham outside The Red House, Home Farm Road, Ellingham, Alma's brother.

Died as POW of Japanese WW2. (Alma Harvey)

William George Burcham, Alma's father, died 1967 (Alma Harvey)

Samuel James Cossey, born 1878 died at the Battle of Jutland 31.5.1916 on HMS Lion. He was a lance Corporal with 21 years

service in the Navy. He is commemorated on column 18 at the Plymouth Naval Memorial. He was Alma's cousin. (Alma Harvey)

Nelson Cossey, died of wounds in France (Alma Harvey)

Japheth Cossey, Corporal in the Army Service Corps, Boer War. Born 11.11.1876 died 4.3.1913 of Bronchopneunomia. (Alma Harvey)

Edgar Charles Cossey, born 1881, died of wounds in France 1918, buried row L Grave 33, St Hilaine Cemetery near Fervant, France (Alma Harvey)

Edgar Charles Cossey (Alma Harvey)

Robert Cossey born 1883 died 1965 (Alma Harvey)

Ray Burcham outside The Red House, Home farm Road Ellingham, died as Japanese prisoner of war in WW2 (Alma Harvey)

Mrs Alice Maud Curtis (nee Butcher) died 1941 while serving in the ATS. (Alma Harvey)

R.E.G. Burcham's gravestone in Hong Kong died when POW aged 28 in 1943

Letter home from Raymond Burcham when POW

Edward Church died in 2nd World War (Royal Artillery)

RAF airmen including Mr Butcher, on far right, brother of Alice Curtis (Alma Harvey)

Donated by Mike Page

Donated by Mike Page

Donated by Mike Page

Donated by Mike Page

The old pillbox gun emplacement, Church Road, Ellingham, protected the petrol dump during World War 11.October 2013

(Diana Wadley)

Kirby Cane and Ellingham Afternoon WI - certificate of merit for knitting for the Forces 1941

(from the WI Scrapbook)

In the churchyard at All Saints, Kirby Cane there is a grave maintained by the War Graves Commission. It is of Arthur Baldry who was born 10th October 1887 and died August 9th 1916, aged 28. He was a deck hand in the Royal Naval reserves, on HMS Pembroke (renamed from HMS Trent) - a median class gunboat.  He died in the Royal Naval Chatham Hospital of acute nephritis and diabetes mellites. He attended Kirby Cane School from 1898. He had been a fisherman. There were seven children in the family and the father, William, was listed as an agricultural labourer.

Wartime anecdotes from Jo Gooderham's 2000 years- A Chronology of Kirby Cane and Ellingham

"A stick of bombs was dropped by a Dornier at about 500' intended for the railway but landed either side of The Gatehouse on Braces Lane

and caused no damage.  A landmine severely shook Kirby Cane School.   May 1940 a barrage balloon came adrift from its moorings at

Cardington and passing over Ellingham School loosened the chimney pots and came to rest in a meadow at the top of Wardley Hill.            

                                       There was a petrol dump (where the grain store is now). A train of 20-30 tanks arrived alternate mornings from the

Midlands via Haddiscoe and Beccles. It served airfields of Flixton (Liberators) Holton (Flying Fortress) Seething (Liberators). Road tankers connected them with the dump.           A searchlight battery was established with its master (centre) point and one searchlight at Ellingham

Station with a 6 mile radius. The battery men, who had tents pitched at the station, practised every night.  The bridge, fuel dump and railway

line were protected by a pill box.  The signal box had to be blacked out with cardboard, with peep holes and put up at dusk. The USAF

planes from the airfields went up one at a time until there were 30or 40 circling. Then they would take up formation with others to produce a 200-300 plane raid on Germany"

Alec Roger's story from the BBC website "World War II Peoples' War Stories":

"When the War broke out my friend and I went to Norwich to try to join the Airforce. The chap asked us what job we were doing and when I

told him that I worked on a farm and my friend did also, he told us that that was a reserved occupation and we had to go home.

I was working on a farm near Gillingham when two Spitfires collided over us. We knew there were three Spitfires, then heard a sound like the tearing of paper. We ran to the scene. One landing wheel had ploughed a furrow through the field. We found the remains of the pilot. He was blown to pieces. The other Spitfire came down with its tail cut off.

I was living in the council houses at Ellingham when I remember this Liberator coming over twice firing out red Ver lights. I saw two members of the crew falling out. One had his arms and legs spread wide open but no parachute. The other one his parachute opened just as he disappeared. He fell down on his back on the telephone wires alongside the railway line through Ellingham. I spoke to him hobbling along the road. He said it saved his life. The other one his parachute didn't open. He was smashed up. The plane crashed near Shipmeadow, where the old workhouse was. The plane was right black. I think it was 1944.

If it wasn't for the Americans I don't know what we would have done. We used to watch the open trucks coming up the railway line full of bombs for Seething and Flixton. There was a huge petrol dump at Ellingham."

Ellingham School during the War: (information by Mr Tippler)

1914-18. The school's first contribution to the war effort was in October 1914 when the pupils helped to collect warm clothing for the men of the 8th Battalion, who were under canvas at Purfleet. The appeal was made by Mrs Smith, whose husband was with this Battalion.

A considerable number of ex-pupils served in the armed forces, many of them serving with distinction. Cpl E Felgate was awarded the DMC for gallant conduct and devotion to duty when in charge of snipers at St Elio.CMS Culley from The White Horse, was mentioned in dispatches and William E Snowling won both the Military medal and Croix de Guerre. George Becket was with a minesweeper at Durazzo in 1916 evacuating Serbians-with the Austrians advancing on the Port. For this action he was awarded the Serbian Medal and presented with a citation in Serbian. Lieut. Walter Brumbley (son of the school's first headmaster) was post humously awarded the Military Cross while serving in the Norfolk Regiment. The names of other ex-pupils who made the supreme sacrifice are Edgar Cossey, Nelson Cossey, Samuel Cossey, Albert Hood, Leonard Watson and William Ward.

World War II  A new secondary school at Bungay was completed in 1939. However the outbreak of war delayed the transfer of eleven pupils, who returned temporarily to Ellingham in the Autumn term. Air raid precautions were practised, at that time the procedure being speedy evacuation of the building to dispersal points (under a hedge of a nearby field), each child carrying a gas mask. Later safety precautions consisted of barricading the desks and sitting beneath them. Gas mask drill and regular inspection were also part of the routine. Fortunately the only bombs to be dropped in the village landed in a field at Church Farm and caused no damage. In May 1940, a barrage balloon came adrift from its moorings at Cardington and passing over the school, loosened the chimney pots and came to rest at the top of Wardley Hill.

The children contributed to the war effort by collecting waste paper, bones, and jam jars   for salvage. Sack of acorns went off to Macleans to be used in making toothpaste. The pupils collection of dried herbs was sold and the money sent away for the war relief.

Supported by Kirby Cane Memorial Hall (a registered charity).

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