The Wash

[London Best]

Frieston Shore used to be good for wigeon, but I haven’t been there since about 1987?

[enfieldspares]

Here's six scans of a few of the pictures I managed to root out. There are the Marine Hotel at Frieston Shore mostly. The two little girls in the white pinafore dresses are my mother's mother and her sister. My grandmother in other words. The woman in the white blouse is their mother and, so, my great grandmother. The wedding picture from 1918 is the same little girl in the white pinafore dress some years later marrying my grandfather at St James's Church at Frieston Shore. The boat on the water is captioned Frieston Shore High Tide and the one with the people on the marsh is written on the back "Walking towards Plummer's Hotel". 

Edited May 29, 2020 by enfieldspares

[enfieldspares]

Here's the "guns" picture enlarged and cropped as I guess that's for some the most interesting. I wonder where those lads are now? At rest in still "holding their ground" in a field in France I suspect. The lady to the right of them as you look at it in the larger uncropped version is my great grandmother. My grandfather in the marriage picture looking all fine in his riding breeches survived the first wave of the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 (2nd Lieutenant with 2nd Battalion K.O.Y.L.I.) only to be later war blinded. But at least he came home. St. Dunstan's trained him as a woodworker I still have an oak settle he made and a lamp and other things. And the two shot guns? Do they at least survive in someone's gun cabinet? I've some other pictures of a man or men in a boat with a gun or guns but not sure where those pictures are presently.

Edited May 29, 2020 by enfieldspares

[panoma1]

Brilliant enfieldspares thanks for posting!  They appear either small blokes.......or big guns? 😆 

More photos if you have em?

[enfieldspares]

I think they might even be lads?

[London Best]

Thank you very much enfieldspares, very evocative pictures.

My family also came from the fens. There is a photo somewhere of the cottage at Bicker Fen. I think my sister has it. I will post it if it can be found. Your grandparents and mine were from a similar era, born early 1890’s.

[enfieldspares]

My grandmother was the licensee of the recently closed Royal Oak at Mareham le Fen from before WWII right through until the late 1960s. One of the stories she told was of 1940 when the pub was full, both bars, with ORs from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders being the troops there at the time. She said of an officer walking in unannounced and just saying the one word. "Cromwell." Meaning invasion imminent, and the place emptying at once, with glasses of beer being left unfinished. The Marine went to derelict many years ago, even when I last saw it in the 1960s. But I Googled "Plummer's Hotel" and that seems to still exist as a building, in good repair, and use, even if maybe not as a hotel. In the picture at high tide Plummer's is on the left of the picture.

Edited May 29, 2020 by enfieldspares

[lancer425]

• Thanks for posting Enfield spares. And thanks for taking the time to crop the photo too. They look a happy band in the wedding photo it has to be said.

[wildfowler.250]

Thanks guys for all the info. Apologies for the delay in replying as I haven’t been on much recently. Some interesting photos enfieldspraes! Hopefully will manage to get down and visit the wash this season and all the help has been very much appreciated! 3 months to go and counting...