I suppose it depends on your association with Felixstowe as to how you view it. People come here for quite a few reasons, but the town is dynamic, that is, it has surely grown and changed with time. In fact Walton, which is now part of Felixstowe, was for centuries the principle settlement on the peninsula.
Little known outside of Suffolk, Felixstowe was still being confused with Folkestone, as I found out when joining the army in 1969. Upon being asked many times, my response was frequently met with, ‘Isn’t that near Dover’.
Now people come here not only to live and work but given our low annual rainfall it is an area of many leisure pursuits such as sailing, bird watching or a gentle walk along the prom, perhaps taking a beverage and sustenance at the Alex. Whatever you’re doing here I have probably been there, done that and grown out of several t-shirts along the way, because this is my home and has been for the last 66 years.
Way back in 1953 Felixstowe had got overbeing an Edwardian spa town, we still had hotels and B&Bs to entertain our visitors,the Pier Pavilion, opposite a much shortened pier, offered tea and Handel Evans playing his organ in the afternoon and where my aunty worked on the refreshment counter, always good for a raspberry split on a hot day, but don’t come too often!! Further along the prom, the Spa Pavilion, which according to https://spapavilion.uk/history was built in 1909, entertained the evening crowds with a menu of variety shows and touring performers.
If you got restless on the beach and fancied a ride on the dodgems or the thrill of a decidedly dodgy scenic railway then a visit to Charlie Mannings amusement park would relieve you of a bob or two. Always economically out of our reach, except on ‘free day’ at the start of the Easter holiday. First opened by Sir Billy Butlin in 1936 and still locally known as‘Butlins’ even though it has been owned by the Mannings family since 1946. Their scenic railway, an important landmark on the sea front,has creaked and rattled its way through the years only recently being consigned to the knackersyard.
Thrills and not spills on the Scenic Railway
The dock, opened in 1886, was quite small by comparison with the small town that is the Port of Felixstowe today. Surrounded by farmland, Walton Avenue was just a dirt track after Peewit Hill, as was the road that is No. 1 gate today. Lorries entered the dock at the end of Carr Road after approaching down the old A45 perhaps stopping at Clive Catons Transport Cafe opposite the Half Moon in Walton on the way.
There was no propane tank or yeast factory, the council estate above McDonalds wasn’t finished and Old Felixstowe behind the High Road was still farmland. We used to call the land behind Hakes Caravan Park ‘The marshes’, this was where we fished for minnows and newts in the ditches where the water was fresh enough to support pond life. In the season the saturated fields provided frogs spawn to take to school providing an early lesson in metamorphosis. The bushes on the hill gave us delicious blackberries and the jam and puddings that mum made. Above this were The Ridings, just uneven scrub grassland before you got to the new council estate where we lived.
I wasn’t born here unlike my brother who entered the world in my aunty’s house in St.AndrewsRoad just down the road from Nana and Grandad,who lived at No 7.My dad was born in Trimley St.Martin and Mum on Melton Hill Woodbridge. I came into the world at the Phyllis Memorial nursing home, Melton, moving into our brand new 3-bedroom council house in Stour Avenue early in 1954.
Brand new in 1953, looking spic and span today
Not tried and tested, the new houses were built on irregular marsh land with many hidden springs. Coming downstairs after the first night in their new home, Mum and Dad were surprised to find the kitchen floor flooded. A remedy was found by the builders and there was no reoccurrence, though we did have to have a ‘false wall' fitted laterin the dining room to stop the rising damp there.All inall,ourhouse provided a springboard for all myboyhood activitiesuntil leaving school at 16. Mumwas a tenant there for 57 years.
Alan Versey