Pair of Walsh and Clarke ploughing engines
East of England Sense of Place Suffolk
 

East of England Sense of Place Suffolk
Guided tours of Suffolk's past

Seven Ages of Man, and Woman, in Suffolk


Crowded and hungry

When they were at school, many children would find it hard

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to concentrate, on account of over-crowding and under-nourishment at home. It was the children of day-men who were worst off - labourers who were employed by the day, just at times of need. The children would sleep several to a bed, and have little to eat but bread.

"I remember when I was about five they used to have a candle-factory in the alleyway in Fore Hamlet in Ipswich . They used to boil the mutton fat and then the candles were dipped . into the mutton fat. Well, on a Saturday evening when the factory was practically being closed the children used to come around and get the scraps of mutton." (Sam Friend, born 1888, as quoted in Where Beards Wag All)

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