Costessey Memories Exhibition Private View

Last week we had a Private View of the Costessey Memories exhibition at the Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell. Around x40 people attended, including representatives from the Norfolk Museum Service. A splendid time was had by all, and everyone was really impressed by, both, the achievements of the Costessey Memories group, as well as by the exhibition. Here are some photographs taken by volunteer, Francesca Arnold:

The Costessey Memories Exhibition

The Costessey Memories exhibition has just ended its month-long run at The Costessey Centre. During this time, we estimate, conservatively, that over a thousand people have taken time to look at it. We would like to thank the staff at the centre for being so welcoming and allowing us to share our memories here. 

Next Tuesday, it will be moving to the Museum of Norwich at the Bridewell, where it will be for two weeks. During that time we are going to be having an invitation-only private view of the exhibition as a way of formally celebrating the success of the group. 

In addition to the 'hard copy' photographs such as the one of the Costessey lads, pictured above, there will be a slideshow projected onto the museum wall featuring around 150 images of Costessey's past. Here are a few examples of what will be on view...

Looking at the last two photographs, we too hope to make quite a splash with our Bridewell exhibition!

Costessey Memories Wellbeing Walk to the Red Bridge

Members of the Costessey Memories group enjoyed fantastic blue skies and bright sunshine as they walked through Costessey, on their way to their favourite childhood meeting place, the Red Bridge. Here are some of the photos from the day (click on the images in order to enlarge them)...

Costessey Memories "The Mugshots"

Below, you will see the wonderful & knowledgeable contributors (maybe you will recognise some or all of them) to Costessey Memories. It's been so entertaining so far to listen to their fondness of Costessey as a village & now a suburb of Norwich City itself. Without these fantastic people the group would not exist & we thank them for giving up their spare time to offer you, the public, their knowledge & insight about Costessey from yesteryear!

Costessey Memories Archiving

Today's session was to archive any extra photographs, books, documents etc which the members have brought in. These latest items sparked numerous new conversations, particularly the changing infrastructure around the roads and housing. Bunkers Hill has changed quite dramatically from the odd wooden cottage to now numerous modern homes. Many roads in Costessey back then were just dirt tracks but of course now are more established.

Doctors & Nurses

Sarah and Stephen brought along numerous items, including photos, advertising, nurses hats, to loosen the memories of the group with regard to Costessey's local GP surgery, the local nurse and midwife. A questionnaire has been distributed around the group, asking for each members' input. Many members had vivid memories of a stern Nurse Mason, working from her own home close to the oval public house, and of Dr Henchellwood's surgery on the Norwich Road and how he remembered each patients' records, and wrote nothing down. Most babies were born at home, many again being delivered by Nurse Mason. Very few members can remember paying for the doctor before the introduction of the NHS, but those who could, or parents did, remember paying into a private insurance scheme.

Costessey Shopping Memories

At last Monday's session Lynn bought in various reminiscence items relating to shopping. The group talked about memories of shops in the Costessey area. The men talked about the haircuts they got from Mr Skipper, David's father, boys comics and broken biscuits. The ladies remembered the blue bags and starch which they often bought and used for many different purposes - including bee stings! 

There was much discussion around Green Shield Stamps and the Co-op dividend-something even the youngest members could recall.

The Cost of Costessey

Please click on images in order to enlarge

At today's meeting of the Costessey Memories group, Roy brought in this copy of a Costessey-related document and photo. The record of land purchase shows that Miss Fisher paid £50 for a plot in June 1945. People in the Costessey Memories group confirm that these plots were a third of an acre in size. The photo, below, shows the King family proudly standing outside their make-shift home, a redundant railway carriage. 

We were all struck by how much you could purchase for so little back then. Even allowing for the fact that wages were a lot lower in 1945, this was still cheap in comparison with today's land prices. A useful tool to use here is the National Archive currency converter:

Currency Converter

Although this converter only translates values to 2005 prices, it gives us some idea of how the relative value of land has increased since the end of World War Two. Using the tool, I typed in the sum of £50.2.17 (ie the combined value of the land plus legal fees) and this would be worth £1,371.46 in 2005. 

Colin Howey

Roy's Costessey Childhood

The first regular meeting of the Costessey Memories group was really well attended, with twenty people turning up. We were treated to a wonderfully entertaining and informative talk from Roy about his childhood growing up in Costessey.

Here is a short excerpt of Roy discussing his memories with group members...

listen to ‘Costessey Memories - Penny Pinching’ on Audioboo