Mary Edmunds was born on 7th June 1921 at Bigsby’s Corner, Benhall to parents Charles Edmunds and Daisy May Goodchild. Her father was a plumber for his father Job Edmunds.
Mary was one of twins, her brother Charles Edmunds born just a few minutes after her.
From a recording 1980s with Suffolk Radio:
My mother didn’t know she was going to have twins till I was born and Dr Coleman said, “There’s another one!” And she said, “No, its just wind.” He replied, “Pretty solid wind!”
In those days nobody knew if you were going to have twins or not so she had to go all round the village to get clothes for my brother. I was always bigger than he was, I could always run faster and spit further!
Left Mary Ellen Edmunds, above her twin Charles Gordon Edmunds.
Shown here in R.A.F. uniform. He received the Malta medal for services in Malta (1941-1943)
Mary and her twin were baptized together by Rev. Louis Bredin Delap on 3rd July 1921 at St. Mary’s church, Benhall.
From a 2009 recording made at Benhall Club:
I went to school in Benhall. At school we used to have to sing grace before school, then we went home for lunch and then when we came back we would sing again. The teachers were Miss Grimble and Grace Ayden. Mr. Leverett was the Head master twizzling his moustache and he always smelt of tobacco. The only memory of him I have is standing at Teacher Gracie’s table and sharpening a pencil. He never seemed to teach anything though now and again he would point at someone and say, “You’ve got to have 100 lines”.
We were terrified of him. He used to love rapping people across the knuckles with a ruler and he would make you stand behind your desk with your hands behind your head!
From a recording 1980s with Suffolk Radio:
I left school at 14 in 1935, what else was there for a girl to do but to go into service?
We were taught to read & write but not trained for anything specific. So, I was a tweenie at Benhall Vicarage, a between maid and I lived in. It was awful. Five bob (shillings) a week wages. Still it did half teach me how to look after my own house. I was there for about 4 years and it was a hard life.
I would have to call the vicar in the morning with his copper jug of water and his tea. To wash the vicar’s surplice. To make it white, I used to buy persil from Mr. Green’s shop, Benhall and Mr. Hadley used to deliver it as we never had allowed out or to have any time off. My mother used to sneak down and come and help me sometimes, and then she used to have to hide so she wasn’t discovered.
Then I got a job as a parlour-maid at the house opposite Aldeburgh church, Emerson Lodge which had a butler. I earned a pound a week and all food. I lived in but there were 7 staff there. I was there when I was 18 and WWII broke out. That’s how I met my husband, he was in a regiment stationed at Aldeburgh. When I married him, we moved into the pre-fabs down Ayden Way.
Mary’s son Robin Alan Bell outside prefabs, Ayden Way, Benhall Green
From a 2009 recording at Benhall Club:
When my sons were about 8 and 2, I got a job washing up at Benhall school. This was before we had the new school kitchen. So the children used to have to march from the school to the Club to have their school dinners.
They had curry one day and that was made with coconut and hard-boiled eggs and the whole lot had to go into the waste bucket, no child would eat it. They loved chips and roly-poly. But the amount of children you had to teach to hold a knife and fork! We used to have to wash up in tin buckets and empty it outside. They were taught to say prayers before they ate, hands together, eyes closed, for what we are about to receive but I don’t think many children do that now, do they?
Mary with her two sons, right George Bell, left Robin Alan Bell
Mary then trained with Ted. Ayden & his wife when they formed the St. John Ambulance Cadets. At one point she was teaching the cadets with Mrs. Ayden. She then went on to work for 15 years as a nurse at St. Audreys hospital.
From a 2009 recording at Benhall Club:
Something funny happened to me the other week, I was waiting at the bus stop when one of the new people from Benhall asked if I would like a lift to Saxmundham and as we went passed Bigsbys Corner in the car I said, “That’s where I was born 88 years ago” and do you know what he said? “I don’t suppose you left there!”
Well one of my sons went to Australia and I’ve been there, the other worked in the Persian Gulf and I’ve been there. My brother worked in Borneo and I’ve been there so I said to him, “Why do you assume because we were born here that we’ve got no brain?” Well, he’s never picked me up since!
Now I live in a little sheltered bungalow, no 1 Forge Close, right opposite where I used to live with my mum and dad and my twin brother!
Mary’s newly built bungalow, no. 1 Forge Close on right of image
