Introduction

Alan Maynard Ford (1928-1993) was not born in Wreningham, although he spent most of his life in and around the village. In his later years, others demanded stories about his earlier times. He decided to take their requests seriously and duly wrote out his memories in an exercise book.

His old exercise book is still around, and the contents have recently been transcribed. With the kind permission of Alan’s descendants, the complete memoirs are linked as a pdf here.

The text focuses on the many villagers, young and old, who crossed his path, including where each of them lived. Whilst the government’s 1939 Registration provides an official listing, Alan’s youthful recollections provide considerable social detail, including bits of mischievous ‘schoolboy’ information we could never find in an official record!

Alan’s text takes us on an orderly tour around Wreningham. To make the locations easier to follow, maps are provided below for each of his chapters, overlaid with red dashed lines showing the routes in his story. This OS mapping was first published in 1957, so is no longer in Crown copyright.

Several groups of council houses were erected during the first half of the 1900s, which are included in outline on the maps. Otherwise, there was limited new construction in Wreningham between the early 1930s and 1957. Consequently, the buildings shown in these maps generally correspond to those existing during Alan’s early life. The maps are also set out in the same sequence as his story.