Photo by  Ann Louise Kinmonth

Brian Phillips’s first memories of Hickling were when he was about six and staying with his family in Hickling Hall. He remembers the Hall as cold and frightening for a small boy;” “terrifying at night in this huge place”, but with the great attraction of “all the toads in the west cellar … big fat ones”

Brian was born in 1926 and remembers the Broad when it was “crystal clear” before the sea broke in; he describes the shoals of bream and eels that he could see in the clear water and tells us how to catch mussels on a thread.

Brian enjoyed Hickling most as a teenager running about on the farms; he loved it all – from snuggling up in the hay, to mole catching or dispatching rats and rabbits with ferrets or a knobbly stick. Hear his views of the beach and sailing; not so positive; he remembers his uncomfortable sandy swimsuit and sailing being something his sisters did.

Listen also to his recollections of the shops and weekly deliveries of milk, bread, and fish and of his admiration of the “amazing horse” that pulled the milk float and of the terrors that accompanied bringing home Tom the bull.