Victor Charles Lefevre was born on 15 June 1897 and baptised in Thorpe Hamlet. His parents, William and Louisa, had 10 children by the time Victor was about 13 years old. However, four of these children had died; such a terrible loss for families.

During the First World War, when he was 18, Victor joined the Royal Navy. His Service number was SS6354. He was in the Navy for six years and demobbed when he was 24 years old, as documented in the 1921 Census. He was so young to have been involved in such conflict, in what was supposed to be the War to end all Wars.

Daisy May Arthurton was born on 13 September 1900–01 in Norwich to Henry George and Martha Arthurton. In all, the family had 16 children and they all survived, which was very unusual in those days. Feeding all those children was very difficult and often they were made to work at an early age. Daisy was lucky to have some kind of education at Octagon Chapel British Infants School, until she was 12–13 years old. The reason for her eventual departure was ‘Left this district’. Her family could have been moving for work or for a place with cheaper rent.

Daisy and Victor married in Norwich in 1929 — he was 32 years old and she was 29, which is older than usual for marriage. They lived together at 4 St Ann Lane from 1936 onwards.

Unfortunately the couple only had 10 years together as Victor was killed in the early days of WWII. He died at sea on the HMS Vanquisher on 11 September 1939; old by the standards of the forces, young for the standards of society. He is honoured on the Chatham Naval memorial.

Daisy went to live with four of her siblings in the old family home at 91 Oak Street, another slum area, presumably earning her living by doing ‘unpaid domestic duties’. She died on 23 June 1975, about 74 years old. At the time, she was living in Hellesdon on one of the council estates that had been built specifically to rehouse people from the slums.

Arthur John Scott was born on 18 September 1899 and died in October 1963, aged 64. Doris May Scott (nee Goodall) was born on 23 October 1902 and died in 1975 aged 73 years.

Arthur was brought up in the wider King Street community in a slum area ironically named Paradise Place, which was near where Rouen Road is today. He was one of seven children and, thankfully, all had survived by 1911.

Doris was also brought up in relative poverty and her family suffered terrible tragedies. Doris’ father, James Goodall, lost his first wife Louisa (nee Jolly) three days after giving birth to a daughter, Ida, who died on the same day in January 1908. He married his second wife Maud Louisa Kybert, who was 12 years his junior and already a widow, two years later. 

During World War I, Arthur served the country as a Private in the 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment. In 1921, he was posted in Bareilly, United Providence, India. That same year, Doris is recorded as being 18 years old and employed as a flour mill worker.

Doris and Arthur were married on 24 December, a Christmas wedding, at St Marks in Lakenham. Arthur was a wool worker at the time. They lived in St Ann Lane in 1936 and were rehoused, living on the newly built Larkman Estate in 1939, with their 11 year old son, Kenneth. Arthur was a wood machinist and Daisy a housewife.

John Robert Youngs was born on 4 February 1865-66 and died in July 1941, aged 76 years. Eliza Youngs was born on 29 November 1867 and died October 1939, aged 75 years.

John’s family lived in a series of yards in the King Street community area. He was one of nine children. His father, John, was a weaver but the poverty was so extreme that he entered the workhouse on several occasions between 1866 and 1869, taking his two youngest sons, Matthew and Joseph, with him on each occasion. In1969, he also took John Robert as well, who was only four years old.

Eliza was one of five children and grew up in Lakenham and Tasburgh.

John Robert and Eliza were married in 1890. In 1891, they were both living at No 4 Curtis Buildings. John Robert was a bricklayer’s labourer.

In 1921, they were both living at No 11 St Ann Lane. It appears that they had no children of their own but were looking after a niece, Dorothy, whose mother had died. They lived at St Ann for over 15 years, until they were rehoused in a new council housing estate in Upper Hellesdon.

Dorothy May London (nee Moppett) spoke at length to her daughter, Julie Osborne, about her childhood in the King Street area in the 1930s and Julie wanted to share these experiences.

Dorothy May was born in 1932 and lived with her family at 18 Abbey Lane, which is just off King Street, until she was about 8 years old. Those childhood experiences obviously had a profound effect on her and, subsequently, on her daughter.

She recounted the hard times, living in a two up-two down house and having to sleep top to toe in bed with siblings due to the lack of space. Their family shared the communal toilet in the yard with other families, the contents of which she remembered were emptied into a cart once a week.

The area really must have had distinct odours and sounds as she told her daughter all about the cause of it: as we know there were several malthouses brewing beer, pumping out the smell of processing malts; a fish filleting place just down from Old Barge Yard, and a fish shop. Cart horses were used to pull the brewery carts, leaving manure across the street. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a slaughterhouse in the area. It sounds awful but it was the life that she knew growing up and it must have held its fascination when she looked back as an adult.

However, with the optimistic viewpoint of a child, she talked to her daughter about the positives. She talked about the close-knit community, which included her grandparents who lived at 143, King Street. Her father drank in the Waterman pub which is no longer there.

Children’s memories are often associated with food and Dorothy May recounted the shops nearby, the fish shop, the butchers and the bakers. She talked about being sent to Valori’s fish and chip shop; this is an interesting memory and shows how memories can become confused, as this was probably when she lived near Dereham Road as that is where Valori’s was, presumably too far away from King St for a young child to go. However, she did say that she bought ice cream from the Aldous ice cream cart, so exciting for a child.

Church seems to have been a major focus in Dorothy’s life, as it was in the lives of many poor children at the time. She was born at St Peter per Mountergate but couldn’t remember where she went to church thereafter, she remembers the smell of incense so it may have been high church. Whichever, they went to church three times on a Sunday. That is a lot of time. Perhaps the church held such importance because families were so impoverished and the church could help. She fondly remembered charabanc trips to Sheringham with the nuns from Sunday School, which could possibly have been their only opportunities to leave the area.

In the summer, the pleasure boats used to come from Yarmouth, and the passengers would throw pennies at the children who had gone to watch them – Dorothy went with her mum on Sunday afternoons, although how they found the time between church sessions I really don’t know.

Money was tight and children had to use their skills and imagination in their play; Dorothy remembers them making clay marbles and I am sure that many a happy hour was spent playing with them, both out of school and at Horns Infant school, where Dorothy had had much of her schooling. Children would have had to manage their own play and used their imaginations to do so, unlike how children play today.

The Second World War started and when the air raid sirens started, Dorothy and her family would run to the air-raid shelter which was in Old Barge Yard, in fact it was in the back room of the Old Barge Inn. It must have been a terrifying experience for everyone, never mind such young children.

However, by 1942, Dorothy and her family had moved to Jex Road, near Dereham Road and a new life began.