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Ask the Audience
A forum for anyone to ask any question about the village,
its people, its history, lost and found etc.

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DateQuestion / ResponseSubmitter
11 Jun 10Is there any history of links between this area and Yorkshire (coal?) I have Jacob, Isaac and Abraham BRUCE from Trimley area bn 1780-1800 and wondered if there is any link to other Jacobs & Isaacs that appear in Yorkshire.Mrs Grace Beagley, derek@dbeagley.wanadoo.co.uk
16 Nov 09Fisons
Do you know if Fisons ever had a base in the Occold area, and in particular during World War Two? We have a relative who supposedly worked in the Occold area as a typist in the 1940s and we know she subsequently worked for Fisons in Ipswich. Was there any employment in Occold during World War 2 other than on the land? An airfield perhaps? Many thanks!
Peter and Ruth Kerr
01923 351955
Email
28 Stratford Way, Watford, Herts, WD17 3DJ
Response
Fisons never had a plant in or near Occold.
 
The nearest was originally a phosphate fertilizer plant at Stowmarket making from locally quarried Coprolite. This was originally Prentices, became Packards & eventually Fisons - all Suffolk families. But the coprolite was quarried out  long before the war and the long journeys to bring imported phosphate rock to Stowmarket was uneconomic. So Stowmarket was probably only a distribution centre by WW2
 
Just before the war the huge Cliff Quay complex on the edge of Ipswich  was opened and manufacture concentrated there (I grew up in the shadow of their Sulphuric Acid works). Phosphate rock was even brought back mainly as ballast on the Arctic Convoys to Russia.
 
Their are several possibilities for a typist around Occold during WW2. There were still huge farming estates at that time eg the Henniker-Major Estate, now only Thornham, was all around Occold. Several farms which had not been run efficiently or were owned by members of the Bruitish Union of Fascists were taken into state administration etc. Her job was probably agriculture related unless she worked for one of the US airbases. There were 3 within 4 miles -Eye, Horham & Mendlesham. Good Hunting
Andy Andrews
Email
Response
Dear Andy
 
Thank you very much for such a full and interesting reply. We are trying to track down a distant relative and have only been given a few clues but you have given us a bit more to go on.
 
Thanks again
Ruth
Peter and Ruth Kerr
01923 351955
Email
28 Stratford Way, Watford, Herts, WD17 3DJ

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This page was last updated on 11 June 2010 at 10:27