Thursday Doors – The house on Nethergate Street

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Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

Today I am sharing photographs from our visit to my Mom’s home town of Bungay, Suffolk. Bungay is the setting from my books, While the Bombs Fell, co-written with my Mom, and Through the Nethergate.

Picture of the doors of a barn with a door into the loft
The farmhouse where my mother grew up
The shed that Old Fiddledee Dee used for his goat’s when my mother was a girl
Sign for Nethergate Street

This is a short extract from While the Bombs Fell which describes my Mom’s home and the goat shed:

“Many other cottages along “back lane,” or Nethergate Street, were small and shabby, the same as
Elsie’s home. They all looked similar and featured an outside toilet.

In the yard of the cottage next door stood two dilapidated wooden sheds. A fat, elderly man lived
alone in that cottage. The local people called him Old Fiddledee Dee. He wore a worn calico shirt, an
old waistcoat buttoned over his large belly and a pair of tatty, brown pants.

Old Fiddledee Dee kept goats in his sheds which he milked every morning. People said he lived on
goat’s milk and bread. The thought of drinking milk from smelly goats disgusted Elsie.”

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/02/11/katharine-day-house-thursday-doors/

Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

Published

66 thoughts on “Thursday Doors – The house on Nethergate Street”

      1. Yes, indeed. I think you will find at Checkers, although imported. We always eat it in Romania, and it will be a local products, along sheep cheese.
        Goat’s cheese has a stronger taste, as well as smell, compared to the cheese made of sheep milk which, in turn, is stronger that any feta or other cow’s cheese.
        But it is a treat as well as an acquired taste. 😉

        Try some when you will visit Romania 🙂

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    1. Hi Liz, yes, the area is now built up and the farm house is now the site of a business of some sort. I couldn’t see what. A lot has changed but a lot has stayed the same, it’s quite interesting. I’ll share some more pictures of Bungay next week. Some of the places are in my book. We never saw Bungay Castle, sadly.

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  6. Hi Robbie – thanks for sharing these pictures and the setting for While the Bombs Fell. I have only seen pictures of the houses where my parents grew up and a few of where my grandparents lived. I like that street sign – it has an enduring quality.

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    1. Hi Barbara, I liked that street sign too. It was interesting to see these places. I would have liked to visit a few other places in Bungay but we spent most of our time visiting relatives. Which is also very nice, but it didn’t allow time to explore the town much.

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  7. Bungay, looks to be about 20 mi (32 km) from Ipswich, which is where my good friend David lives. I gifted his wife a copy of “While the Bombs Fell” – I think I need to treat myself to a copy. I visited Ipswich in 2013, but our tour was out to Felixstowe.

    I absolutely love the doors in that first photo. I like the shed, too, but the craftsmanship on display in that first building is remarkable.

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    1. The houses and buildings in the UK are quite astonishing, Dan, when you think about how old many of them are. My cousin’s previous house in Faversham was over 400 years old. It was a listed house so she could only redo the existing decor and could not actually change anything. Felixstowe is not somewhere I have been as yet. I hope David’s wife enjoyed the book. It is not an adventure, it’s a series of vignettes about my mom’s life. I modelled it on Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

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      1. She did enjoy the book. My friend took me around the area. Seeing things older than 400 years old is simply amazing to me. We have nothing here like that. He took me to a small church, built (i think) in the 1200s. It was fascinating to see.

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  16. There are so many stories in every step we take and every door we open. A beautiful and profound collection of photos, Robbie! The walls have ears and they remember the conversations, laughter, celebrations and times of grieving. Sending hugs!

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    1. Hi Miriam, you are very kind. I am waiting for the book to be available on Amazon before I do a book tour. I will do one through RRBC and also guest post with a few blogging friends. Most people prefer to buy from Amazon which is why I’m holding back. Have a lovely Sunday.

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  21. A fascinating post, Robbie. I do love how you incorporated a real setting and historical real people and legends into Through the Nethergate. And so sweet to see pictures of where your mom grew up as well as how they showed up in the excerpt. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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