June 2008

Anne Canning In conversation ...

with Teresa Baggott. Teresa has just started her second year as the Southwold Town Mayor. Teresa and her husband Derek run the Red Lion in Southwold.

Tell me about your early life
I was born in 1961 in Southwold. We lived at 2 Cautley Road until I was eight years old and I have lots of happy memories of being in that house. At the time I had one older and one younger brother. My third brother didn’t come along until a few years later. We had a brilliant time at Cautley Road. Anyone who knows my mother will know what sort of childhood we had, with no rules or regulations from Mum. The house had a massive garden at the side, which was completely overgrown. We had boats in the garden and all the kids from the neighbourhood use to come to our house to play because they knew that they could do more or less what they liked.

It seems hard to believe now, but we had a visit from the Town Clerk telling us we had got to tidy up our garden. He was worried that the grass was too high and might catch alight and burn the hospital down. (The house was right opposite where the casualty department was situated at the time). I know that his timing wasn’t very good, because he came round on a Saturday afternoon. My dad was a fisherman and Saturday was the day when all the fishermen went for a drink after they came in. So Dad had had a drink or two when the Town Clerk turned up to tell us we had got to cut our grass because it was a fire hazard!

Mum was a great party person and we had some amazing birthday parties at Cautley Road. Dressing up has always been one of Mum’s main things and she had this massive dressing up collection. Her parties always involved us in dressing up.

There were some big carnivals in Southwold in those days with loads of floats going down the street. I think they were mainly organised by the Young Wives Group but if there was any other celebration in the town it often involved a carnival. Mum always roped us in and we had to dress up and be shoved onto one of the floats.

Now I absolutely hate dressing up and can’t think of anything worse than a fancy dress party, but as children we just thought that was part of normal life.

What happened when you were eight?
We had to move from Cautley Road because it was only a small house and we needed more room. We literally moved down the road to Hotson Road. It was a three-way swap. We moved into Philip Palmer’s family home - they moved across the street and we moved down. I can remember vividly it all being done in vans on one particular day. It was very exciting for us kids and nice because we didn’t have to move out of the area.

In those days there were hundreds of families living in Southwold. The whole area was full of families; there were no second homes or anything like that. You knew everybody and everybody knew you.

Things stayed the same after we moved. We still had a massive garden and the parties went on. Mum never laid down any rules so we had a brilliant upbringing and a very happy childhood. As the beach was so near we used to spend almost every day there in the summer. In those days there was a chap who used to hire windbreaks and chairs and I remember the windbreaks were great big long things that used to go all the way down the length of the groynes. At the age of about nine we were allowed to go on our own if we wanted, something that wouldn’t happen these days. We would also be allowed to go on the pier with a bag of pennies to play on the machines. The biggest fun for us of going to the beach was being allowed to go on the pier. You could take a few pennies down and play there all morning.

Things have changed so drastically in a relatively short time. We enjoyed the kind of carefree childhood not available to many children these days.

What was the pier like when you used to take your pennies there?
I can remember it being the length it is now but as I grew up it got shorter and shorter. We could walk along the pier but I’m not sure that it was very safe. It was a rickety old thing. Upstairs there was a massive cafeteria. The whole building is very different now. The main draw for us was playing with our pennies on this penny shove thing and mum being quite naughty and showing us how to nudge the pennies off to get them out.

Did your mum work?
Yes, all her life. Years ago she always worked at the Swan Hotel and I used to have to go there after school because Mum was doing the afternoon teas. I would go to the Swan straight from Southwold School and sit in the kitchen watching Mum preparing egg and cress sandwiches and cakes to go on the tea trolley. I did that from the age of eight and thought it looked good fun, so I suppose it isn’t really surprising that I ended up in the catering business. My older brother was allowed to go home or go to a friend’s house, but I had to go and meet Mum.

My youngest brother Alan came along when I was about eleven, so then Mum used to go to work in the evening and I looked after the baby. I did that from the time he was born and for a long time I sort of permanently had this baby with me. The thing was Dad was a fisherman and even in those days the fishing wasn’t brilliant so he had to fish when he could. There were four of us kids to feed. We obviously lived on fish most of the time and if there wasn’t any fish Dad would go out and shoot a rabbit somewhere and that’s what we had for our tea. There were no treats like there are these days. One of our biggest treats was on Cup Final day. We used to love that day because Mum would always buy a packet of chocolate biscuits. I just used to sit there and wait - I wasn’t interested in the football at all - I just wanted my chocolate biscuit.

How did your Dad’s life as a fisherman work?
They had to go out with the tide, so he could be out any time of the day or night. I can only remember him being the skipper of his own boat and he had a few different local blokes who worked for him. They always went out from Southwold. He had quite a few different boats at different times with different people but I was never allowed to set foot on any of them. My brothers could go on but I had to stand on the stage, because being a girl it was very unlucky for me to go on. He was very superstitious, which meant I wasn’t allowed on the boat. Another superstition meant that we weren’t allowed to have the colour green in our house. That’s something else that has stayed with me from my childhood and now my favourite colour is green. When I was a youngster there were hundreds of fishermen down at the harbour and all sorts of fish for sale. There were no fishing quotas in those days so they could catch what they wanted.

Once the fish had been caught how did he go about selling it?
Some used to go to the market, but Dad used to bring quite a lot of it home. Mum used to package it up in the kitchen into so many different parcels for a little round she had to friends and neighbours. When Alan was still a baby in the pram we all used to go out with her and tap on people’s doors to see if they wanted any fish. Normally they would be only too happy to buy it because fresh fish was as popular then as it is today. We used to have this boiler thing at home that was used for boiling the shrimps out in the back yard. He used to catch lobster as well but I didn’t like it when they were thrown into the pot. They would shriek. When I think back to how things were done then – it would never be allowed now.

Dad would go shooting as well so we used to eat a lot of rabbit and game. That’s another thing I can’t stand now. I said to Mum one day “I’m surprised I’m not a vegetarian with what I used to see”. Sometimes pet rabbits would disappear from the garden only to be served up for tea later. That’s the way it was in those days, especially with Dad being a fisherman because there was no regular money – it was the way to survive. Of course Mum earned money from the hotel but the pay wasn’t brilliant and there were no perks like there are now.

I suppose Southwold didn’t get so many visitors then
No, but there were regular visitors that you could set your clock by. They would come at the same time every year and stay for two weeks. That doesn’t happen much anymore.

When I was a bit older we made loads of friends in the summer holidays down on the beach. Every year we would meet up with the same visitors. We also met families from the caravan site, because they used to use the Harbour Inn. Dad’s boat stage was right opposite the front of the pub so we spent a lot of our time messing about around there. Mum and Dad would often go there for a drink on Saturday or Sunday lunchtime and the Harbour Inn would be full of fishermen and their families. The kids weren’t allowed in the pub (not even over the step), but would play outside. The odd glass of cola and packet of crisps would appear on the step if we were lucky. That is one thing that I find has changed dramatically, how taking kids into pubs has become acceptable. Back in those days I think you would probably have gone out of there as quickly as you went in!

Were your Mum and Dad both Southwold people?
Yes they were both born in Southwold. Dad was actually born in a house just along from where we lived in Hotson Road. He was one of eleven brothers and sisters of the Doy family. Many of them went on to have very big families of their own and consequently the Doys were a massive Southwold family. Many of them still live in the town now and I’ve got cousins and half cousins that I probably don’t know. Sometimes one of them will come into the pub and tell me that they are related to me. My automatic response is to ask, “which one are you from?”

Mum was born in Victoria Street. Her parents were Freddy and Dorothy Wells. During the war granddad was an Air Raid Warden in Southwold. Mum had a totally different background to Dad’s. He was in this big family, whereas Mum was an only child for several years until her brother David came along.

My granddad Wells used to run the tennis courts in Southwold (now The Pit Stop), so that was another place where we spent a lot of our childhood. Mum was a very good tennis player and played most days. Before she married Mum was encouraged with her tennis by an old lady called Nancy Fox (the founder of the Fox Trust Housing Scheme) and she was keen to take Mum to London to get her trained professionally. Mum was having such a good time in and around Southwold that she wouldn’t go, although she continued playing tennis. At one time granddad Wells had been the Mace Bearer for the Town Council. I often think of that when I walk along now with the current Mace Bearer.

How did you enjoy school?
I went to Southwold School from the age of five to eleven. It was strict but I was very happy there despite my childhood asthma. If I had an attack at school one of the teachers would just pick me up and take me home. At the age of eleven I went on to Reydon School (it was called Reydon Modern when I was there) and again had a very happy time there. It was a big culture shock going from Southwold Primary to Reydon Modern and some of the older pupils seemed enormous. I was lucky because my brother and I were quite close and he was already there a year above me. I knew a lot of his friends so that helped. I left at sixteen with seven reasonable GCSE’s apart from German, which I detested and only did to get out of doing something else.

When we were choosing our options there was woodwork, cooking or music. Naturally, I went for cooking, but that was stopped short after an incident in the cookery class when I was amongst a bunch of girls who had done something wrong. The teacher decided to split us up. I ended up in music, so I had no cooking lessons at school. The only things I learned about cooking at home were from Dad because Mum wasn’t a cook. She didn’t like cooking because there was always something else to do which would be much more fun. I should say though that Mum did teach me how to make yorkshire puddings and gravy.

Anyway, in my music option I learned to play the clarinet, although I don’t think I would be able play one now.

I assume you had originally chosen the cookery option with a career in catering in mind?

Well I had sort of got interested in catering when I was a child in the Swan with my mum. The Swan, the Crown and the Anchor at Walberswick were run as one company in those days called “Sole Bay Hotels” and Mum at some stage had moved from the Swan to the Crown. When I was thirteen I started working part time at the reception desk in the Crown. Can you imagine a thirteen year old being allowed to do that now? I used to go at the weekends and sometimes after school from five to six o’clock. At that time the Crown reception was in the office at the top of the stairs. I learned an awful lot there from the manageress who later moved to the Anchor at Walberswick. She taught me how to type, do bookwork and wages. I just learned everything from that one person in the Crown.

When I left school there were a lot of girls going off to college to learn secretarial skills, but I had already learned so much of that from my years at The Crown. I had also gained quite a few life skills dealing with people in the hotel. There was the attraction of earning a full time wage to consider and after weighing it all up I decided not to go to college but to work full time at the Crown.

As I got older, I did a bit of waitressing downstairs and then, when I was 18 I was allowed to go in the bar, but I worked mainly in reception. In those days we used an old fashioned typewriter, and the old style Gestetner copier and I seemed to have permanently inky fingers.

Mr Bath-Jones, the then manager of the three hotels, employed a lot of Phillipino girls at the time. They were lovely and I used to really enjoy working with them. I also learned a bit about their style of cooking when they prepared food in the rest room.

My first husband, Kevin was a chef at the Crown and we married while I still worked there. I stayed working until about five days before my daughter was born because I really didn’t want to leave – I loved it so much.

In fact I ended up staying at the Crown from the age of thirteen until I left to have my first child when I was twenty-two.

Did you stay in Southwold after you were married?
Yes we rented a house in Southwold. There was only a year between my two girls. By the time our son was born Kevin had moved to the Swan and I was asked to help out there. So I would go down at three o’clock while Kevin looked after the children until he came on duty at six o’clock. I worked on reception again, but it was a bit of an eye-opener and much more upmarket than the Crown. In those days they used to have quite a few famous people come to stay. There were even long time residents staying there.

One big challenge was the old fashioned telephone exchange, which had fifty-two lines. To put a call through you had to plug in the connector, which was on an elasticated cord, to the appropriate line. It was a nightmare getting the right plug into the right hole and I gave it a wide berth for a few days. One of the lines was the extension for the manageress (I can still remember the number - it was fifty four). Everyone was so afraid of her that when it lit up nobody wanted to answer it. One particular day my husband arrived a bit late just after six o’clock with the three children. Well the phones always got busy after six o’clock because the calls were cheaper and I had loads of these calls connected with plugs here there and everywhere. The girls just stood by the doorway but my son came running in to see me and as I turned away to speak to one of the girls he started to pull the plugs out. Of course when I asked him which plugs he had moved and where to, he couldn’t remember so in the end I just pulled all the plugs out and declared a temporary fault. I can still hear the noise of him taking out the plugs and remember me hoping that number fifty-four wouldn’t light up.

There was only one other telephone exchange of that kind in the area at the time and I think it was at the Royal George (now the Hatfield) at Lowestoft.

When the Swan was refurbished in 1989 the switchboard went. I don’t know what happened to it.

How did you come to move to Reydon?
Sole Bay Hotels had taken on management of The Randolph in Reydon. They needed someone to manage it, and offered it to Kevin and I. It was a huge step at the time. The children were all under five and I had my doubts, but Kevin was very keen. He didn’t want to do the style of cooking planned for the Swan and had ideas of his own. It was such a good opportunity that we accepted, much to my Mum’s dismay. At the time The Randolph was a bit run down and didn’t have a brilliant reputation and she also wasn’t sure it would be right for the children.

We went to The Randolph in February 1989 and lived in accommodation attached to the back of the hotel. It was ideal because the hotel kitchen door and our door was connected by a small walkway so the kids weren’t far away if we were working in the kitchen. We had a great team – a couple had come from the Swan and my sister in law worked with us as well. She also had children so we helped each other out.

It was very hard work, but once the place was tidied up. we started to take residents We found that a lot of our visitors loved to see the kids around the place. I still have people come to the pub now and ask me how they are. The kids had a fantastic life up there. We still worked for Sole Bay Hotels but they left us alone to do our own thing. Two or three years later the place was really busy. We didn’t run it for the holiday trade because of where it was. We thought it had to be run for the locals and if we got holidaymakers that was a bonus. In the early days we always knew on a Friday if Southwold was full because at seven o’clock we would begin to get enquiries from people who had been sent up to us. Once we got going we were usually booked up ourselves. We had some good times there.

How did it become “The Cricketers”?
When we had been there about two or three years, Simon Loftus took over the running of the hotels. He had obviously got his own ideas and it was true the Randolph did need updating. There were lots of individual rooms so everything was sort of closed off, so he wanted to open it up. He also decided that he wanted to change the name of the place. That didn’t go down very well with Mr Adnams because the name had been chosen by his predecessors as a tribute to Randolph Churchill. Simon wanted everything to be completely new with a cricket theme, partly I think because of the proximity of the Eversley playing field and cricket pavilion. We had our doubts about whether the locals would like it. After all it was them who provided the main part of our trade. Anyway he pursued his ideas and I think it was done quite well really. The structural changes made are how you see it today. In the end they were forced to do much more than had been originally planned when a water tank in the roof burst (overnight fortunately when no one was around). From the top floor to the bottom all the ceilings had fallen in. In the main bar it looked as if someone had thrown a bomb in and shut the door.

When I saw all the colours being used and expensive cricket memorabilia coming in I wasn’t too sure. Then he commissioned an artist to do the two screens in the restaurant. The screen that separated the front and the back of the restaurant was of a cricket scene and the other (which is where the glass screen is now between the bar and the restaurant) was of a tea lady serving sandwiches in a tea hut. I thought that was the most awful thing I had ever seen, but I didn’t mind the cricket scene.

We had a big opening ceremony, but there was still a bit of disquiet about the name and a lot of the locals just carried on calling it The Randolph. We were still as busy and people gradually got used to the changes. When we left in 1999 it was still called the Cricketers and I don’t really know when it became the Randolph again.

Was that when you went to the Red Lion?
By this time Kevin and I were divorced. We had just grown apart really but have remained friends. I felt as if we had gone as far as we could with the hotel. We were only managing it for what by then was called “Adnams Hotels” and were told there was no chance of it coming on the market.
When The Red Lion came up I was with my husband Derek, and we decided to go for it. Dudley Clarke was now the general manager of Adnams Hotels, so I had a chat with him. He suggested we might like to move to the Swan, but that didn’t really appeal to me very much. I like to work with local people as well as visitors and the Swan’s clientele is mainly visitors. When Derek and I first applied for the Red Lion we didn’t get it, because another Adnams landlord took priority. We were asked to consider other places, but we stayed put and within a very short time we were offered the Red Lion when it didn’t quite worked out for the other tenant. We had to give three months notice and were due to start at the Red Lion in the May, but in the end we stayed on at the Randolph until July.

We had a lot of functions already booked and didn’t want to let our local customers down. I stayed on to do our last wedding. I knew the girl who was getting married and her family and we had been planning it for a year and a half and it just didn’t feel right not to see it through. We cleared it with Adnams but of course this meant that we started at the Red Lion in August. We did the wedding on 31 July had the Sunday off to finish packing and we took over the Red Lion on the Monday. That was one of the most horrendous days of my life. We were used to quiet lunch times and busy evenings. At the Red Lion it is the complete opposite, especially when the sun is shining It is absolutely heaving at lunch times in the summer.

There was me, Derek and my sister in law and Kevin, who had applied for the chef’s job (some people found that odd but it has worked well). There was so much going on that morning of the handover. We had stock takers in and a broker and us and the other tenant and we had to agree to the inventory and the price for stock and fixtures and fittings. We were a bit niaive and ended up paying for quite a lot that we didn’t need and spent the next few months getting rid of. On that morning we also had to go to court to get the licence.

The first week was a nightmare – it all seemed such a rush with people in a hurry for their food and most of the customers strangers. It took a little while to settle in. We realised we would have to knuckle down and we did. That pub will always be busy because of the holiday trade. The seasons seem to have gone. Every weekend in Southwold is busy now, regardless of the time of year. You can guarantee Friday, Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes we will be busy, but Monday to Friday lunchtimes can be quite dead during the winter months.

You don’t regret the move do you?
No - it was a good move, but I’m thinking now I don’t want to be still working in the Red Lion when I’m fifty. I sometimes think it would be nice to be in a sweet shop where people come in buy what they want and leave. You wouldn’t have to be worrying about whether they are comfortable and enjoying their meal. A lot the fun is going out of doing the job, because as soon as somebody walks in the door you are more or less responsible for their safety. There are so many health and safety regulations now and it can be a bit of a worry. Also, people expect so much more these days and some can be very demanding. Someone came in the other day with their children and ordered his drinks and drink in a baby’s beaker for his child. This is how things have gone and you are expected to adapt. We allow children in the pub as long as they are in the side rooms, but we don’t have a childrens’ licence that allows them in the bar.

The paper work is horrendous and is a full time job in itself now. Years ago you had your till roll and your cash book and that was it but now there is just so much to keep on top of. I find that harder than working in the pub, but I would still rather do it myself.

Do you still have your children nearby?
Yes my middle daughter is getting married in July. That’s coming round a bit quick. I don’t know why I am worried about it because we organised loads of weddings at The Randolph; probably one a week in the summer. Even that has changed though and there seems to be so much more expected these days. She is getting married in Reydon Church. She grew up in Reydon, so sees that as home really and they have been lucky enough to be able to buy a house there. I am glad she is able to live locally. My other daughter rents in Southwold and my son is still at home. I also have a stepson and daughter who both live in Reydon.

How did you become a member of the Town Council?
All the time we lived in Reydon I had been a member of the Reydon Parish Council. I quite enjoyed it and gained a little bit of experience, but decided to leave when we moved to Southwold because it didn’t seem appropriate to continue. I was aware that the four yearly Town Council elections were coming up in 2002, but, being very busy at the Red Lion, hadn’t thought much about it. One day I was queuing up in the Co-op to pay for my shopping and a lady shoved a form in my hand saying “Come on dear, we need young blood on the council – fill in the form”. I have tried my hardest since to think who she was, but I still don’t know. I think I put the form in my bag and went home. Anyway, Mum popped in to see me later that day and much the same thing had happened to her. We are not sure whether it was a coincidence that the lady gave us both a form or that she knew we were mother and daughter and it was intentional. Well I wasn’t at all sure, but Mum was up for it straight away. To cut a long story short we both ended up filling in our forms and going through the election procedure. I wasn’t surprised that Mum got through because she was very well known in the town, but I had recently got married and didn’t think people would recognise me by my new name. Mum got loads more votes than me but we were both elected to the council.

We were elected in May and the first major meeting was in June. That first meeting turned out to very embarrassing for us when several letters of complaint were produced about somebody letting fireworks off. A week before, we had celebrated my Dad’s seventieth birthday and decided to let off some fireworks. It didn’t occur to us that anyone would mind and I had gone into it in great detail to make sure that it wouldn’t inconvenience anybody. We let them off in out own little patch near our house, quite early in fact. The chap I bought them from said it was socially acceptable to let them off before quarter past ten, but we had quite young children there who were getting a bit fed up with waiting and we ended up letting them off at about half past eight when it was still light, so we didn’t really get the full effect. I know they were quite noisy, but even so I was amazed that all these complaints had been made to the Town Hall. Of course we realised straight away that we were the culprits and Mum and I nudged each other under the table like a couple of schoolgirls, trying not to laugh out of a mixture of surprise and embarrassment. Not very professional, but it was the last thing we expected at our first big meeting.

Now we have a policy, which I think stemmed from us, that people should inform the council if they are going to let fireworks off.

How did you get on after that?
After that first meeting I started to realise what was involved and I can remember saying to Mum that I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to handle it. It was different to my experiences with Reydon Parish Council and quite daunting to be faced with fellow councillors and members of the public in the formal surroundings of the Town Hall Council Chamber. To begin with I found it very intimidating and worried constantly about saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. We got on slowly – very slowly in fact, and I must admit that my doubts continued. After four years you have to be re-elected, so in 2006 we had to do it all again. I can remember being very uncertain, even at that stage, whether it was for me. It was still daunting to stand up and voice an opinion, knowing that I may well be shot down in flames by a senior member of the council and I often had this feeling that I wasn’t getting anywhere. At forty-five I was probably the youngest member of the council and although I didn’t want to make drastic changes, I did sometimes feel that while outside things were moving on, in the council chamber things were standing still. There didn’t seem to be much point in putting forward ideas and suggestions that weren’t going to be considered. I had a busy life outside the council and I did agonise over whether I should carry on. Mum, on the other hand, had no doubts that she wanted to stand again. Despite the doubts, I did put up again at the 2006 elections and this time when the polls came back I think Mum was in about second place and I was about fourth. That gave me a real incentive to get cracking. Looking back, I don’t know why I was there on the council for those first four years. I just didn’t know what to say and when to say it, so in the main I stayed quiet, watched and listened and only spoke when I had a real view about something. After we were elected in May 2006 things changed drastically and I then really started to get stuck into council business.

How do you become Mayor?
You are nominated by a fellow councillor. When I was elected in 2006 I suppose it was in the back of my mind that I might be Mayor at some stage because, although it is not done in rotation, someone is usually nominated when they have been on the council for a few years. I certainly didn’t expect it to be so soon. It is the Deputy Mayor’s job to obtain nominations from the councillors. When someone has been nominated and seconded, the Deputy Mayor then establishes whether all the council members support the nomination. It can be a bit complicated, but it works so that we only end up with one person being nominated. It’s quite a good way of doing it because there are only twelve of us and with the amount of time spent together on council business we get to know each other quite well. With the method we use it avoids the difficulty of having to choose one member against another.

When the Deputy Mayor at the time telephoned to tell me that my name had been put forward, I was in the pub kitchen cooking soup. I had never made this particular soup before and I was half thinking about that and half concentrating on the telephone call. Afterwards I was so worried because I didn’t think my reaction to the news was very professional and I couldn’t remember what I had put in the soup.

You are appointed Mayor Elect in March and there is a two-month run up to May when you become Mayor. During those two months I started to have doubts about how I was going to fit everything in with all the other things I had to do at home and work. I knew it would involve my husband Derek as well and worried about how it would affect him. Another concern was how I would manage the meetings and any controversies that popped up. I had seen what other Mayors had been through and how tough it could be and I wasn’t at all sure I wanted all that.

On the other hand, it was a huge honour for me a local girl, born and brought up in the Town and a big part of me wanted to do it. I finally reached a stage where I couldn’t really turn back and, apart from anything else, it would have been rude to say no. It is all done very formally – you have to walk up to the top table and read and sign a declaration before the chain is put on you. Then that’s it and off you go. I remember sitting in the Mayoral chair and looking down the chamber with some trepidation!

It took me a good few weeks to get into it. I loved every minute of the social occasions and functions I was invited to, but still worried about the council meetings. I was still relatively new and conscious of my inexperience in comparison to some of the councillors who had been there for years. You never know what is going to be thrown at you and obviously you have to be able to give considered answers. In the public forum and sometimes in the presence of the press it is important to be seen to be making the right decisions. So the early days were difficult for me.

Are there any particulars highlights of your Mayorship?
I couldn’t really pick a highlight because I’ve enjoyed doing everything and everything has been different. I started off with the intention of doing as much as I could because you get out what you put in don’t you?

There have been so many occasions, from judging sandcastle competitions to attending quite formal functions. I judged a sandcastle competition for Southwold School and one for the lifeboat. It sounds quite a small thing but it is important to those involved. There were all these kids running around keen to show me which was their sandcastle and I was anxious not to disappoint any of them. The Southwold School one was quite tricky because I knew practically every child on the beach and a lot of the parents. In the end what I did, after presenting the first second and third prizes we had donated, was to go back to the pub and get all the participants a small consolation prize. When I was asked to judge the lifeboat sandcastle competition Derek pointed out that it was going to cost us a fortune if I kept giving everyone a prize. In fact, the lifeboat competition was easier. I knew the organisers but most of the competitors were holidaymakers. Although, I still found it difficult to disappoint the children who didn’t win.

It was a real disappointment not to be able to open the Lions charity fete. I had been really looking forward to it, but there was torrential rain and wind and they had to call it off. It was a great shame. It was to be my first major function and I had prepared myself, writing up on the computer what I was going to say. I knew that if I could get over that first hurdle of opening a fete and speaking to all those people on the common I would be well away.

I think that I attended about eighty different events last year. Quite a few of them were standard invitations but I was also invited to lots of other things. I think it is because I am accessible in the pub. People would often come in and ask me to attend a little fete or coffee morning – “just come round with your chain on”. So I did a lot of those extra unofficial things last year.

During the summer months when there were a lot of things going on round the town I kept everything I needed at home. I quite often had very little notice and had to fit things in around my work in the pub so it made life easier to have everything upstairs. One day in August I changed three times from my work clothes to go out to different functions. My job involves cooking so had to wash my hair three times that day as well. I think it was worth it because it meant that I didn’t have to say no to anybody.

What happens if you really can’t make yourself available?
If you can’t make a function then you ask the Deputy Mayor to go. On another day in August last year there were four functions on at more or less the same time. I managed to whittle down my engagements to three by asking the Deputy Mayor to attend one of them for me and by juggling things around I managed to do the other three. The two official appointments were opening the Sole Bay Bowls Club Tournament and the opening of the Railway at St Felix School. They were both fixed for eleven o’clock and I didn’t want to say no to either of them. When I asked him, Councillor Michael Ladd said he would love to do the railway, so he went there and I went to the Bowls Club. The Bowls Club function wasn’t what I expected at all and turned out to be quite a formal occasion involving people from Waveney District Council and the Reydon Parish Council. I found that happened a lot to me during the year when I would go along to different functions not really knowing what to expect or how to dress. I wore high heels to the bowls club, not really thinking I would be anywhere near the green. I can remember looking at this immaculate green and thinking “Oh my god I’ve got stiletto heels on” but someone produced a mat for me to stand on.
The other two things were a function on South Green and the amber hunt on the beach and I did manage to fit them in later in the day.

I honestly think that one of the reasons for my election was that I was the youngest member of the council and it was maybe thought that the town needed to show off its younger credentials. I hope I may have contributed to that by being seen out and about with the Mayoral chain on. I am sure it is something people like to see and it can only be good for the town.

Any nasty moments?
Not really, but one of the really nerve-racking events was standing on the stage at the opening night of the Southwold Summer Theatre. I knew it was coming but that didn’t make it any easier. Jill Freud was reassuring and advised me just to be brief - no one was expecting a great speech. I had seen it done before by some of my predecessors and I wondered whether I would fall into the “confident” or “scared stiff” category. The opening night is by invitation only so it was “scared stiff” I’m afraid. At the end Jill got up and said, “I am pleased to welcome our mayor who would like to come up and say a few words”. I sat at the front thinking to myself that I wouldn’t like it at all actually. I had thoroughly enjoyed the show, but became more and more nervous as it neared the end and kept checking my watch, having asked on the way in what time it finished. When I got up on to the stage I was surprised that I couldn’t actually see the audience; because of the lights it was just black. That was reassuring, like when you are a child and you close your eyes and think “if I can’t see them – they can’t see me” Anyway I said my few words and as I left the stage Jill Freud said “that was brilliant” and I felt so much better. Although I did think thank goodness that I would never have to do it again. Of course now I will have to do it again this year. I will get a second go!
To my surprise I was also invited to the last night of the theatre. I was the only council member present that night and was asked to get up and say a few words to close it. Fortunately I had no idea I was going to be asked to do that and, although I had nothing prepared, I was so much more relaxed when Jill invited me up to speak. In fact it was easier and as I came off the stage I felt so much more confident.

I had to do it again for the pantomime, which was so much easier. It was probably one of the nicest things I have been to. I knew almost everybody in the audience, and most of the cast having grown up around a lot of them. I just got up there and said what I’d got to say. That was easy and great fun.

Did you enjoy Christmas Lights night?
This was apparently supposed to be one of the best things you do as Mayor, but on the night in question the rain absolutely hammered down. I was standing on the Town Hall balcony next to Rev Caroline Hallett and we couldn’t see a thing because our glasses were covered in rainwater. The Christmas Lights Committee had given me a piece of paper setting out the order of proceedings and as we paraded on to the balcony to open the event the heavens opened. I stood there watching the ink run on this piece of paper. Caroline helped me so that between us we managed to keep the paper dry enough to be able to make sense of it, but it was very disappointing. There seemed to be so many things rained off or spoilt by the rain last year. I lost count of the number of times I was drenched.

How do you feel about being Mayor Elect?
I really wasn’t expecting to be nominated again for a second year. When I had the phone call from the Deputy Mayor to tell me I had been chosen again I was very surprised. I was expecting to automatically become the new Mayor’s deputy and had been quite looking forward to it. It would have still been a great honour and given me the opportunity to take part in functions, but without quite so much pressure.

During my time last year I kept a detailed diary about all the things I did and my thoughts at the time because I wanted to have an accurate record to look back on. In my diary I had highlighted the date of my last meeting as Mayor with a smiley face sticker. It took me a little time to adjust my thinking, but I am now delighted to be carrying on. Needless to say, it was such an honour to be asked again.

I suppose this year will involve much the same responsibilities as last
Yes I will be carrying out very similar duties. We do have a new Mace Bearer starting this year because Brian Haward has retired after 25 years. We have just had a retirement dinner for him, which was lovely. The new chap is starting with me in May so that will be a bit of a novelty. Last year I relied heavily on Brian to tell me what to do and where to go. He was there guiding me all the time and I would have been lost without him. He was very encouraging and always made me feel I had done well. When he complimented me I used to believe him because he always said it with such enthusiasm. I’m never so sure with Derek - if I go anywhere with him I always ask him if it sounded OK and he always answers “yes”, and I sometimes look and him and wonder whether he is telling me the truth.

How did you get your new Mace Bearer?
We put an advertisement in the Southwold Organ with little idea of the kind of response we would get. We were very lucky to get Paul Denny who is an ex military man from Reydon. Mace Bearer is a purely ceremonial role. Every time the mayor wears the mayoral robes the Mace Bearer should be there. It is his job to accompany the Mayor, to and assist with putting on the ceremonial clothes and to then walk in front bearing the mace. As I said earlier my granddad was Mace Bearer, but to be honest I never really knew what he did. When I first took over last year Brian Haward said to me “my main function is to dress you and undress you”. I remarked that I had always wondered what went on in that back room at the Town Hall! I now know of course that the room houses all the robes and hats and is used by those of us who have to dress up in them.

Do you enjoy the traditions?
Yes it is fascinating. I found a book in the library by a past Mayor from the 1980’s called Mr Field, in which he had written about everything that happened during his years as Mayor. When I read it I realized that nothing has changed much. Everything he had done I have done. It was a surprise to me, but of course everything is tradition in that Town Hall. The ceremonial hat I wear now is the hat that Fanny Foster, who was Mayor years and years ago, used to wear. There are portraits in the Town Hall of previous Mayors wearing the same ceremonial clothes that I wear now. We did get a new hat this year. There is a cupboardful of hats for men, but only two for women and, as we have a mix of 6 men and 6 women on the council at the moment, we decided to get another woman’s hat.

Fanny Foster was a tiny woman but very big on the council and I think it was a bit of a novelty to have a woman mayor at the time. That is something which has changed.

I love wearing the robes but the hat has been a bit of a nuisance because not one of the three hats fit me properly. I get so frustrated trying to get the hat to sit properly on my head. When the Mace Bearer first tried one of the hats on me, the three corners of the hat went the opposite way when I turned my head. That’s why I ended up with Fanny Foster’s hat, which is very small but the only one I can actually keep on without it moving about.

At a lot of the functions you are only required you to wear the chain, but robes are needed for the big civic occasions. The Mayor is invited to places all over Suffolk and has the opportunity to meet so many different and interesting people. I have found that when I say where I am from, people always want to hear all about Southwold.

What do you think about Southwold now compared to when you were a child?
Obviously the housing market in Southwold has created the biggest changes. People have changed because of the number of strangers. It used to be that you would know virtually everyone you saw. What I don’t like is that people