Posted by Peter Roche on October 03, 2013 at 23:26:27 user PRoche.
Sorry, problems with previous posting!!
When I was given the Northern River Pirate's flag it came with the following:
Sir (Sydney) Richard Wells (Conservative MP for Bedford between 1922 and 1945) and Lady Wells kept their sailing boat at West Mersea, on the Essex coast. One day in the early 1950s a dinghy drew along side with an elderly couple in it, asking whether my grand parents had any spare milk – which they had. As an avid reader of his books my grandmother was thrilled to discover that it was Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Ransome she was giving the milk to and a friendship was made and the Ransomes became regular visitors to my grandparents home, The Grange in Felmersham.
After my grandparents died, the Ransomes continued their visits to The Grange with my parents, Peter and Mary Milburn. My father spoke Russian and was a keen fisherman as was Mr Ransome. They – we all did – would spin for pike in the gravel pits. My abiding memory of their visits was of Evgenia's disgusting pike soup that she made from Arthur's catch.
It must have been on one of those visits that the flag was given to us by Mr Ransome, and for some reason or other it was in my possession when we were living in Maldon where we ran a bookshop.
We – or rather, my husband – gave the flag to Brian. He was a frequent visitor to the bookshop and our kitchen and was starting an Arthur Ransome association, or something like that. I believe we must have given it to him in about 1996/7 or thereabouts.
A more enduring memory than the pike soup is of Arthur telling us the Anansi stories. These stories came from the West Indies, originally from West Africa. They all started with, "In a long-before-time-before-we, dere lib in de bush ........." or sometimes, "In a long-before-time-before Queen Bictoria ...."
A.R. was a dear, Evgenia a bit scary.
I hope this is of interest to you. (By the way, I was born in Felmersham Grange, and in June, celebrated my 70th birthday canoeing down the Ouse from Odell to Felmersham and back. My sister lives in Odell).
But I believe there's some doubt that Ransome ever kept a boat at West Mersea, Roger?