The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991
INTRODUCTION Here goes! After a few skirmishes and a bit of research into old diaries – not kept as accurately as I could have wished – plus extracts from a memory which was never one of the best but to my surprise as I have now reached “old age” has stored up some surprising recollections. This will be a recording of the life and doings of one Russell James Sparrow born at Ipswich, Suffolk on 21 September 1908. st
It has been said that the Sparrow family can be traced back as far as 1593 when a family of that name, albeit spelt with an e on the end, owned and lived in the Ancient House in the Buttermarket, Ipswich. Mr Hugh Paget who lives at Tudor House, Needham Market and is a great delver into the past has to some extent verified this. Grandad Sparrow (Eldred) born 1851, who died when I was about 10 years old was as I remember him a short, bewhiskered, quiet or maybe even a little dour sort of man, a bricklayer by trade. Grandma Sparrow, Anna was her name was different. She was a bright and shining lady in every way, clean to the nth degree, hair pulled straight back off her forehead and a face that looked as if it had been polished – rather like one of her own rosy apples – a happy soul with an infectious laugh. They lived in a quaint old house just beyond the Shepherd and Dog at Onehouse and on the road to Buxhall and the church. There was a kitchen with a ‘stick’ oven in which all the bread was baked, a small passage down to the pantry, a rickety staircase and the living room which in turn led to the ‘front room’. I never remember it being used other than to house the geraniums, the smell of which together with apples seemed to permeate the house. I think there must have been three bedrooms and a landing which was used to store the apple crop, fairly considerable as the large garden had numerous trees, most of them were apple. 7
