The Gamekeeper’s Boy: The Story Of A Boy Growing Up On The North Norfolk Coast A Century Ago By Mike Cringle

The story of a young man growing up in Wells-next-the-Sea a century ago. The world which Pat Cringle entered in the closing years of the nineteenth century differed in many ways from the one we inhabit today. Railway trains were relatively new to people living in the country, horses or your own own feet were the usual mode of travel and few people went far afield. Ships were mostly propelled by the wind. Old sailors still played marbles on the quay at Wells. Travelling showmen with dancing bears, and smugglers with illicit kegs of brandy, were still a part of everyday life. A young boy like Pat, whose home was on the edge of the salt marshes, lived a hard life, but one that was full of incident. Excitement was rarely in short supply, whether provided by shipwrecks and lifeboat rescues, fishing and wildfowling, or the antics of the local characters. This story tells of Pat’s boyhood and teenage years, his visit to America, service in the first world war, and his return to the Norfolk coast that he loved. Softcover. Published by The Larks Press, Dereham 2001