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I remember going to see ‘The Wizard of Oz’ which must have been one of the first technicolour films to be shown in Hadleigh. Owen Cooper (the owner) was friends with my mother and Mum used to help out in the ticket office and I used to get in to the projection rooms. The cinema was a converted maltings and the water used to come up regularly through the bottom and flood the lower seating. I used to go and ‘do the dipping’ to measure the level of the water and if it was too high, they just didn’t sell the bottom seats!

The Sergeant or PC would come in and stand at the back and they used to stop anyone smoking. At the end of the film the National Anthem was played and all the kids wanted to get out before the Anthem, but the policeman would block the door and stand to attention.

We had cartoons during the war including ‘Dumbo’, ‘Pinocchio’ and ‘Fantasia’, but I remember that ‘Laurel and Hardy’ and ‘The Three Stooges’ were also very popular.

Dances were another great morale booster during the war years. I remember that the town hall in Hadleigh was made into an entertainments place and REME built a stage there with a flat base and they put the electricity in. They used to have variety shows there and dances for both the British and the Americans.

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