28th March 1902 - 28th February 2002

We first met Stan Turner in 1983, not long after moving to Corner Cottage. We were gazing at a tree in the garden, when he looked over the wall and greeted us, cheerily, 'I planted that tree 50 years ago' he said, 'It's a white lilac, I used to live here!'

We became good friends and he told us more about himself. He was 83, and very proud of the fact that he had visited New Zealand with his father, they had both worked there as gardeners. He returned to England to marry the girl he had courted from Newton Flotman and got a job in the 1930s as gardener to Colonel and Mrs Morse at The Mead in Coltishall. Colonel Morse rented Corner Cottage in Church Street Coltishall for his gardener, from Miss Lucy Rudling who lived next door at Autumn Cottage, (in those days they were known as Church Villas) so Stan and his wife came to live here, and his wife gave piano lessons.

Later Stan and his wife were moved across the road to a cottage in The Mead grounds and he was able to cultivate a much larger flower and vegetable garden for himself, and he kept chickens and rabbits in the adjoining field. Stan's cottage, known for years as Turner's, is now called Grebe Cottage, and still stands at the corner of Church Close which was built years later in the fields beyond the cottage. Stan was very content with his life at The Mead, he was there all through the '39 war, and beyond.

He told us about the German bomb which fell in 'his' field in 1943, and how the shell marks on the cottage walls are still there. His wife was a member of the Coltishall & Horstead WI, and according to Stan, she was always knitting!

He enjoyed his job and must have been a 1st class gardener, born to the job! He was born at East Carleton in 1902. His father was a high class tomato grower. Their tomatoes were sent to markets in the North of England and had to be in prime condition, each one wrapped in pink tissue paper. He had 5 brothers they all had to help their father but I think Stan had a natural aptitude from the start. I have seen the loving way he handled plants, his fingers delicately sensitive to their needs.

Colonel Morse died in 1959, The Mead was sold and life there came to an end for Stan. He took a job as gardener to an elderly lady in Buxton and he and his wife moved to the cottage that went with the job. He stayed there until the death of his employer and then bought his own little house in Rectory Road Coltishall, and worked as gardener for most of the large houses in Coltishall.

When we first met Stan in 1983 he was a widower. His wife had died after a difficult illness and he had retired from employment, but he was very cheerful and worked hard in his own garden growing vegetables and flowers especially Sweet Peas. He often stopped for a chat when he passed our garden on the Corner. His youngest brother lived at Newton Flotman and he and his wife frequently drove over to see Stan on Sundays and take him out in their car to Walcott to have fish and chips there.

With increasing age Stan became very frail. He still liked to show us round his garden. He never tired of talking about the time when he worked for Colonel and Mrs Morse at the Mead, and of all the trees planted there, particularly a very tall Black Poplar. He owned a drawing of it by Mrs Morse, who was an artist.

His brother and sister-in-law from Newton Flotman were also frail and had to give up coming to see him so often, but his good neighbours Mr& Mrs Rudd, who lived opposite in Rectory Road, helped him and Mrs Rudd would shop and cook for him at the weekend. He resisted his niece's attempts to persuade him to give up his now comfortless house and go into a Home, but finally Stan was admitted to a newly built Home in Newton Flotman near his brother. His health improved and preparations were made to celebrate his 100th birthday on 28th March 2002.

Sadly, in spite of all the plans he had a fall and died in hospital on 28th February, only one month before the great day! He will always be remembered as a quietly cheerful man with great dignity and such a good natural born gardener.

Sheila Henley