Brandon Heritage

Tag: Polish

  • Embroidered shield by Paulina Zelke

    So Anna McInnes visited the centre today and while she was talking about her parents she mentioned her mother spent many evenings embroidering a ‘shield’ for Breckland Middle School.  Anna’s mother, Paulina Zelke, helped out at the school and the embroidery project consumed much of her mother’s spare time.  Anna described the shield – an…

  • Polish Camp

    Today we had a visitor bring in two photo albums of their family from the 1940s and 50s, including time spent on the Army camp off London Road just after the Second World War.  Anna McInnes’ parents, Alfred and Paulina Zelke, met while Alfred was serving alongside the British Army in Italy.  Paulina was Slovenian…

  • Polish 2nd Corps visit Brandon (1946)

    Polish Army disembark in Brandon, 1946 … Following the end of the Second World War there was a large settlement of Polish ex-servicemen into Brandon.  They have since been credited with restoring the weekly market in the years following the war and many created their own businesses which are still thriving today.  Today, generations later,…

  • Newspaper rounds and the bookstall

    Cherry Rogers reflects upon her youth – buying a book from the railway station bookstall … I was just thinking how times have changed, when I was listening to two young children chatting while I was out shopping.  Talk about being grown up! It got me thinking about my childhood and growing up.  Playing down…