This book was born out of a conversation I had with visitors at an event at the Victoria Institute in Flamborough during the summer of 1994.  They said they enjoyed talking to my husband, Laurie Smith, and when I asked why, they said it was because when they got him to talk about the past in Flamborough, telling them of the ways and tricks of the locals, it was both entertaining and interesting.

I had said to my husband many times that it was a pity nobody had taken down the tales his father had told us in the past when he came in for his meals because he would sometimes start to tell us what they got up to in the village, and we had a job to eat our meal for laughing as he was one of the many characters in the village when I married and came to Flamborough in 1949.

I had retired from my part time job and I said I thought I’d have a go and Laurie said, “How?”  I said people needed to be taped talking and his reply was, “They won’t talk on tape and you can’t do it cos you’re not Flamborough”.  I replied, “No but Rita was retired and another friend, Joyce Woodcock, would probably help although she was still working and they were both born and brought up in Flamborough”.

We started with Laurie and his good friend George Nordass talking on tape and after that we contacted other older Flamborians who were all willing to talk on tape when we said that if it got into print any profits would be divided between the Church and Chapel.

We found people were happy to tell us of past happenings and when he saw it was going to work Laurie said he would have another session with George as the pair of them could tell you who was connected to who and how, as many families were connected before the war, but unfortunately he died suddenly and we never got that information.

Margaret Smith

Rita and Margaret