How nice to see the photo of Bob Pendle in Peggotty’s column. It took me back to my childhood when we used to go into his shop on North Quay with my father to buy wooden toys made, I believe, from timber salvaged from bombed buildings, this being the latter part of the war.

My sister got a rocking horse for Christmas and I had a working model of a Norfolk wherry carved from a large piece of timber most likely an old beam. It was about three feet long and sailed beautifully and I had it for many years, eventually losing it as it sailed out to sea when I was 19 or 20 years old.

Happy days when toys were simple and you had to use your imagination, but as I remember we loved them. We were always amazed at what Bob Pendle could do with his one arm.

IVOR HALSEY

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