Memories of grandfather Leslie

 Grandad Leslie's Shed

A shed at the bottom of the garden near to the back gate that became his special place for thinking and writing, somewhere his imagination could run wild, encouraged by the rain and wind outside. 

As you entered the shed through the door directly to the left was an old wooden cabinet and the doors had panels in the center with a mesh/wire netting type material that was partially see through. The shelves inside the cabinet were wooden shelves painted in a very light mint green color. Each shelf was full of Jam jars he had saved and full of bits and bobs like nuts and bolts, screws, picture hooks and that kind of thing.  To the right a work bench which was open at the bottom with a shelf where he stored more things. It had a piece of carpet attached to it that he would tie closed when he wasn't getting items from his workbench. 

He stored in his shed garden equipment , tools mostly hand tools, a push bike with a rack on the back to strap a picnic basket to and various items like paint and glue. I always wondered if the temperatures would ruin paint and solvent and the glue became lumpy.  

The floor was concrete but he had a carpet that ran the length of the  floor from front to back. I think it was a dark color and may have had a flower print on the rug.  

When I was a young child in elementary school , I drew a picture of a hot air balloon that he had taped to the wall in the shed for many years. 

Sometime in the 80's when I was very young temp got to 95 F one year and for good old Suffolk- it was considered sweltering! The shed got hot and it didn't have any windows for ventilation so it had the door propped open to let a breeze through while he was working in it. The shed didn't have any insulation so it tended to equilibrate with the temperature outside.

Favorite pub to drink at- Steamboat Tavern in Ipswich.

One of Leslie’s favorite pubs to drink at was the steamboat Tavern in Ipswich, Suffolk. A popular riverside single bar pub which features live music and good food prepared on the premises.

There's a beer garden, live music including Jazz on Sundays and Suffolk song writers would play here.

The pub is located close to the impressive (Grade II listed) Felaw Malting buildings - one the largest traditional malting sites ever built in East Anglia (built in 1904 & 1911 respectively), sadly malting finished here in 1981. Now the two buildings are used as offices. The malting buildings replaced the even earlier St Peter's workhouse ( erected in 1836-1837) to accommodate up to 400 inmates. 

Beer garden or other outside drinking area: river view at front and evening meals served. The railway station about 0.7 miles away and it had traditional pub games.