The Life and Times of Peggy Cole MBE.
Dave Steward.
Some of us had never heard of Peggy Cole and the famous fucias in her Council House garden. This garden was visited by thousands of keen gardeners in the 1970s. Dave Steward was the perfect person to tell us all about her as he is a family historian and was a personal friend of Peggy Cole. From humble beginnings, she became a household name – she wrote books and newspaper articles on country life, cookery, herbal remedies and even appeared on early tv gardening shows.
Peggy Cole was born Peggy Balls in 1935 into relative poverty at Easton near Woodbridge, the oldest of 5 children. Her mother was a parlour maid and her father, who had fought in Gibraltar and India in the First World War, was not well. He was a farm worker and due to his failing strength, he had to change jobs frequently. As a result, the family often had to relocate at short notice. In 1948, they happily moved into a council house with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a flushing toilet – not the “bucket and chuck it” they were used to. Peggy left school in 1949 at the age of 14 to work in a shop. She delivered groceries and looked after the pigs, including castrating them ! In 1953 she married Ernest Cole who was an agricultural worker and they had 2 sons, she also worked part-time as a nurse in the local hospital.
In 1970, Peggy opened her garden to visitors, charging 2p (or rather 2d), and raised thousands of pounds for charity. She was a friend of Ronald Blyth and played a starring role in his famous film “Akenfield”, based on the village of Charsfield where she lived. She gave talks on cookery and gardening and appeared on tv’s “Gardeners’ World”. She had famous visitors to her garden: Dame Thora Hird and Princess Margaret in 1984. She was a frequent judge at the Woodbridge Flower Show and even had a programme on the local Ipswich radio called “Peggy’s Patch”. In 1987, she made a whistle-stop tour of America giving talks and she was a guest speaker on the QE2. She received an MBE in 1993 for services to charity.
With her Suffolk wit and hospitality, Peggy was a champion for Suffolk and country life. However, she always thought of herself as an ordinary, old Suffolk gal – what a woman !
Following our meeting, we went along to Sudbury Town Hall where a plaque was unveiled dedicated to our former Chairman Barry Wall. Robin Drury, graphic designer, and Ashley Cooper, local historian, commemorated the occasion and reminded us of the enormous contribution Barry made to researching the history of Sudbury and bringing the history of the town to life for numerous people.
