Memories of Mary Allen from Rita Woodcraft.
Mary was a great friend of my Mother Vida, and we all used to help in the tearoom. Mary had three children, Simon, Giles who sadly died as a young man and Sarah. In 1972 Mary met and married Derrick Allen, son of Marzy Allen, he was a wonderful Walberswick character. Together they ran the tea rooms, it was so popular for coffee, teas, cakes and the famous donuts also the wonderful evening meals they cooked. After the tearoom, Mary bought the Pottery Shop and turned it into the Parish Lantern where she ran a very successful business for many years.
Mary moved to Southwold and with her daughter they ran Tilly's restaurant. During her final years Mary liked to walk into the High Street in Southwold to chat to her many friends. For many years Derrick and Mary ran the British Legion Coffee morning in Walberswick, it was a very big event, with the famous donuts on offer. One very hot night after my Mother and Mary had been working in the tearoom serving dinner, Derrick was the chef, they decided to go for a swim, they had no swimsuits with them so they took off all their clothes and had a swim, it was very dark! When they came out of the sea they realised the tide had taken them along the coast and they had completely lost their clothes, after much searching they found them, but this was a story Mary loved to tell.
Mary, Vida Connick, Shirley Eade often met up together in later years to have lunch cooked by Beryl Stringer, and they would have a wonderful time reminiscing about all the happy times they had spent together working at Mary's, and all the lovely times they had.