A man who has run a hugely popular Fleet motel for over 60 years says he is stepping down.
Harold Payne started the Anglian Motel with its café back in the mid 1960s yards from where he used to sell flowers picked from dykes for 10p by the side of the road when just seven-years-old.
Over the years it has grown to offer accommodation alongside the numerous pieces of military equipment alongside the A17.
Now, after a series of health issues, Harold says he’s handing over the business to his daughter Lucy and son Mark.
“I’ve met brilliant people through the café throughout the years. They’ve also been incredibly generous with regards fundraising for the veterans. Just last year we raised £24,000 alone.
“The best thing about the motel has been the customers.
“I treat them all as friends.”
Harold originally opened the cafe across the road from the current Anglia Motel before moving to its current location in 1967.
“My mother Aida bought the whole building off a Dutch firm,” said the 85-year-old. “I took it to bits and built it by the side of the road and started selling cups of tea.”
“When I first started there wasn’t such a thing as an articulated lorry. All it was were the little four wheelers and the odd six wheelers.
“There were HGVs with bogie wheels.
“People don’t realise how much has changed.
“It’s not changed for the better though. It’s all ‘dog eat dog’ now.
“When I first started there were 22 cafés alongside the road to Great Yarmouth, now there’s hardly any left.
“The Boundary Café closed a few months ago and that had been going since the 1940s.”
When asked why the Anglia has bucked the trend and still proves a success, Harold says: “It’s down to fresh food sourced locally.
“Customers enjoy the value for money.”
Harold, who was born in Gedney Drove End and was raised in a council home there, says cups of tea cost ‘tuppence’ when he started and you could have it with a mixed grill for 12-and-a-half pence in pre-decimal times.
Daily takings ranged from £21 to £40 on a Saturday said Harold, while scrolling through old accounts books.
There’s one person who won’t be retiring just yet, Harold’s 82-year-old wife Sylvie who still works on the tills.
“I’ve got to keep going as it makes me feel better if I’m doing things,” she said.
“I can’t stop her,” said Harold, who first knew Sylvie, then living at Holbeah St Marks, and she was 13.
“We’ve done all right. We’ve had a good life and there’s not many have had the privilege to do what we’ve done.”
Harold is probably best known locally, and certainly over a wider area, for his fund raising and volunteering for armed forces personnel.
From taking war veterans back to the battlefields to commemorating those serving in more recent conflicts, he’s had recognition from the likes of Prince William, the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand, to receiving a medal from The White House in America.
While winding down he’s still looking to take people to battlefields this year and will continue to look to raise funds for the memorial garden he’s largely built himself so far at the motel.
His memories of growing up in World War II sparked that passion and are a separate story in themselves.
“The cafe was nearly empty one Sunday morning apart from one person having a cup of tea,” said Harold. “He said he was in Arnhem in Normandy and wanted to go back but he didn’t have the means to do it.
“I kept thinking about it and said I’d like to raise money to take them back.
“This is about 35 years ago now.
“In the first few years we took over a 100 back and sometimes 50 school children.
“There were around 20,000 veterans first time I went and last time there was three.
“It’s been really interesting and the amount of people I’ve met is amazing.”
