Ted Eales

William Edward "Ted" Robert Eales was born on the 19th of November 1918 in Morston, Norfolk. He was the only son of Devon-born William "Billy" Robert Eales (1883-1939) and Norfolk-born May Louisa Bean (1894-1962). At the end of the 1920s, Ted's father, Billy, spent a season alongside retiring National Trust warden Robert "Bob" Pinchen on Blakeney Point, Norfolk. Ted's mother took over management of the tearoom on Blakeney Point and Ted - at the age of 12 - was on the payroll as a litter-picker. Billy Eales was warden for just shy of a decade, when he died on the 13th of March 1939. At the age of twenty, Ted became Blakeney Point warden but was called up during the Second World War. Ted returned to his Blakeney Point warden role in the mid 1940s and worked there continuously until retiring at the beginning of 1980. Alongside working as a warden, Ted became involved in Anglia Television's "Countryman" and Survival (1961) as both presenter and cameraman. He worked alongside Aubrey Buxton whom he already knew as a fellow north Norfolk resident. As he became busier with television work, his nephew John Bean became winter warden on Blakeney Point to help him out. In April 1972, Ted married Elizabeth "Betty" Holman (Elizabeth Eales - known to Ted as "Liz") who was some years his junior. Like Ted's mother, she managed the Blakeney Point tearoom until Ted retired as warden. The couple then moved inland to Fulmodeston. After a period of illness, Ted published his memoirs in 1986, the foreword was written by Aubrey Buxton. Ted passed away in 1992, survived by his wife who was still living in Fulmodeston more than 25 years later.