When I lived in Rectory Road quite a few people would talk about the Stoke Hall cellars, or Stoke Hall vaults.  I’ve written about it in the past, but I really want to see down there.  They were built in the seventeenth century and were still in active use in the twentieth century.  There’s an article from the BBC on this as well as a large number of photographs, but I’d rather like to walk under my old house.

Does anyone know how I could do this?

As a Rectory Road resident I’ve always heard about the day that Del and Rodney Trotter where down my street.  So I thought I’d do some detective work.

The episode of Only Fools and Horses that got to Ipswich was a Christmas special known as The Frog’s Legacy when Rodney is conned by Del into becoming a chief mourner.  Instead of Peckham the BBC filmed on the corner of Rectory and Seymour roads, setting up market stalls on Seymour Road with the funeral courtege coming from Belstead Road (you can see Stoke Hall Road at the beginning of the clip if you look carefully enough).

You will also see some unfamilliar one way signs on the corner of Rectory Road and Phillip Road, luckily the Ipswich one way system does not reach here usually.

My house can be seen if you look carefully enough (I had to go through the clip about three times) and look for the bicycle.

http://www.ofah.net/images/frogs2.jpg

Although in my opinion not the best episode of Only Fools and Horses- apart from the wise choice of location – it’s still funny.

The funeral scene starts 7 minutes into this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuknqqMyrA

And it continues into this part (which actually starts in Seymour Road) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vumW3-Fy74k

If you want to see the whole episode it’s in six parts here:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=682827B6C8532ED4&search_query=the+frog%27s+legacy