BALE - BINHAM - COCKTHORPE - FIELD DALLING GUNTHORPE - LANGHAM - MORSTON

SAXLINGHAM - SHARRINGTON - STIFFKEY

NEWS FROM OUR VILLAGES

ISSUE 90

June & July

2013

Read Local Lynx on-line at: www.locallynx.co.uk

Celebrating Local Lynx at Binham Village Hall, 6 February 2010. Bob Brandt addresses volunteers and supporters as Helen Brandt (left) looks on.

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WHAT’S ON IN OUR VILLAGES JUNE 1st Sat. Langham Coffee - Parish Room 10am-12 noon 2nd Sun. Stiffkey Cricket v Burnham Thorpe (at BT opp. pub) 2 pm 2nd Sun. Langham Evensong Service 5pm, 4pm for choir 7th Fri. Stiffkey Cricket v Philanders CC Stiffkey Playing Field 6pm 7th Fri. Bale Fish and Chips Village Hall 7pm 8th Sat. Morston Crab Supper&Harbour Trip Morston Quay 6.15pm. 12th Wed. Langham Strawberry Tea Party at The Travis 3pm 13th Thurs. Langham Mobile Library 14th Fri. Saxlingham St Margaret’s Church Jazz Concert 7.30pm 14th Fri. Bale Village Fete Manor Farm Bale 2pm 16th Sun. Stiffkey Cricket v Crusaders CC Playing Field 2pm 17th Mon. Stiffkey WI talk Village Hall 7.30pm 19th Wed. Langham Coffee Parish Room 10am-12 noon 20th Thurs. Binham & Hindringham Open Circle, Yoga at Hindringham Village Hall 7.15pm. 20th Thurs. Stiffkey Cricket v Aylsham CC (at Aylsham, 6pm) 22nd Sat. Morston FMC AGM in Village Hall 22nd Sat. Stiffkey History Group Binham Priory tour /picnic 11.30am 23rd Sun. Binham Family Picnic Binham Village Hall 23rd Sun. Stiffkey Evensong at St John’s 6pm 23rd Sun. Stiffkey Cricket v Rudham (at Rudham, 2pm) 23rd Sun. Bale Purcell School Concert, All Saints Church 6pm 26th Wed. Field Dalling Friends & Neighbours Club 2.30pm 28th Fri. Stiffkey Cricket v Burnham Thorpe (at BT opposite pub) 6pm JULY 3rd & 4th Wed & Thurs. Binham HEFA Dig 4th Thurs. Stiffkey Cricket v Aylsham Playing Field 6pm 5th Fri. Gunthorpe Friends AGM Village Instititute 6.30pm 6th Sat. Morston Textile Fair Bluejacket Workshop 10-5pm 6th Sat. Binham “Picnic2Jazz” Binham Priory 5-8pm. 6th Sat. Langham Coffee Parish Room 10am-12 noon 7th Sun. Morston Textile Fair Bluejacket Workshop 10-5pm 11th Thurs. Langham Mobile Library 12th Fri. Langham Pudding Party Parish Room 7pm 12th Fri. Bale Fish and Chips Village Hall 7pm 14th Sun. Binham concert Binham Priory 4pm. 15th Mon. Binham Parish Council Meeting Memorial Hall 7.30pm. 17th Wed. Langham Coffee Parish Room 10am-12 noon 18th Thurs. Binham & Hindringham Open Circle Garden Party 8 Walsingham Rd 6.30pm. 20th Sat. Sharrington Fete 2pm 20th Sat. Langham Craft Fair 10-5pm 21st Sun. Langham Craft Fair 10-5pm 21st Sun. Stiffkey Cricket v Blue Ball (at Granchester) 2pm 24th Wed. Field Dalling Friends & Neighbours Club 2.30pm 26th Fri. Stiffkey WI Outing Flower Festival Old Hunstanton 27th Sat. Gunthorpe Friends BBQ Gunthorpe Hall 7pm 27th Sat. Binham concert Binham Priory 7.30pm 27th Sat. Langham Grand Sale Parish Room 10-1pm 28th Sun. Gunthorpe Fete Gunthorpe Hall 2pm 28th Sun. Stiffkey NGS Open Garden Warborough House 1-5pm 28th Sun. Stiffkey Cricket v Burnham Thorpe Stiffkey Playing Field 2pm REGULARS Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Sharrington Bus Service Mondays term time Binham Parent & Toddlers Group Village Hall 10-12 Tuesdays Binham Guild of Artists Village Hall 10-12 Tuesdays Field Dalling Drop In Yoga Village Hall 7.30pm Wednesdays term time Binham Youth Group Village Hall 6-8pm 4th Wednesday in month Field Dalling Friends & Neighbours Club 2.30 pm Thursdays Field Dalling Pilates 10am 3rd Thursday in month Binham & Hindringham Open Circle, Hindringham Village Hall, 7.15pm. Thursdays Field Dalling Bowls Club 7.30 pm

  

- is a non-profit-making community newspaper, run for the benefit of ten villages. We warmly welcome drawings, articles and letters for publication, but must reserve the right to edit or exclude items. The items published do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the village representatives. For information about submitting items for publication, or if you want to help in any other way, please contact your village representative, through whom all village news must be submitted. For general information please send a message to our email address:

lynxeditor@pobox.com

PLEASE NOTE DEADLINE DATE COPY FOR

APRIL/MAY ISSUE NEEDED BY NOON, 8th JULY

CONTACT FOR ADVERTISERS For enquiries about advertising in Local Lynx,

please contact Maxine Burlingham tel: 01328-830375

email: maxine@mjbhotels.com

Rates for advertising (pre-paid) are: One column x 62 mm (1/8 page): £72 for six issues.

Small Ads Panel on the back page: Available for individuals and businesses

providing local services. Cost: £36 for six issues.

BLAKENEY CATHOLIC CHURCH Back Lane Blakeney

Father Michael Simison 12 Hindringham Road Gt. Walsingham, Norfolk Tel: 01328 821 353

Priest in Residence Father William Wells (the house behind the church)

Service Times Masses: Wednesday 9.30am Vigil Mass Saturday 6.00pm Sunday 11.00am

BLAKENEY METHODIST CHURCH High Street Blakeney

Minister: The Rev’d J Pathmarajah Tel: 01263 712 181 Sunday Services at 6.30pm

For details of weekday services and preachers, please refer to the current issue of ‘The Glaven Valley Newsletter’.

DEANERY NEWS Next Deanery Synod: Thursday June 20th 7.15pm for 7.30pm at Weybourne Village Hall. Watch out for posters with details of speaker. Deanery sung Evensong is going ‘On Tour’ and will take place at 5pm in Langham Sunday 2nd June, Briston 23rd June and Wiveton 7th July. Holt choir will attend and extra voices from around the Deanery are invited and asked to arrive by 4.30pm.

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RECTOR’S LETTER Dear Friends and Parishioners,

I don’t know if you, like so many, will be making the trip to Houghton this summer to see the paintings which left there in 1779. It will be a great return. From Russia with love; and with no doubt hefty costs for postage and packing.

The theme of Return is a great one in life: asking for and witnessing the return of others; Will ye no come back again?” There can be a longing for return which shapes an individual’s or even a nation’s life. It may imply a sense of loss or evoke a vanished past. It may be a triumphal reappearance or simply a sense of relief.

In the history of the Israelites, journeying paid a great part: to and from home; and they implored God to return to them as much as He urged them to return to Him. Christ’s life was a journey to and from earth. His Advent, His descent into death, His raising to new life, His Ascension to the highest place, His sending of His own Spirit.

These things are the inspiration of many of the great paintings moving back to Norfolk this summer: high drama in ‘Moses Striking the Rock’ and monumental gravity in ‘The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and John the Baptist’ by Poussin; a bare but touching ‘Crucifixion’ by Murillo and the delightful ‘Adoration

of the Shepherds’ by de’Pitati. The paintings are an invitation to return to the milestones which have marked our civilization; and may even be portals to a sacred eternity.

Yours truly, Ian Whittle The Rectory, Langham 01328 830246

Church Services for Bale and Stiffkey Benefice for June and July 2013 HC=Holy Communion. CFS=Church Family Service. MP=Morning Prayer. BCP=Book of Common Prayer

Additional Service 2nd June: Holt Deanery ‘Sung Evensong on Tour’ at Langham at 5.00pm

Regular Weekday Services Binham: Tuesday, 6.00pm Evening Prayers, Langham: Wednesday, 10.00am Holy Communion

Stiffkey: Friday, 10.00am Holy Communion

Parish 2nd June 9th June 16th June 23rd June 30th June Bale 9.30am HC 9.30am HC 9.30am HC 9.30am HC At Binham Field Dalling At Saxlingham 11.00am CFS At Saxlingham 11.00am MP BCP At Binham

Saxlingham 9.30am HC At Field Dalling 11.00am HC At Field Dalling At Binham Gunthorpe 11.00am MP 4.30pm Silent Meditation 11.00am HC At Binham Sharrington 9.30am MP BCP 9.30am HC 9.30am MP CW 9.30am HC At Binham Binham 11.00am HC 11.00am HC 11.00am CFS 9.30am HC 10.30am HC Morston 9.30am HC BCP 9.30am HC BCP At Binham

Langham At Stiffkey 9.30am MP At Stiffkey 9.30am HC At Binham Stiffkey 9.30am CFS At Langham 9.30am HC At Langham At Binham

Parish 7th July 14th July 21st July 28th July

Bale 9.30am HC 9.30am HC 9.30am HC 9.30am HC

Field Dalling At Saxlingham 11.00am CFS At Saxlingham 11.00am MP BCP

Saxlingham 9.30am HC At Field Dalling 11.00am HC Patronal Service

At Field Dalling

Gunthorpe 11.00am MP 11.00am HC

Sharrington 9.30am MP BCP 9.30am HC 9.30am MP CW 9.30am HC

Binham 11.00am HC 11.00am HC 11.00am CFS 9.30am HC

Morston 9.30am HC BCP 9.30am HC BCP

Langham At Stiffkey 9.30am MP At Stiffkey 9.30am HC

Stiffkey 9.30am CFS At Langham 9.30am HC At Langham

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BOB’S RETIREMENT A Local Lynx era has come to an end. All the

villages served by the Local Lynx together with its Support Group would like to give a huge vote of thanks to Bob Brandt for all the tremendous work that he has carried out as Editor and Treasurer of our local paper.

Bob and Helen worked tirelessly on this project. The amount of voluntary time, effort and care that they devoted to the Lynx has been truly enormous and they were pivotal to its success. Not only did they take great care to produce a most attractive paper with great efficiency, they also included as many people as came forward to help, utilising their individual skills and abilities and making them feel appreciated.

After Helen died, Bob continued with his two roles as well as taking on the tasks that Helen did. Now, facing other commitments, he feels the time is right to retire.

He will be greatly missed, not only for his input but also for his generous hospitality. We wish you a very happy retirement Bob and remain deeply appreciative of your devoted work, help and guidance.

OTHER LOCAL LYNX RETIREES! We must also thank other retirees, namely Molly Lees,

Ann Hill and Rita White. Molly has been involved with the production team since

the inception of the Support Group in January 2000 and has been a reliable member with her wide knowledge of the computer world and efficient and accurate typesetting.

Rita was also present at that first meeting and became the main distributor a year later. She has not only carried out this role, helped by husband Roy, with perseverance and dedication but has also assisted with ‘cut and paste’.

Ann Hill, now in Holt, joined the Group in 2002 and helped with ‘cut and paste’ and assisted with typesetting, making a valuable contribution when a family emergency took Bob and Helen off the scene in 2006.

Sheelah Hay also did ‘cut and paste’ until a year or so ago when ill health halted her ability to do so.

Grateful thanks go to all these people for their contributions of time, expertise and support.

PRODUCING LOCAL LYNX ‘Plus ça change…

… plus c’est la meme chose’ as the French aphorism paradoxically puts it. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In recent years, quite a lot has changed in the way that Local Lynx is edited and produced. But so far it has been done in small ways and with care to preserve the essential character of Lynx, which is to capture anecdotes, insights and events of current and historical interest that describe and define the ten villages in our Benefice in both secular and spiritual ways.

At the April meeting of the Support Group, Bob Brandt announced his retirement from active involvement with Lynx; quite a big change for the Group to respond to. That the day would come was not exactly a surprise, but, unsurprisingly, it was a bit of a shock when it did.

So, what next? Will Lynx change, or stay the same? The firm view in the Support Group is that both are

important. We consider it vital that the character of Lynx remains the same – a bi-monthly publication of twenty-eight pages, written, edited, produced and delivered free to every home in the Benefice by a team of local volunteers on a not-for-profit basis. And not too much advertising. But behind the scenes, a few things will need to change. The Support Group is already working at it and will announce any significant changes in these columns.

If you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to talk about getting involved, please send an email to lynxeditor@pobox.com.

DISTRICT COUNCILLORS’ NOTES Cllr. Lindsay Brettle

First my congratulations to Dr Marie Strong on her successful re-election to Norfolk County Council and also to our Leader of the District Council, Tom FitzPatrick, who has also been elected for Fakenham. As Mr FitzPatrick has said, although the funding for NNDC has been reduced we have been able to maintain our current rate of Council Tax for this year. Despite the difficulties facing the whole economy, we can look to the future with a degree of confidence. We are starting to see more houses being built, tourism remains strong

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and there is quiet optimism in the business community. North Norfolk is a great place in which to live and work and we all want to make it even better.

NNDC's Big Society Fund continues to help local groups, nearly 50 organisations have benefitted - from musical instruments, access improvement for the handicapped to Village Hall renovation. Some changes on the administration will be made to facilitate applications and advice and funding will be available for this at NNDC.

Coastal Parishes will have received NNDC's response to DEFRA, the MCZ Team, which covers all aspects of their proposals for designation. A Coastal Update Sheet will be available shortly. In addition, NNDC's Marine Plan will be opened to the public for consultation and information from the Cromer to Winterton Study will be used to develop the Coastal Management Plan. This too will have community involvement, activities and engagement.

It is time again for the NNDC John Sweeney Award for the Environment for 2013 - closing date to entries, Wednesday 12th June.

Cllr. Jonathan Savory Congratulations to Councillors Tom Fitzpatrick and Marie Strong on their County Council election victories this week. I look forward to continue working with Tom and Marie in the forthcoming years.

District Councillors’ Contact Details: Jonathan Savory (01328 820719) e: jonathan.savory@north-norfolk.gov.uk & Peter Terrington (01328 711126) e: peter. terrington@north-norfolk.gov.uk (Binham, Langham & Stiffkey). Lindsay Brettle (01263 710030) e: lindsay. brettle@north-norfolk.gov.uk (Sharrington, Field Dalling, Saxlingham & Morston). Ann.R.Green (01328 878273) e: ann.green@north-norfolk. gov.uk (Gunthorpe & Bale).

COUNTY COUNCILLOR’S NEWS My thanks to the many people across my division

who helped me in the lead up to the election and to those who displayed confidence in me by giving me their vote. My commitment to everyone in my division is as strong as ever.

And all in this division who made the effort to vote, whoever you voted for, should be proud. The overall percentage turnout across the county was 32.14%. Wells

Division turnout was 41.87%. For many people, and particularly where smaller parishes share a polling station, to get to vote is not always easy.

I will of course follow the broadband project through to completion; focus on mobile ‘phone provision, rural transport and continue to support our schools. And without doubt will pursue the situation regarding Blakeney marsh reference zone. Undoubtedly many more issues will present themselves!

One such issue is the question of whether there should be a 20 mph restriction in villages and near schools. Just to say that the matter will be under discussion at county in the early autumn.

Now that winter is finally over here is a little reminder of what a long and icy winter it has been. This year NCC’s gritting team used over 41,000 tonnes of salt on Norfolk’s roads during 159 gritting actions. Based on a five-year average the council usually carries out around 97 actions during the winter season. The council treats 2080 miles in a three hour period every time the network is gritted, meaning that the gritters covered 318,240 miles this winter – further than a trip to the moon. The first gritting run took place on October 27 with the last on April 4. This record level of gritting is likely to cost the council around £5 million, significantly higher than the anticipated annual budget of £3.8 million. But the good news is spring has arrived.

Final statistical snippet: Wells Division has 189.6 miles of roads. Our roads equal 3.088% of Norfolk total roads yet we are only one of 84 divisions – an indication of our rurality. Having travelled these roads many times visiting our parishes I am well aware of the problems – but also that for me it is the most beautiful division in the county.

Dr Marie Strong: Wells Division: Glaven, Priory and Walsingham Parishes. marie.strong@norfolk.gov.uk 07920 286 597.

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FAKENHAM CHORAL SOCIETY SUMMER CONCERT

Britten: Choral Dances from Gloriana Elgar: Four Partsongs

Rutter: Birthday Madrigals Shearing: Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare

Fakenham Parish Church, Saturday June 15, 7.30pm. Tickets £12 from 01328 830639 or on the door.

EMERGENCY FOOD Families in temporary difficulty, perhaps through

unexpected loss of a job or benefits, can obtain emergency food to last for three days.

The nearest food banks to our villages are in Sheringham, Cromer and Aylsham. They are run by the Cromer and District Foodbank with the support of the Trussell Trust.

You’d need to call them first to find out how to get a voucher and make arrangements for collection or delivery, if necessary, of a food parcel. You may telephone them at local rates on 07826 376343 on Monday to Friday between 10am and 5pm. There is more information about what is in a food parcel on the website: www.cromerdistrict.foodbank.org.uk.

BOTANICAL ART EXHIBITION Letheringsett Village Hall

Saturday 6th July to Tuesday 9th July 10.30 am to 4.00 pm Free Entry

An opportunity to see the work of the pupils of Elaine Searle’s Botanical Art Group. Elaine is an internationally acclaimed botanical artist whose work is included in HRH Prince Charles’ ‘Highgrove Florilegium’. Originals, prints and cards for sale. Parking only available in the lay-by in front of the hall or opposite on or near the green triangle. (Cross busy

road with care.) For more information: Elaine Tel: 01263 712899.

SECOND HAND BOOK SALE St. Nicholas Church Hall, Blakeney Quay

Saturday 8th – Friday 14th June For Glaven Caring. Books welcome before the day. Contact 01263 740762   

MONTHLY SOCIAL MEETING FOR BRAIN TUMOUR PATIENTS

and their families This meeting will be held on the third Thursday of each

month at the WNDA (West Norfolk Deaf Association) headquarters in Railway Road, King's Lynn, close to the bus & train stations.

We plan to meet for coffee/tea and cakes between 11.00a.m. and 1.00p.m. to socialise and exchange experiences. The meetings are sponsored by the following three local charities whose members can offer information and experience of brain tumours and the problems they can cause: Astro Brain Tumour Fund: www.astrofund.org.uk. The Lisa Wiles Red Wellies Brain Tumour Support Fund: www.redwellies.info. Reach for a Star: www. reachforastar.co.uk. The dates for 2013 are: June 20th, July 18th, Aug. 15th, Sept. 19th, Oct. 17th, Nov. 21st, Dec. 19th. To let us know if you are interested in attending or for more information please contact: Christine 01485 572767 : info@ astrofund.org.uk, Mary 01485 525279: treasurer@ astrofund.org.uk.

NORTH NORFOLK CHORALE St. Peter & St. Paul Church, Salle

Saturday 8th June 7.30pm performing

Schubert: Mass in F D105 & Mozart: Vespers

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You are invited to walk through……

A ‘SECRET WALLED GARDEN’ The Merchant’s House, 86 High St. (entrance via Little Lane), Blakeney

Sunday 14th July 2pm - 5pm With a woodland walk, vegetable garden, garden

borders, ice house and ‘parterre’. Homemade cakes and refreshments will be available. Entrance £3. Children free. All proceeds to Glaven District Caring Committee.

SCREEN-NEXT-THE-SEA in the Granary Theatre, Wells

We are very pleased to announce that we will be adding transmissions from Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan Opera, New York to our future programme.

The Glyndebourne programme (5 operas) begins on Tuesday 4 June at 7pm with “Ariadne auf Naxos” and continues until August. Ticket price £10.

The programme from the Metropolitan Opera season (10 operas) will begin in October and run through to May 2014 on Saturday evenings. Please note that the start time for these will vary between 5.30pm and 6pm. Ticket price £15. For further details go to www.wells-cinema.com or email joolz@inthelight.uk.com.

Monday Film Season Matinees 2.30pm Evenings 7.00pm

Tickets: £5 adults, £3.50 child Ticketline: 07900 316606

10 June Les Miserables matinee 12A 160 mins 10 June Les Miserables evening 12A 160 mins 24 June Love Is All You Need 15 116 mins 8 July Lincoln matinee 12A 115 mins 8 July Lincoln evening 12A 115 mins 15 July In The House 15 114 mins

NORFOLK DRIVING CHALLENGE The Norfolk Fire Service, the British Red Cross and the

Fire Fighters Charity will be teaming up on the 14th of July to host the Norfolk Driving Challenge. Previously, the challenge has been open to women only, but this year men will be able to participate in the afternoon session. Expert tuition will be given on how to control a variety of vehicles such as double decker buses, fire engines, sports cars and heavy plant vehicles. To take part, a £10 registration fee is required as well as a minimum of £90 sponsorship. For more information please visit www.firefighterscharity. org.uk/ldc. or contact Laura Harden at fundraising@ firefighterscharity.org.uk or call on 01256 366566.

GLAVEN DISTRICT CARING Are you aware we are here?

Day Care and Lunch Club, with transport is available in your area. Our services are available to help you or a loved one, family member, friend or neighbour; to have

a day or few hours out in Blakeney with caring nursing staff and volunteers to arrange treatments, bathing facilities, social activities and company with a lovely home cooked lunch. Please feel free to visit and look around. Telephone Maureen Buckey on 01263 740762 for further details.

GDC Clinic Dates Hearing Aid Service 10 -12

May 31st, June 26th, July 26th, August 28th, September 27th, October 30th, November 29th, December 18th

Toe-Nail Clinic 9-3 April 26th, May 10th, May 24th, June 7th, June 21st

Hairdressing 9-1 Every Wednesday. Please ring to check times, or make appointments if necessary - 01263 74076.

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THE PURCELL SCHOOL CONCERT. ALL SAINTS CHURCH

SUNDAY 23 JUNE 6 pm. Adult tickets £8. Children free.

Drinks on sale from 5.15p.m. We are delighted to welcome The Purcell School once

more. If you have not heard them before we heartily recommend them. The high standard of their musicianship is inspirational. You may well have seen members of the school perform on television in the final stages of the BBC Young Musician of the Year. Please book early. Contact Alan Sankey: 01328 878 874.

BALE DIARY A Spanish Profusion

April in Extremadura, after a record-breakingly wet March; a month of explosive growth and activity. Nightingales singing around every corner, day and night, cuckoos in contrapuntal harmony with hoopoes, bee-eaters warbling and tumbling above, sleepy turtle doves turring in the trees behind the house, blackbirds carolling at dawn and dusk, swallows (two kinds, barn and red-rumped) sipping mud from the puddles for their nests, azure-winged magpies stealing cat food and sitting on my railings to see if there might be any more on my porch, dartford warblers sizzling away in the cork oaks, sardinian warblers flitting about in the encinas, water rushing everywhere noisily, frogs croaking in a range of voices from basso profundo to strangulated tenor high C, enormous puddles full of tadpoles, newts and salamanders in the pool, cicadas and other noisy insects creaking away in every olive

tree. In succession, yellow flowers, white flowers, blue flowers, purple flowers, green flowers, dramatic umbellifers, wildflowers in great clumps like flowerbeds everywhere, lining the steep paved mule-tracks and donkey paths; all over my olive grove and in every little stone-walled pasture. White horses and white cows that climb all over the steep sierra, so that I caught glimpses of them under the very highest peaks from my bedroom window, which faces that way. So many shades of green as bracken, broom, bramble and deciduous oaks came to life. Olive trees full of clusters of little pale green flowers, evergreen oak catkins showering us with golden pollen, gum cistus smelling of paradise, their huge white flowers all over a distant hillside and each side of the track. Waterfalls in all the old places, and in new ones, water spouting out of terrace walls, flooding my pool pump room, filling the old well and all the charkas, filling narrow paths with knee-deep pools, water glinting in the sun as it ran over rocks high up amongst the trees.

Back now to real life and spring only just creaking to life in May; a dry windswept North Norfolk, primroses and violets still out in the hedgerows, baby lambs in the field - I didn’t miss a thing. Jane Wheeler

VILLAGE HALL SOCIAL CLUB DRAW March 2013 April 2013 Carole Lee £25 Martin Moore £25 Samantha Schofield £10 David Ramm £10 Walter Hammond £5 Tim Schofield £5 Mary-Ann Mitchell £5 Lucian Postan £5

BALE GARDEN FETE To repeat - Bale Garden Fete is on Saturday June 8th

at 2.00pm at Manor Farm. The fete is fun for all the family with lots of garden

games and competitions to play. There are lots of irresistible stalls too; wonderful cakes, produce, plants, white elephant, tombolas, special knitwear and many more......

Homemade cakes and refreshing cups of tea are served on the lawn and everyone can relax listening to the live brass band in a very special atmosphere.

We hope you will come along to enjoy a really traditional garden fete.

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GOODBYE TO VIOLET Violet Dunn has lived in Binham for 69 years in the

house that she and her husband bought in 1943 and moved into in 1944, where she brought up her two sons.

Now 92 years old, she has finally decided to move near to her son and daughter-in-law at Aylsham. Consequently, in April she moved into a new self-contained home specially designed for elderly folk and with all mod cons. She is very happy there although, of course, she does miss all her friends in Binham, to whom she sends all her best wishes.

Violet's cottage was well known in Binham for its highly polished copper waste pipe adjacent to the road. It is intended to keep the pipe in its polished state and in honour of Violet Dunn's long stay in the village, the cottage will be named 'Violet's Cottage'.

All her friends in Binham send her their good wishes for the future.

ALL ABOARD! Mark it in your diary now. An event not to be missed

will be held on Saturday, October 19, at Binham Memorial Hall.

All Aboard! is a celebration of the sea. A multi-media entertainment, with music and song, prose and poetry, richly illustrated and recalling Britain’s - and Norfolk’s - long history of seafaring and our love of living beside the sea.

The evening will celebrate the beauty and awful power of great waters; the joy and sometimes the tragic cost of sea-going; the simple pleasures of the seaside; the courage of those who go down to the sea in ships and the bravery of others who, from time to time, go to their rescue. The event will also celebrate some dramatic moments in East Anglia’s life on a shifting shore where the sea does not always keep its appointed limits.

More information on how to get tickets for the evening will appear in the August/September Lynx. Tickets will cost £10 to include a fish pie supper and wine or fruit juice with the meal.

Proceeds from the evening will go to the Friends of Binham Priory and from the raffle to the RNLI.

ANDREW CUTHBERT On Tuesday 23rd April at the AGM Andrew Cuthbert

retired as Chairman of Binham Memorial Hall. I am very honoured to be taking over, but as you all know I have an incredibly hard act to follow. It seems like a lifetime ago that the public meetings were held in the old hall. We all knew what had to happen, we had to sell up and rebuild, but it was Andrew (with a bit of persuasion from the unstoppable duo of Joan Thomson

and Mary McEwan) who took the helm and steered us all with his enthusiasm and passion and the result is the beautiful hall that we have today and that we are all very proud of. So on behalf of the committee, I thanked Andrew for being such a wonderful Chairman over all the years; for his enthusiasm, passion, true patriotism, great sense of humour, charm and eloquence. I asked Liz Brown to present Andrew with a painting by James Bucknill to remind him of us, and she also presented Sheelin with a unique bouquet because as everybody knows, behind every great man is a great woman. Alex Wales

BINHAM PARISH COUNCIL

By the time you read this the Council will have met on May 20th to attempt, among other items of business, to arrive at a decision about the cherry trees on the Green. The outcome will not have pleased everyone but the Council tries to represent what is best for the whole village.

There will also have been a discussion on the Council acting as the co-ordinator for a bulk fuel-oil buying scheme. Leaflets were distributed in early May. If the Council goes ahead it will still not be too late to join the scheme. Please contact me for details.

It is a pity that the timing for accepting articles for the bi-monthly Lynx means reports of the Council’s activities are always over a month later. There are practical restraints on when the Council meetings, also bi-monthly, can be held. They are usually the third Monday of the month at the Memorial Hall.

The next, after the May meeting, will be 15th July

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with coffee and tea available from 7.00 pm for a start at 7.30. All parishioners are welcome.

David Frost, Chairman, Binham Parish Council Tel: 01328 830362

VILLAGE MEMORIAL HALL BANK As most of you will have seen, there has been work

done on the bank at the village hall. The committee felt that over the years it had become increasingly difficult to keep the bank tidy due to the invasive weeds and the hard ground, and so decided to have it covered with flints to match in with the hall. Pot holes have been created so that we can have plants which will produce colour throughout the year, without the maintenance. This week there have been quite a few visitors to the hall for the voting and also for the Parochial Charities lunch, and the feedback has been positive. Alex Wales

FOR ALL YOU BINHAM “PRODUCERS”

We are holding a Binham Village Show at the Binham Memorial Hall on Sunday 15th September. Please make a note of the date in your diaries. There will be opportunities for you to enter; whether it’s painting, drawing, sewing or knitting, or maybe you have green fingers and gardening is your thing, or you are a whizz in the kitchen. There will be lots of ways for children to get involved too. Look out for further information soon. Or ring Liz on 01328 830519.

JAZZ PICNIC AT THE PRIORY GROUNDS

The highly acclaimed and popular 'Picnic2Jazz' takes place for the third year running at Binham Priory on Saturday 6th July, 5 to 8pm.(Whatever the weather!)

Previous years have seen large crowds enjoying their

picnics whilst listening to the very experienced and likeable DixieMix Jazz Band. The musicians mainly hail from East Anglia and include Kenny Ball's bass player of many years, John Benson.

People are invited to dance, tap feet or even join the band on stage (as one well known member of Binham did last year). This is a 'Friends of Binham' event so do come along for a musical family picnic.

Advance tickets are available at a cost of £9/adult, children free. Tickets on the day cost £12/adult, children free. Tickets available from Mick Jeffery, 16 Langham Road, Binham, NR21 0DW (tel: 01328 830886. email: mj.sj@btinternet.com). Cheques to be made payable to: 'Friends of Binham Priory'.

FARMER DIARY Diary of a Binham Farmer’s son, aged 34

March 1857 3rd Was v. bilious and didn’t get up until noon, then had a gallop around the farms. 5th Made 27/- of my wheat today to Williams, bought my seeds – dreadfully dear. Heard dear old Uncle v ill today. 7th Rode around the Binham farms, they had been up Lodge Breck with barley. The ewes were not doing v well. 14th We were summoned today, dear old Uncle who they thought was dying but revived again towards evening for a short time. 21st Went to Norwich today and paid all my house furnishing bills except Lavicks who would not give me discount. Returned by O.W. 25th I sent to Binham for old “Cyclops” for Ems who is recommended to ride on horseback. Dear old Uncle decidedly better.

April 4th Ems walked with Miss James who told her the Frenchman was coming to learn English with her Papa! I wonder what next! 16th Went again to see our dear departing one, he was decidedly weaker. Bought 20 bullocks of mither at £10 – very dear though. 17th I sorted the Gov’s ewe hoggetts for him this morning. They are hardly as big as last year. 19th Dear old Uncle Brooke died at 9.30 this morning.

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24th I went to Walsingham, poor Richard Brooke appeared much perplexed about his future course. I had a horrid headache. 27th Dear old Uncle was buried today at Binham, the procession passing by Wighton. Richard & Norah Lewis

FRIENDS OF BINHAM PRIORY As well as the Picnic2Jazz afternoon in the

Cloisters, there will be two evening events this year. Tuesday 20th August in the Priory Church at 7.30

pm. Binham Local History Group has arranged for Matthew Rice, the well-known local author of the wonderfully illustrated books on the architectural landscape of East Anglia, to give a talk entitled “The Parish Church, the least peaceful place in the village”. The History Group have kindly invited the Friends to join them for this evening which should be instructive as well as entertaining. A talk not to be missed.

Saturday 19th October in the Memorial Hall at 6.30pm.“All aboard, a celebration of the Sea” is the theme of another multi-media entertainment by the talented group who gave us the very enjoyable “Moon evening” last year. It will take the same general format of readings, songs and images, also including supper.

12th to 15th September, the Priory is again participating in the national event of “Heritage Open Days”. Members of the Friends will be manning the Priory all four days to welcome visitors and offer refreshments, in the tradition of the Benedictine monks who built the Priory nine hundred years ago.

More information on the above can be obtained from David Frost, 01328 830362.

BINHAM & HINDRINGHAM OPEN CIRCLE

At our meeting on Thursday June 20, Chris Halford will be showing us how to join in with “laughter yoga”. Remember to wear loose clothing and bring a mat or towel. And our garden party this year, on Thursday 18 July, will be held at Sue Jennings’s home, 8 Walsingham Road, Binham, at 6.30pm.

The Open Circle Women’s Club meets at 7.15pm on the third Thursday of each month at Hindringham Village Hall. New members are always welcome – just come along on the night or ring secretary Fiona Thompson on 01328 830639.

BINHAM PLAYGROUND PROJECT After the success of our coffee morning, which

raised further funds towards the second phase of the playground project, the Binham Playground Committee has agreed on a number of forthcoming fundraising events. Please make a note of these dates in your diaries. Everyone is welcome and we would love you to come and support us.

Sunday 23 June – Family Picnic at Village Hall Sunday 4 August – Summer Fete at Village Hall Friday 25 October – Quiz Night at Village Hall For more information, please contact Rebecca

Bunting on 01328 830505.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT You can accomplish by kindness what you

cannot do by force. And one who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend

better than any possession.

BINHAM HISTORY GROUP Talks

Binham Local History Group had two excellent talks in March and April. The first was about the Worstead Heritage Trail by Stefan Ganther and Peter Brice. Their illustrative talk was highly informative. In May the talk was from David Jacklin about the history of the RAF Bircham Newton Airfield, the types of plane using the airfield, its relationship with RAF Langham and the satellite airfield of Docking. David runs the RAF Bircham Newton Project which has a small information centre and has written several small books and his talk served to remind us of the sacrifice made by brave young men during the war flying from these bases.

Our next talk will be on Thursday 23rd May at 7.00pm (an earlier start than normal). This will be on the history of the Theatre Royal by Peter Wilson. Admission £2 Members and £4 non members. Everyone is welcome and if you wish to join please email: blhg@btinternet.com for details.

HEFA dig – can you help? The Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA)

programme aims to raise the aspirations and enthusiasm of 14 -17 year olds and renowned archaeologist Carenza Lewis and her team from Cambridge University together with teenagers from local schools will be visiting Binham on 3rd and 4th July. We are looking for residents of Binham to help us with this activity. Would you be prepared to allow a small team to dig under supervision an excavation pit on your land which will measure 1 metre by 1 metre? The pit will be back filled once the excavation is completed and we will have the finds analysed by the experts. The information obtained from these digs, make a valuable contribution to

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the current academic research. Pennie Alford, Chair & Secretary, Binham Local History Group blhg@ btinternet.com or ring me on 01328 830700.

BINHAM YOUTH GROUP Binham Youth Group is held at Binham Village

Hall on Wednesdays 6 to 8pm (term time only) age 5-16 years, £1 entry fee, tuck shop, staff CRB checked.

We have Art‘n’craft, board games, table tennis, pool table, karaoke, books and 10-pin bowling.

The group is held indoors during winter and in the summer we use the large playing field. It is a great place to chill out and meet new friends.

BINHAM PRIORY CONCERTS “SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS”

Sunday, 14 July, 4.00 pm A Tea Concert with

VOCALITY a capella singing of the highest quality With guest soloist Jayne May-Sysum

Followed by tea in the Priory Retiring collection

SUMMER SERIES Saturday, 27 July, 7.30 pm

NORWICH BAROQUE with Annabel Knight, flute

Benda, Avison, Vivaldi, Locatelli, Vivaldi Saturday, 10 August, 7.30 pm

XUEFEI YANG classical guitar

Scarlatti, Walton, Villa-Lobos, Albenitz, Takemitsu-Beatles

Saturday, 17 August, 7.30 pm FONTANELLA

“an array of recorders” Byrd, Vivaldi, Shearing, Tomi Räisänen

Saturday, 24 August, 7.30 pm TREVOR PINNOCK

harpsichord Bach, Bach/Vivaldi

Saturday, 7 September, 7.30 pm PENTATONIC string quintet

Mozart, Britten, Mendelssohn Tickets (£15 per concert) for the Summer Series from

Maureen Frost, 01328 830362. Please see web site, www.binhampriory.org for details.

100+ CLUB WINNERS March: £25 Mr. M. Tyrell, £10 Alex Wales, Andrew

Moncur, £5 Mr. Marshall, Jennie Hewitt Prynn, Mrs. J. Calvert.

April: £25 Alistair Taylor, £10 Mrs. J. McCormac, Mrs. J. Cook, £5 G. Savory, Mr. M. Jeffery, Wendy Marsh.

If anyone would like to join the 100+ club, there are still numbers left. Please call at 8 Priory Crescent or ring June Read on 01328 830106.

COCKTHORPE CHURCH NEWS The church tower has been repaired to a very high

standard and the next problem is the Chancel and Nave roof. The current situation is that despite a temporary cover being in position, the woodwork is deteriorating badly with pieces including tiles falling into the chancel, which has now been boarded off. Major repairs are required, hence the church is not open to visitors.

Malcolm Fisher of Norfolk Churches Trust is urgently pursuing funding and is in discussion with the Heritage Lottery Trust to solve our problem. He assures me that there will be no cost to the local community. Unfortunately it is too early to predict time frames at this stage so we can expect to live with scaffolding and flapping plastic sheeting for some time.

FIRST TIME GRANDPARENTS Juliet and Michael Case of Manor Farm, Cockthorpe

have been celebrating the birth of their first grandchild. Their daughter Abi and husband Oliver, of Binham, had a daughter Edith Juliet Webb on 8th of April. Congratulations to all.

It has been a busy time for births all round for the family with son James managing the delivery of about 600 lambs. Every field surrounding us has sheep and their lambs, a lovely site. It makes one feel that Spring has arrived.

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NORFOLK RIVERS TRUST Walkers making their way northwards through the

Cockthorpe Common cross over two bridges and walk alongside a beautiful stretch of the River Stiffkey and can now look forward to restoration work proposed in this area.

I received this information on the trust from Gemma Clark of Norfolk County Council:

The 9 Chalk Rivers Project is funded by the Environment Agency and led by the Norfolk Rivers Trust in collaboration with Norfolk County Council and the Norfolk Coast Partnership. The £1.3M project will aim to physically improve the quality and natural functioning of 9 chalk rivers that include the Glaven, Gaywood, Stiffkey, Babingley, Hun, Mun, Ingol, Heacham and the Burn. The project will also improve habitats for a variety of species, sustain food production, minimise flood risk and support communities by enabling them to help shape the future of their rivers.

Jonah Tosney the Project Officer for the 9 Chalk Rivers Project is now working on developing projects in the Stiffkey area and we look forward to more detail on this work.

SUMMER FETE Sat 10 Aug from 2 – 4pm

at the Village Hall This year's Field Dalling and Saxlingham Summer

Fete will be held at the Village Hall (on the Holt Road) and we are keeping our fingers crossed for a fine afternoon. As always, ours is a rather old-fashioned Fete with all the traditional stalls everyone loves, including white elephant, books, plants & produce, cakes, gifts, toys, etc.

There will be plenty of activities and games for the children, a wonderful tombola bursting with all sorts of goodies to be won and, of course, our Grand Raffle. All this will be accompanied by live music throughout the afternoon by The Lumière Rouge Jazz Band.

When it's time to take a break, teas, delicious cakes, strawberries & cream and ice creams will be available.

The proceeds are shared between our two village churches (St Andrew's and St Margaret's) and the village hall. In the meantime, if you have any items you would like to donate to the white elephant or any other stalls, please let me know on 01328 830442.

Please put the date in your diaries and come along with your family and friends to support us. We look forward to seeing you on August 10th!

Sue Findlater, on behalf of the Fete Committee

200 CLUB PRIZE WINNERS The March draw lucky winners were:

£50 – David Bennett £25 – Vicky Raven £15 – John Kirby

The April draw lucky winners were: £50 – Bridget Nicholson £25 – Mrs J Gooding £15 – Betty Ringer

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THE ENERGY BOX NNDC's scheme 'The Energy Box' is now available to local residents. It consists of a ring binder full of advice sheets and information on a wide range of home energy issues and ways to help you reduce your energy consumption. It also includes an OWL energy monitor to help those using the box, to see how much energy they are using in 'real time'. If you would like to borrow the Energy Box, please contact Jenny Allison on 01328 830067 or Mark Gardner on 01328 830755. Roy Findlater, Chairman, Field Dalling & Saxlingham Parish Council

DATES AND ACTIVITIES in the Village Hall

Bowls Club every Thursday at 7.30 pm Friends & Neighbours Club at 2.30 pm on Weds 26 June and 24 July Pilates every Thursday at 10am and for Pottery Classes: contact Nadia on nadia.mason@glazedearth. co.uk to enjoy a great and constructive activity.

VILLAGE HALL Award of Grant for Refurbishment

“I am delighted to tell you that this morning I received a telephone call from the Norfolk Community Foundation telling me that our grant application for £89,401.60 has been awarded in full.”

Mark Gardner, Chairman of the Village Hall Committee, made this announcement at a recent village hall coffee morning. He went on to say: “the grant will pay for a new insulated roof fitted with solar photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, a new ceiling, and improved heating and lighting. The village hall will have to contribute a further £5,000 from its own resources to make up the total sum required.

“When we know the details of the grant we will arrange a meeting to get down to detailed design and planning, but my current thinking is to start building work very soon after August 10th, the day of the village fete”.

Since then, meetings have been held with the architect’s team and the prospective contractor and the provisional programme is to start work on Monday August 12th and reopen the hall in late November. So, apologies to all our regular users who will be inconvenienced. This work is very necessary, and we do hope you will return and enjoy the refurbished village hall later in the year. We are planning some form of special event to mark the reopening of the hall in all its energy efficient splendour!!!

The revamp of the interior is partly completed. The large meeting room has been painted a lighter colour and the windows fitted with new red roman blinds. This has given this room a fresher, brighter appearance. The remainder will be repainted later in the year after the reroofing project is complete.

The Village Hall AGM was held on 29th April. Amongst all the usual business, the existing committee was voted in to serve another year, and there was lengthy discussion on the possibility of starting up some form of children’s club. If you have suggestions or wish to help with this proposal, please contact me. Mark Gardner,

Chairman 01328 830775 or Mark@markgardnerltd.plus.com.

FOGPC 50/50 Club Draw Results

March April Gertraud Shaw £20.00 Sandra Warner £20.00 Sarah Worsley £10.00 Seana Broom £10.00 Julie Fisher £10.00 Lin Poole £10.00 Noel Hinton £5.00 Lynn Marr £5.00 Carol Aries £5.00 Sophie Walder £5.00 Penny Brough £5.00 Penny Brough £5.00 Keith Webster £5.00 Lauren Aitman £5.00

The 50:50 Club remains one of the main sources of income for the “Friends” as well as offering a most enjoyable monthly gathering. If you are new to the village or would like to join us please do so as soon as possible – to “borrow” from another place “you have to be in it to win it”! If you would like more information on 50:50 Club membership please contact John Blakeley on 01263 861008. The new membership year will start with the June 2013 draw. Cheques should be made out to “FOGPC”.

ST MARY’S CHURCH A big thank you to everyone who helped with the

pew polishing and then the churchyard clear-up. It makes such a difference to the appearance of the church, but perhaps more importantly, it is great to get everyone together for hard work and a good natter. The refreshments and sausages in buns from Gunthorpe Hall at the churchyard clear-up were most welcome - a special thanks to Jeremy and Marie.

The bottle bank has arrived in the church car park ready to receive any colour of glass. Hopefully, this will provide some much needed income for the church as well as providing a useful service for the village. CHEERS!

On the day of the Fete, Sunday 28th July, there will be no church service but there will be one on July 21st instead. Penny Brough, Church Warden

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FRIENDS OF GUNTHORPE PARISH CHURCH

The Friends AGM date has changed, and it will now be held in the Village Institute on Friday, 5thth July 2013 at 6:30pm. As usual we will deal with AGM business and then fish and chips will be on sale. For those new to the village, we are a secular charity raising funding to maintain the fabric of Gunthorpe St. Mary’s Church. We do this by holding a number of events each year- a harvest supper, a Christmas party and a BBQ the Saturday evening before the village fete – sometimes supplemented with a concert or special one-off event.

We hope all existing members who are free, along with any new residents of the village who are interested, will come along for the evening. No obligations attached for newcomers – make it an opportunity to meet other members of the village and see what you think. Membership subscriptions can be taken on the night of £5 (minimum) for a Friends membership, and also for the 50/50 Club membership of £12 per year (June 2013-May 2014). Better still contact John Blakeley at Hawthorns on 01263-861008, and pay prior to the AGM as it helps greatly to know the prize money available before the June draw. If you pay tax we would encourage you to fill out a gift aid form if you have not already done so. There will also be a raffle at the AGM with a special ‘prize’ donated by Rob Cutterham in memory of Peter Everett.

Along with our fund-raising events, each year in the Spring we hold a Churchyard Clear-up and this year’s took place on Saturday the 13th of April. Twelve stalwart villagers gathered from 9am in the churchyard and set about pruning, trimming, weeding and coating the churchyard gates. This year the weather was ‘with us’ for a bonfire and all rubbish was tidied and burned on the day. Many thanks to all who came along to help, especially the two young ladies who tirelessly lugged the rubbish to the bonfire. Come mid-day, we all enjoyed a sausage bun snack and set off home leaving a much tidier churchyard. Though numbers attending were down this year, we still made a great stride forward in preparing for the summer season. Many thanks to all who attended!

The Friends BBQ will be held on Saturday 27th July at 7pm in the Gunthorpe Hall gardens. All are welcome, but please book your seats in advance by

phoning Gunthorpe Hall on 01263-861-373 c/o Rod, Sue, Jeremy or Marie.

The cost is £9 per adult and £6 per child 5 to 12 years old (with under 5’s free). There will be dips and fruit punch to start, (please bring your own wine/beer), a main course with garden salads, homemade bread and a pudding. A vegetarian option will be available, if you let us know when you book your seats. It is always a fun evening, and a great way to avoid cooking the night before the village fete - so please do join us. All the money raised goes to the Friends. We also very much hope to see you all the next day at the Fete.

Marie Denholm, Friends Chair

IN OUR THOUGHTS The village was deeply saddened to learn of the

deaths, in late April, of two long-term residents who had both made major contributions to our lives in Gunthorpe and to the social fabric of the village.

JOHN WILLIAM SMITH John William Smith died on April 26th, aged 89

years. He had been unwell for some time, and he passed away peacefully with his family around him.

John and his wife Mary, together with their family, moved to Gunthorpe in 1961 when John took up a mathematics teaching post at what was then Fakenham Grammar School (now Fakenham College) - he was head of the Mathematics Department there when he retired. John and Mary immediately became actively involved in village life. John was a member and Treasurer of the PCC, and with his neighbour Fred Wright (deceased) they organised not only the annual fete - where John manned the "Bowling for a Pig", but also the children's Christmas party for many years. He loved organising and playing in the regular whist drives, where his family helped with the refreshments, raising

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funds for the Village Institute, of which he was Secretary.

A regular church attendant, John held the office of Church Warden for 18 years and took services at St Mary's Church, Gunthorpe during the time the village was without a priest.

John’s funeral service was held at St Mary’s on 17th May, followed by a private cremation later in the day.

We offer our deepest condolences to John’s family, and our thanks for the major contribution that John made to village life over so many years.

MARGARET (MAGGIE) BERYL LUNNISS Maggie Lunniss died at her home in Bungay, aged

62, on 26th April. She had suffered from emphysema and its complications for some time, but remained active and cheerful to the very end.

Maggie was born in Fakenham in 1950 as the first of three children to John and Beryl Chapman. She attended Colkirk primary school and then went to Swaffham Convent. She was never comfortable at being a boarder and at school she particularly hated maths and arithmetic. She did however shine at English language and literature and French and enjoyed many holidays in France where she could practise her love of the language.

Maggie was a person who always connected with people - no matter what age, creed or colour, all were potential friends and treated as such. She loved sitting with a glass of wine, her stationery and a fountain pen sharing her life with her friends. Sadly in recent times her disease would not let her write. She hated not being in touch and wasn't even able to make use of what she called "soulless and impersonal email".

She met and married her first husband in Holt. Sadly this relationship was not successful and she divorced. A new chapter in her life opened when she met John Lunniss. It was an instant attraction and they married in 1984 finding a house in Gunthorpe which remained their home for twenty years. She became fully involved in Gunthorpe life, first as treasurer and then secretary of the Gunthorpe Institute until the Friends of Gunthorpe Parish Church was born. Both John and Maggie, with no particular religious beliefs, became founder members of the “Friends” in the fight to save and maintain the

lovely church of St Mary’s. Latterly John was offered the job of being Secretary

to the Golf Club at Bungay, and Maggie had to leave her beloved Gunthorpe cottage and move away; although they both remained very frequent visitors to their village friends.

A very bad chest infection sadly led to her death and Maggie was cremated in a private ceremony on 13 May, which was followed by a celebration of her life at Colney Woodland Burial Park.

WELCOME

There have been quite a few new faces in the village over the past few weeks and this month we would like to offer a very warm welcome to Angela and Andrew Ryde, together with their two year old daughter and 14 year old Labrador “Toby” who have bought Dumpling Cottage. In fact Angela and Andrew have been frequent visitors over the past few months whilst Dumpling Cottage has been renovated. With the work now almost finished they plan to spend as much time as possible here - sharing their time with their North London home where Andrew works as a partner in an Estate Agency and Angela is a nurse working as a coronary care manager. They fell in love with this area whilst honeymooning at a cottage in the grounds of Holkham Hall, and have made it clear that they are committed to making as full a contribution as possible to our village life.

We also warmly welcome Matthew and Georgia Hatfull who have moved into Oak House from Shenley in Hertfordshire. They have two children, Archie, 9, and Olly (nearly 5) who are attending Langham School. They have a chocolate labrador “Murray” named, I was told, after Andy Murray as Archie is a big tennis fan. Matthew is an accounts manager for the Post Office in East Anglia working on network transformation projects, and Georgia will continue working from Norfolk as a PA for her renewable energy company in Hertfordshire. They fell in love with this area whilst visiting friends who had also moved here earlier.

We very much hope that both families will greatly enjoy living in our very friendly and diverse village.

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GUNTHORPE VILLAGE FETE The ever popular annual Gunthorpe fete, held in the

grounds of Gunthorpe Hall, will take place on Sunday 28th July opening at 2pm; hopefully in glorious sunshine, as opposed to the clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning which marked the start last year!

We are all very excited about this year’s fete and hope that visitors, old and new, will join us for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Feast on cream teas on the lawn, whilst listening to Aylsham Brass Band, browse the stalls and have fun playing traditional games. Explore the gardens and grab a bargain in the jumble sale! As always entrance to the fete is free and there is ample free parking.

Tickets for our very popular grand draw will be available to purchase on the day, and the draw itself will take place at 4pm. We are pleased that the sister in charge of our namesake ward at the NNUH has kindly agreed to present the prizes - further strengthening links between the village and the ward.

For further information please contact Zena on 01328 878727 or 07500 333172

We look forward to welcoming you all.

DOMESDAY GUNTHORPE This is the first of two articles on Gunthorpe’s

history at, and immediately after, the Norman conquest, and it is taken from research by former village historian Ray Steffans. His work is gradually being scanned with the longer-term aim of bringing it together in one book to also incorporate some of the village history pictures. Any contributions of items concerning Gunthorpe or village pictures, past and present, are very much welcomed.

Gunthorpe must have existed as some form of settlement long before the Norman Conquest of 1066, and may well have been a Danish or Scandinavian settlement from 850 -1000 AD. It certainly existed in some form during the reigns of King Harold and Edward the Confessor (1042 - 1066), at which time its population could have been only about a dozen people.

The first established historical reference to Gunthorpe is to be found in the Domesday Book. Since this is one of the most important documents in English history, some brief explanation of its compilation and contents should be given at this stage.

After taking the throne from King Harold, William the Conqueror had inspections made of the various lands in the whole kingdom, to determine to whom they belonged, how big they were and how valuable, and how many people were under the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor. The numbers of cattle, ploughs, horses etc were also noted. The survey took six years and was finished in l086 shortly before William died. The full details were registered in a national record called the Domesday Book, from the Saxon "Dom Bok" meaning book of laws. This superseded the famous Book of Winchester compiled by Alfred the Great. Not only did the book give the Conqueror a detailed knowledge of the lands and properties in the realm, the Domesday Book served also to settle the rights of his subjects in disputed cases. Even today it can be used to show whether a given manor is, or is not, ancient demesne.

Originally, the book was written in Latin, with a mixture of Saxon. It was not until about 1800, during the reign of George III, that a large number of copies were printed for the use of Parliament and for the public libraries. In the late 19th century, portions of it were photographically reproduced. The Norfolk portion is available in this form.

The order generally observed in writing Domesday Book was to set down at the head of each county the Kings name. After this would be listed, in order of importance, the bishops, religious houses, churches and great men who held lands by authority ("in capite" or "serjeanty") of the King. After this lists of tenants, the manors and possessions that belonged to the King and to each owner throughout the county were listed. Norfolk was one of the most thickly populated counties at the time, but, although 1392 manors or lordships are listed for it, only just over 27,000 people are referred to. This number includes the highest and lowest in the social order, from 63 "tenants in chief" to 4,571 "socmen" and 4,656 "bondmen" (servants or slaves). Almost certainly wives and children were omitted from the count. It has been estimated that the population of Norfolk was then about 100,000, about 11% of what it is today.

In the Domesday Book, details for Gunthorpe are found under the county of Norfolk in the entry for the "Holt Hundred". If a man who had his manor in Gunthorpe had, for example, land and property in Bale also then the details for his Bale holding would be listed under Gunthorpe. As can be seen from the extracts given later, Gunthorpe was divided, essentially into two ownerships. This was to remain the case for several hundred years afterwards. Even in Domesday Book two different spellings of the name of the village were used. These are Gunestorp and Gunatorp. Later spellings included Gunstorp and Gunthorp.

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EVENSONG As part of the plan to take Deanery services ‘on the

road’, there will be a Sung Evensong Service at Langham Church on Sunday 2nd June at 5pm. Holt choir will attend and others may join in with them and to arrive no later than 4.00pm. Details of the other Sunday sung evensong services can be found on the church notice board.

WELCOME We would like to offer a warm welcome to Ken and

Barbara, Eileen and John Banks and Sam and Katharine. We hope you will all be very happy living in Langham.

SOUP LUNCH MARCH 16TH We were not sure if this would still be a going

concern but our doubts were dismissed when our total proceeds, including late donations, amounted to £225 which is the highest figure so far! We had some delicious soups and interesting plants! Books sold well and we had a ‘guess the no. of sweets’ competition which was won by John Hughes who guessed 110 – total in jar -107 !

Grateful thanks go to the soup and cake makers and all those valiant supporters who manned stalls and helped with preparations. Thanks also to all our customers!

UPDATE FROM SYLVIA REDFORD Sylvia and family were overwhelmed and extremely

appreciative of the generosity of friends and family with their donations to the Norfolk & Norwich Association for the Blind (NNAB) in memory of Ken. Sylvia is very pleased to announce that the latest total amount collected has increased to £996.40. Grateful thanks to all.

LEUKAEMIA RESEARCH SALES Langham Parish Room

Grand Sale Saturday July 27th 10am-1pm Thank you for your continued support. What a day

we chose in March! We awoke to a very cold and windy start plus the snow, but we were committed and our helpers all arrived. We convinced ourselves that we would not have too many customers but we were wrong! The stalwarts all turned up and a great result of £900 in just one and a half hours. My thanks to you all.

Maureen 830731

BOB’S RETIREMENT Please read an article about Bob Brandt in the

General Section together with that of ‘Other Lynx Retirees’.

FRIENDS OF LANGHAM Throughout the year the FOL committee organise

events for the village and some specifically for its ‘200 club’ members and families.

To allow us to continue we require your support so please consider joining our ‘200 club’ for just £12 a year. This will allow us to continue and give you the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of being a member. These include entry into our monthly cash prize draw and allows you and your family to take advantage of the ‘200 club members only outings’ as well as supporting all our other events throughout the year.

Membership is open to all, regardless of where you live, so please support us by joining today, just contact John Hughes on 01328 830595. Thank You.

John Hughes, FOL Chairman

LANGHAM CRAFT FAIR Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July

In the church, parish room and churchyard Free entry 10.00am – 5.00pm

Over 30 craft stalls plus a tombola. Do come along and enjoy a cup of ‘proper’ coffee. Tea, cold drinks, cake & savouries served throughout both days. Proceeds to Langham Church Building Trust.

VILLAGE STRAWBERRY TEA June 12th 3pm at ‘The Travis’ Holt Road

(In the parish room if wet!) Come and enjoy tea, cakes and strawberries. £2 each. All are welcome. Contact Jan Hope Tel: 01328 830847.

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THE PUDDING PARTY Langham Parish Room July 12th 7.00pm

Come and enjoy a cheese course and GLORIOUS PUDDINGS. Bring your own drinks and glasses. Tickets £8 each available in June from Diane Tel 831 922, Sheila Tel: 830530 and Jan Tel: 830847. Proceeds for Langham Parish Room.

MOBILE LIBRARY This will now visit on a four weekly basis, on Thursdays: June 13th, July 11th, August 8th The van will call, each of these, days for 20 minutes at: St. Mary’s - 10.00am. Old Post Office - 10.25am. Swan’s Close - 10.50am The Cornfield - 11.15am. Enquiries : Wells Library Tel: 01328 710467.

WRVS LANGHAM CAR SERVICE Schedule to August 4th 2013

Weekly driving duties beginning on a Monday May. 27th Tel: 830 605 July 1st Tel: 830 606* Jun. 3rd Tel: 830 348 July 8th Tel: 830 624 Jun 10th Tel: 830 606* July 15th Tel: 830 605 Jun 17th Tel: 830 537* July 22nd Tel: 830 731 Jun 24th Tel: 830 696* July 29th Tel: 830 847 Rate: 25p per mile *These drivers do not go to Norwich

If the driver for the week is unable to do the trip, contact the next person on the list. If your appointment is cancelled, please also cancel your car service booking.

Please give three days notice wherever possible, except in an emergency. It would be very helpful if a car booking is made as soon as an appointment is arranged or journey planned so that drivers can arrange their schedule. When booking please advise of any walking aids to be transported. Please bring change.

In the infrequent event that no driver is available – contact the Holt Caring Society Tel: 01263 711243 giving as much notice as possible.

This roster is also sited in the Bluebell and on the church porch and village notice boards with dates beyond the above schedule, after July 9th. Ann Sherriff Tel: 830 605

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Sat 8th June. PCC Crab Supper & Harbour Trip. 6.15 on quay. [Tickets from Mary Athill 01263-740306 or Hope Todd 01263-740118] Sat 22nd June. FMC AGM in Village Hall. Fri 16th Aug: Practice Oyster and Gypsy Day. Sat 17th Aug. Norfolk Oyster and Gypsy World Championship. Sat 24th Aug. Morston Regatta. Sun 25th Aug. Morston Fun Day. Sat 14th Sep. NNDC Sponsored Bike Ride. Sat 19th Oct. Shovell Dinner 2013 at the Anchor. [Shovell biographer Dr Simon Harris on “Admiral Narborough of Cockthorpe”].

NATIONAL TRUST: LOCAL UPDATE On 5th April the Ranger team moved into the newly

renovated Lifeboat House. This year the team is Ajay Tegala (Lead Ranger) returning for a second season, Paul Nichols returning for his seventh season and newcomer Matt Twydell.

The first sandwich tern sighting on the Point was not until 1st April, but by the 29th April numbers had built up to over 4,000. The first common and arctic terns were recorded on the 14th and the first little terns on the 26th. During the harsh weather at the start of April over 80 razorbills, 30 guillemots and 20 puffins were found washed up dead along the Point; they are believed to have died from starvation caused by difficulty feeding due to the weather.

On 23rd April we conducted a shelduck population survey and recorded 69 pairs along the Point.

This April hasn’t produced a great number of migrants. Wheatears have been seen daily from the 7th, peaking at 12 on the 25th ; and willow warblers peaked at 18 on 24th April. Common redstarts were seen between the 24th and 27th and a male ring ouzel recorded

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on 22nd April. Probably the most notable bird sighting of the month was a stone curlew - a true rarity on the Point - spotted at the Marrams. On the 20th April seven common cranes flew west over the Point.

The latest low tide seal count on 27th April reached 512 grey seals and 135 common seals. The grey seals had a successful breeding season. A total of 1,220 pups were born over the winter, which is 287 more than the previous winter.

As you may be aware the project to replace the two large bridges at Morston saltmarshes has been delayed due to the contractor’s proposed installation methods, and revised consents and costs. The proposed work has been reviewed and is now scheduled to start in the autumn.

We are planning to carry out the work whilst maintaining public access to the footpath and existing bridges, however there may be times when we will have to limit access to certain areas; this will be limited and will not affect local businesses.

MORSTON HALL PCC LUNCH Morston PCC’s fundraising event at Morston Hall on

20th April consisted of a delicious lunch followed by a brilliant talk by Emma Bridgewater and her husband Matthew Rice on “The Merry Hell of Working Together”. There was then an auction of a unique one-gallon Emma Bridgewater teapot beautifully painted by Matthew with Morston scenes - including the Watch House, the Lifeboat House and various waders. The teapot went for the magnificent sum of £475. The whole event raised a total of £4,411. Anne Rolfe, Sara Wingfield and Gill Kay would like to thank all those who supported the event – especially Emma and Matthew – not only for their great talk but also for presenting the PCC with their super teapot to auction. Our thanks also go to Morston Hall for so generously hosting the event.

MORSTON’S BISHOP OF CLOGHER In the 1470s, Florence Woolley, OSB (Order of St.

Benedict) was a monk at the Benedictine Abingdon Abbey in Berkshire (now Oxon). Come November 20th 1475 and Pope Sixtus IV (he who three years later commissioned the Sistine Chapel, and later confirmed the rights of the Portuguese to acquire slaves by force of arms along the African coast), apparently authorised James (Goldwell), Bishop of Norwich, to appoint Woolley, to succeed Bishop Rossa as “episcopus Clowchorriensis” i.e. Bishop of Clogher (in North Tyrone in Ireland, the cathedral church of St. Macartan, founded by the order of St.Patrick in AD 490). Many Irish sees were titular ones, so there might have been no expectation that he would ever go there. Bishops back then were often employed on state or international business, so suffragans (assistant bishops) and bishops in partibus infidelium (“in regions of the infidels”) ordained in their absence. Then it was discovered that Bishop Rossa of Clogher was still alive after all - and indeed he lived another eight years. So Bishop Florence (Woolley) was in 1475 appointed Rector of Morston and in or by 1478 Suffragan Bishop of the diocese of Norwich. (In the 1400s alone there were 6-7 suffragans ministering in Norwich diocese). It is unlikely that a Bishop would function as a parish priest – he usually paid a vicar to do that. However in 1480, as our Rector, the Right Reverend Bishop Florence, OSB, presented All Saints’, Morston, with its magnificent rood screen. He died in 1500.

[Sources: J.F.Williams, Ord. in the Norwich Diocese in C15, Norf. Archaeol. 31,346ff; Gordon J. Beattie, Gregory’s Angels, 1997; Abingdon Abbey website; Morston church records; communication to me 29 Apr 2013 from Canon Doll].

ST. GEORGE OR ST. EDMUND? What were you doing on April 23rd, St George’s

Day? Nothing? Did you see St George’s Cross flying? No?

I’ll bet if our patron saint - instead of being St George (c.275/281 – 23 Apr 303 AD), a Greek who became a Roman officer - had been an Anglo-Saxon: an East Anglian like King Edmund (841-20 Nov 869) - as he used to be, in the Middle Ages until 1348 (founding of the order of the Garter), we’d make sure we had big

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parties on his special day - November 20th. St George was son of a Greek called Geronidas from

Cappadocia in Asia Minor (then meaning Turkey, Cappadocia being south central Turkey); and his mother was from Lydda in Palestine. The dragon he is supposed to have slain represents Satan (Revelations 12:3 in the Bible). In the developed western story this dragon was really a crocodile and the “bait” put out for the croc, to bring it into the open for George to spear, was Alexandra, the young wife of Diocletian, who was the Roman Emperor from 284-305 AD, and who bitterly persecuted Christians in 303.

Little is known of Edmund, except that he was the son of Aehtelstan, “an obscure East Anglian king” and that on 25th December 855, aged 14 or 15, he was crowned King of East Anglia at Burna (unidentified). He was a caring and popular king, but in 869 after an action against invading Danes, he hid near the bridge in at Haegelsdun - believed to be Hoxne in Suffolk – where the Danish invaders saw his armour shining through the trees and shot him full of arrows and then beheaded him. He was buried by his subjects at a church on the site of what became Bury St Edmunds Abbey and then Cathedral; and he was later sanctified, as St Edmund the Martyr. To his burial place came pilgrims from all over the world, until his remains were moved to London in 633.

I suppose as an East Anglian, I’m prejudiced - but I do prefer November 20th rather than 23rd April for having a good party.

DEATH OF MARY CROUCH Mary A.B. Crouch of Roughton, daughter of Dennis

Docking and niece of Petty Officer Leslie Docking, MVO (see article on the Arctic Convoy Star), died on 14th February 2013.

Mary was brought up at Morston and we only know of her death as Stephen visited here from Norwich and wrote in the Morston church visitors’ book that Mary had died.

She was a schoolteacher at Burnham Market and attended the unveiling of the Morston War memorial (which of course includes her uncle Les Docking).

FMC ARCHITECT’S REPORT AGM 2013

If you have driven past the church in recent months, you will have seen that we have carried out maintenance work, selecting – as I explained in my last report - the more urgent items from the Quinquennial report.

The Quinquennial itself showed up pretty much what we expected, commenting on the rainwater disposal systems, the pointing of various sections of the walls, detail works to the roofing, and the state of the belfry interior. I separated the works into proposed phases, concentrating on weatherproofing rather than cosmetics, and the architect, agreeing with this approach, sought tenders.

We accepted the offer of £26,661 from Messrs Atthowe, who are very experienced in church work and are familiar with Morston, and they started on site just as the snow came down, which wasn’t ideal.

The work included replacement of the south aisle guttering (they put in a temporary repair as soon as they were appointed, to carry us through winter), reroofing of the north porch where one could see daylight, various patches and making good around the leadwork, and pointing and coping repairs.

In the tower the latticework has been replaced in the high level openings and new mesh fixed behind, to keep the birds out of the now sparkling clean belfry. Also above the sound chamber floor, they have replaced the worm-eaten, split and frankly dangerous wooden ladder to the roof with new steel steps and rather firmer hand holds.

Outside, we had hoped to rationalise and improve the drainage, but this has proved more onerous than we had expected. The downpipes run to “French drains” which are open jointed pipes allowing water to escape along their length, but unfortunately they are not particularly long, are blocked, and either don’t have soakaways at the end or they are clogged. So the architect is preparing proposals. She is also preparing a report on the chancel and nave roofs, which she inspected internally with the contractor and identified areas of rot or beetle, not dangerous but needing attention.

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Subject to what she says, I expect that we will be looking next at the chancel lead (which has been there for a hundred years and is getting definitely tired), probably some tinkering with the roof timbers, and external drainage works, all of which together make up the kind of package that I understand grant bodies favour. I therefore anticipate appointing the architect to prepare documentation with a view to seeking grants. David Carnwath RIBA May, 2013

BIRD NOTES Recent sightings on the marsh have included two

pairs of buzzards, a pair of red kites and many yellow hammers – and on Stiffkey Fen, spoonbills. Dawn choruses in the village have included the dulcet tones of a pair of linnets; and a ring ouzel visited one garden.

RUSSIAN CONVOY MEDAL MORSTON’S P.O. LES DOCKING ON PQ 18

In late 2012 the Arctic Convoy Star medal was finally awarded for those who served on the Arctic convoys carrying vital supplies by sea to Russia – from Scotland to Murmansk or Archangel. These supplies kept Russia in the war, an alliance that enabled Britain to survive as an independent democracy and not a defeated colony of the Third Reich.

Most seamen were Merchant Navy, along with RN personnel whose ships acted as escorts for those most dangerous convoys. They sailed in waters riddled with U-boats, and were also subject to air attack since they sailed within range of the Luftwaffe units based in occupied Norway.

The weather was so dire an out-breath could freeze in the nostrils and ice had constantly to be chipped off the rails, decks and equipment of the ships for fear the increasing weight of it would capsize the ship. Sea conditions and attacks caused convoys to scatter, with

the merchant ships then becoming without the support of the naval escorts.

In delivering 5000 tanks & 7000 aircraft making 4 million tons of cargo to a Russia that expresses its gratitude in medal awards to this day, over 3,000 were killed in those 78 convoys - with 85 merchant ships and 16 RN escorts sunk. Only 200 of those 66,000 men who sailed are alive today.

Among those heroic sailors was Petty Officer Les Docking, RVM, RN, of Cold Blow Cottage, Morston, who sailed in HMS Avenger on Convoy PQ-18 in Sep. 1942, and would have been eligible for the Arctic Convoy Star. Sadly on 15th Nov ’42 Les was torpedoed off Gibraltar.

FMC’S 4TH GRAND BOOK SALE The biggest and (we think) best second hand charity book sale in North Norfolk took place over three days in Morston Village Hall on 4th to 6th May. All proceeds went to Friends of Morston Church (charity 1099831): for the maintenance of the fabric and furnishings of Moston’s lovely old church. Each book was individually priced - which is because the FMC likes to assure buyers that they will be paying well below bookshop prices. As a guide for collectible books Rob Metcalfe & his team take the cheapest dealer price on AbeBooks for “the same book in the same condition” and then at least halve it to reach the Morston book sale price. The sale made £4,822 for the FMC. Rob and his team would like to thank all those who generously donated books and all who helped with the sale.

QUIZ QUESTIONS

by Samphire Answers on page 24

1.In golf what is the term for two over par? 2.Which Scottish soccer team is known as ‘The Dons’? 3.Who had a Number 1 hit with ‘Maggie May’? 4.In Morse which letter is represented by three dashes? 5.What is the only English anagram of h-a-t-t-e-r-s? 6.On how many stone tablets were the Ten Commandments engraved? 7.How many phases of the Moon are there in a lunar month? 8.Which musical note follows ‘fah’?

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9.What colour are the spots on a plaice? 10.Which two dances take their names from US towns/cities? 11.What is the sea area in the weather forecasts sited south of Ireland? 12. What can be the name of a hat and also the name of a player on the cricket field?

CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE FAIR Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 July, 10am-5pm

Bluejacket Workshop is holding its annual Textile Fair in Morston on 6th & 7th July. This year the invited artists will include a weaver, a knitter, and artists who use textile to create unusual and beautiful works of art.

All artists will be present at the fair. Entry and refreshments are free. We hope to see you there.

FROM THE GARDEN

I have just returned from a short holiday in Rome where spring was obviously a little in advance ours here in Norfolk. However, it did surprise me how international plants have become as the scenes were so familiar and one felt quite at home with the variety of plants and weeds growing in the parks and gardens. I loved the ubiquitous daisy revelling in the sunshine and warmth and carpeting large areas of open ground. Yes, dandelion and speedwell were there too and in the hedgerows there were many bushes of elderflower. They were in full bloom and just waiting for someone to harvest the blossoms for a pressing of elderflower cordial! Another aspect I enjoyed was the way in which restaurants staked out their pavement area with troughs of herbs, so good for the cuisine and they also scented the evening air when disturbed. I loved the sights, sounds and smells but what can beat the joys of a spring day in Norfolk. Green Pinkie

AN EVENING OF JAZZ St. Margaret’s Church 7.30pm

On Friday 14th June boys and girls of Gresham’s School, both instrumentalists and singers, will once again give an impressive performance in the church to help us raise funds for the maintenance of St.Margaret’s. Do come along at 7.30pm to experience what is always excellent entertainment including a wide variety of jazz. The ticket-price of £8 covers wine and delicious Saxlingham-made canapés served during the interval in our beautiful churchyard. Tickets from Caroline Robson (01328 830298) and John Rayner (01328 830564).

OUR SHARED VILLAGE HALL Residents of Saxlingham have played little part in

the current refurbishment of our joint village hall sited in Field Dalling; however, we very much value the building with its facilities and are most appreciative of all the hard work and careful planning that have gone into the first stages of the projected development. Winning grant-aid of £89,000+ from the County Council is an impressive achievement. This funding covers not only the steelwork to strengthen the roof but also its re-covering.

With the planned improvements in insulation, heating and lighting the building should prove a much more attractive venue for villagers and visitors alike. The second stage of development which involves rebuilding part of the existing fabric and adding to it will require yet more commitment all round! Meanwhile huge congratulations and thanks to Mark Gardner and the Village Hall Committee.

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SHARRINGTON BUS SERVICE Thanks to tremendous persistence of local resident Colin

Douglas, County Councillor Marie Strong and Sanders Coaches we now have a scheduled bus service in the village.

The service is an extension of the existing Holt circular no 46 that also now calls additionally at Hindringham. The bus stop is at the village telephone box at the end of Bale Road. The service runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, three times each day; timetables are attached to the village notice boards by the telephone box and outside the village hall. Congratulations to all involved in bringing this new amenity to our community particularly in these austere times.

OTHER NEWS An important diary date: 2pm Saturday 20th July 2013,

Garden Fete at Church Farmhouse Gardens. There have been a number of significant events in the

church calendar, Mothering Sunday, Easter Celebrations to name but two.

There was a meeting of Sharrington Gardeners on 22nd May 2013, a talk entitled “Mind the Gap”.

I apologise for the lack of entries regarding these events but Sharrington does need a new Local Lynx village rep or this sorry state of affairs will continue.

MORSTON QUIZ ANSWERS (see page 22)

1.Double bogey. 2.Aberdeen. 3. Rod Stewart. 4. “O”. 5. t-h-r-e-a-t-s. 6. Two. 7. Four. 8. Soh. 9. Red/orange. 10. Boston and Charleston. 11. Fastnet. 12.Bowler.

NGS GARDEN OPEN SUNDAY 28TH JULY

Warborough House gardens will be open for the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) on Sunday 28th July 1- 5pm. There will be a display by the Stiffkey History Society about the house and teas will be served by the Wells RNLI Guild. Monies raised will benefit the NGS charities Macmillan Cancer Care, Marie Curie as well as the Wells RNLI.

Parking available please follow the signs. Do not park on the main road as this will cause congestion. There is a Coasthopper bus stop just outside.

Arabella Morgan

STIFFKEY WI Monday June 17th Our president Chris Halford

gives a talk on ‘The Fun of Foraging’ at The Village Hall, Stiffkey at 7.30pm. Visitors are always welcome and refreshments are provided.

Friday July 26th Outing to Old Hunstanton’s Flower Festival. Further information can be obtained from Secretary Helen Leach, Tel 01328 830349.

CHURCH NOTES With our AGM safely behind us, and the PCC re-

elected, we can look forward to the rest of the summer with our patronal evensong scheduled for Sunday June 23rd at 6pm. A warm welcome to all with refreshments afterwards. We welcome the Stiffkey local History Group who will be putting an exhibition in the church over Bank Holiday weekend in August. Harvest Festival is on September 22nd. Looking back to our Easter celebrations I am delighted to record we had a full church on Easter Sunday – something I don’t think I can quite recall (other than weddings / funerals) and it was marvellous to see so many new faces in the congregation and, bearing in mind how many holiday

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visitors we have in the village, perhaps it is not so surprising. On the afternoon of Easter Day a successful Easter Egg Hunt took place. There is much talk about declines in church attendances, (in all denominations), but in fact, I am sure, deep down, the need for more than a consumer society with all its razz-ma-taz, is always present. End of sermon! Have a wonderful summer. Keith McDougall

NATURE NOTES Last year drought conditions were in March: this year in

April and early May. I have never known blossom so late and the bulbs having flowered, to be as prolonged as this late frost came and went. Now farmers are worried about late crop emergence and low yields. Are things ever ‘just right’? Perhaps one year in ten!

Peacock butterflies emerged from hibernation in April in spite of the cold winds. What a miracle they survive over winter. Avocets are back on Stiffkey Fen in good numbers.

The deer population grows ever larger. The UEA has, with the Forestry Commission, studied the problem of too many deer, (red, roe, muntjac) despoiling forest vegetation and causing problems so that other species, particularly, birds and habitat are severely damaged. A country-wide cull of deer is recommended and this will be done by trained hunters in properly regulated ways. There is bound to be an emotional response but we live in a highly managed and farmed environment, and sometimes, we must step in to help or hinder species to keep all in balance.

Seals at Blakeney and Horsey are doing very well and, maybe, the windfarms are providing a nursery for fish – as they are a no-fishing zone. The seals could be benefiting as they live on fish. Both grey and common seals are producing over 1000 pups per year. Fish stocks must be good to support these seal colonies.

The grey seal is the UK’s heaviest mammal predator – the next largest (land based) is the badger. Do badgers harm bee populations by digging out wild bee nests? The crash in bee numbers is receiving a lot of publicity these days. They estimate bees pollinate crops to the value of £1.8 billion per year. Pightle

ALBARACA PLANT SALE Thank you to everyone who gave and bought plants for

the sale. An amazing £585 was raised for the school. A further £90 was raised for Church funds from the sale of refreshments. A small number of plants are still for sale at Scaup Cottage, The Greenway. Vivien Horobin

PICNIC AT BINHAM David Frost will be the guide for the tour of Binham

Priory which has been arranged by the Stiffkey Local History Group and which will take place on Saturday 22nd June 2013. Meet at 11.30am. All welcome, please bring along your picnic lunch which will follow the tour.

Steven Bashforth, SLHG

WEATHERING THE WEATHER The prolonged miserable weather that we have suffered

over the last autumn and winter reminded me that similar past events were occasionally recorded.

In a letter to Nathaniel Bacon dated April 22nd 1573 John Mountforde reported that the weather was so hard that the cattle were still being fed straw. Also that his Lordship's (Sir Nicholas) sheep at Stiffkey were suffering greatly because of the hardness of the weather and the coldness of the sea causing there to be no spring. Despite great efforts to help the stock both the ewes and their lambs were dying. Mountforde asks if there was help to be had at the Cockthorpe fold course as it is warmer than at Stiffkey where the ground was without growth. He feared that there would be much death if help was not given.

One month later on May 19th 1573, Nathaniel Bacon

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finishes a long letter to his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, with the following comment, “Divers of your Lordship's shepe upon Netherall course what with cold and want of fode through the lat cominge up of the Springe are sins Ester dead''.

Another who recorded the weather on the Norfolk coast was the Reverend Eugene Sweny, Rector of Stiffkey and Morston between 1892 and 1906. On Jan 3rd 1892 his first record is of a fine day and that the early part of April that year was very cold. On 19th Nov 1893 he reports 'Very wet and a storm raging from the north', but that Christmas day was a lovely fine day.

January 7th 1894 saw a great frost and heavy snow and on the 11th the weather was very stormy day and night. That November was mild but 30th December saw 'a great snowstorm in the morning'. 1895 seemed to be particularly hard and on 24th March, 'during the afternoon a terrific storm arose doing much damage to trees and houses - by request of the church wardens no evening service was held'. At Morston he reports 'Performed the service under much difficulty to be heard through the roar of the terrific gale which visited all England'. On 19th May he reports that the 'weather like winter.'

1896 seemed to be fairly uneventful although the Rector continued to record its vagaries. 1897 saw a great storm along this coast and the Rev Sweny records on 28th Nov 'day stormy-evening congregation small. Great damage to shipping on the coast' and at Morston 'The day very damp in the evening thunder and lightning very stormy night with a high tide'. The collection for the Norfolk Coast Disaster Fund at Stiffkey was £1/15/3d.

On 27th Feb 1898 there is a reference to the Coastguard disaster at Wells on the 24th and on 16th August Morston church was struck by lightning but escaped with little damage.

The first week in 1901 saw 'a storm from the east, very cold wind' as we have had recently. The year ended with a great snow just before Christmas.

Easter day 1903 was greeted with a hail storm. The Rev Sweny continued to record the weather until

one month before his death. In fact it featured more and more in his notes. Maybe it was because he had to travel regularly between Stiffkey and Morston in order to perform his duties, which he did until his death on Friday May 18th aged 69. There is a lovely memorial lectern in Stiffkey church to him that is decorated with cockle shells and bladder wrack seaweed. Perhaps the seaweed turns damp

when the weather becomes inclement in his memory. Geraldine Green, SLHG

BESSIE EMMA CARTER My Grandmother Bessie Emma Carter was a pupil at

Stiffkey Village School sometime between 1900 and 1911. She went from there to Pitman's Shorthand College in London and worked for the playwright George Bernard Shaw, taking down his lectures to the Fabian Society in reporters’ shorthand. Her next job was in Paris, working for a Russian Count who had a publishing house, she was his English Secretary. When the war broke out in 1914, she came back to Stiffkey, marrying Captain Dartnall of the Royal Household Guards in Stiffkey Church in 1915. Harold Davidson was her Vicar. And then she went to India.

But the mystery surrounds her mother Agnes Ellen Carter, who lived in Stiffkey with her parents (George William Carter), and is listed on the 1891 census as a Schoolteacher, as she is also on Bessie's birth certificate. She was unmarried, and it would have been a great scandal at the time. I wonder if she was a teacher at Stiffkey Village School between 1891 and 1895 until my Grandmother was born? We have no idea who Bessie's father was, so if anyone remembers a story of village scandal from 1895, or there-abouts, we would be very interested to hear. I believe that Bessie's cousin Violet Agnes Bridges lived in Stiffkey or Wells until the 1970s, and that her uncle Edward Cork Carter was still living there in 1911.

Can anyone help solve the mystery? Contact Steven Bashforth (01328 830569 or e-mail (steven@ stevenbashforth.wanadoo.co.uk) if you can help.

Rowena Riley

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SCHOOL NEWS The children of Langham Village School have been

raiding the dressing up box recently, all in a good cause. First came World Book Day, when the children came dressed as their favourite book characters. There were fairy tale princesses and valiant superheroes, and Harry Potter appeared to have cast a cloning spell, as he was visible in several parts of the school at one time. It was great fun and raised £36 towards books for the school library. This was followed by Comic Relief, with Classes 2 and 3 dressing in red and Class 1 coming in their pyjamas. The prize had to go to Class 1 teacher Mrs Howes, resplendent in a fabulous ‘onesie’. The children raised £147 for Comic Relief on the day. Next was Spanish Day on 26 March celebrating the culture and language of Spain. The Spanish flag was flying and the children came dressed in red and yellow outfits. The spring term was rounded off with an Easter Bonnet parade, with some fabulous creations on display.

The school has forged links with professionals in a wide range of fields, giving the children access to their expertise and an insight into different career paths.

The children in Years 4, 5 and 6 (ages 8 – 11) visited the John Innes Research Centre in March, part of the school’s continuing association with the world-leading science centre. They spent a day doing hands-on experiments with the scientists, including working out how widely germs spread when someone sneezes, by popping a balloon filled with powder and tracking where the powder went. Other experiments looked at carnivorous plants and mould – very timely, as the children are growing their own ‘mould gardens’ in the classroom. The gardens are strangely beautiful, the mould blossoming in weird colours and shapes over decaying fruit and vegetable slices.

Local artists Andy and Gill Cairns are spending time at the school working with all three classes and running an after-school Art Club. Class 1 (aged 4 – 6) began by thinking about colours and shapes that represented calmness and energy, and working to music they translated the sounds into calm or energetic pictures. Class 3 made collages from wrapping paper, representing the groynes on the beach, then coated them with wax and overpainted with Brusho colour wash to make the wax stand out. Class 2 are eagerly awaiting their session with Andy and Gill!

In sport, Justin Loveridge from the Leicester Tigers rugby team provided professional rugby coaching for the children in Classes 2 and 3 during the spring term.

The school continues to have a high sporting profile. Langham school took bronze in the Indoor Athletics

County Finals at the UEA. Sportspark – a terrific achievement. The Langham

swimming team made up seven of the 19 Wells Cluster team, with Lily Everard, Blue Wilson and Oliver Holden due to represent North Norfolk in the County Finals in July. Langham Village School won the Small Schools High 5 Cluster Netball event and achieved a thrilling 10-10 netball draw against Burnham Market. Well done to Joel Philpott who ran in the County Cross Country Championships at Gresham’s school. Langham also participated in the Wells Cluster Football Tournament and had an exciting 3-3 draw in a football league match against Holt.

Abbie Williamson did a tremendous job representing Langham Village School at a Wells cluster fencing championship in March, competing against fencing champions from Hindringham, Burnham Market, Walsingham and Wells primaries. Other fencers from each of the schools judged the matches and pupils at Alderman Peel High School refereed, giving everyone a great experience of a professional tournament.

Beach Project Children from Class 3 had their 4th visit to Holkham

Beach recently with the Holkham Estate Education Officer looking for signs of Spring (weren’t we all?). They trekked through the pinewoods and across the dunes, finding buds and new shoots emerging, with insects busy pollinating the many spring flowers in bloom. They also found a water vole’s nest, complete with its own entry and exit and the skull of a water vole. A selection of owl pellets were captured and taken back to school for dissection (yum) – the first one prised apart was found to contain the jaw of – you guessed it, a water vole. The whole of Years 4, 5 and 6 will be visiting Blakeney Point on 24 May for an action-packed day working with the National Trust wardens studying habitat, nests, plantations, dune formation, longshore drift, the history of the Lifeboat House, the Watch House, moths, little terns and beach art. Many thanks to Jason Bean who is kindly providing the ferry for free.

As always, you can keep up to speed with all the school’s activities on the school website at www.langhamvillageschool.com – why not take a look?

Anne-Marie Coe

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HAMLYN PEST CONTROL

Fully Insured - NPTA Member

Control of Rats, Mice, Wasps etc

01263 860112 or 861587

PROFESSIONAL HAIR STYLIST

Salon quality in the comfort of your own home

Call Laura for Appointments

07810 660043

A. R. PIGOTT

Painter & Decorator

Cley: 01263 741013

SIVANANDA YOGA CLASS Tuesdays 7.30 - 8.45 pm. All welcome

Field Dalling Village Hall

Richard Redmayne 01263 862289

FIREWOOD BRIQUETTES

10kg bags £3.20. Discount for 10+ bags

Possible local delivery

Bunting - Tel: 01328 829253

GARY WALLER Inside Out

Painter & Decorator and Carpet Cleaning Tel:01263 860705 Mob: 07990 993406

ROBIN PEEL GARDEN SERVICES Grass & Hedge Cutting - Fencing

Patios & Paths - The complete garden service

Tel: 01328 830694 or 07717 418725

Local Lynx is printed by Century Printing, 132 High Street, Stalham, Norwich NR12 9AZ Tel/Fax: 01692 582958