Local Lynx Issue 128 - October/November 2019

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ST MARY’S CHURCH NEWS What a great occasion our fete was, this year. There was a lovely, happy atmosphere and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Thank you, on behalf of St Mary’s, to everyone who worked so hard to achieve such a successful day. Special thanks go to Marie and Jeremy for hosting us all at the Hall. We were delighted that Felix Stevenson preached at the service on August 25th. It was so special and Michael Wilson, his grandfather, would have been so proud of him. This year the Harvest Festival will be held on October 13th. As usual all your gifts of produce will be given to The Holt Youth Project. Please leave your contributions with me at Bunn’s Cottage or at the church, no later than Saturday evening of the 12th. Thank you. Penny Brough Church Warden FRIENDS OF GUNTHORPE PC Saturday 27 th July was on and off hard rain all day… but…the Fete BBQ tables were set up and readied and wiped dry many times…then in early evening the rain stopped and the BBQ was held – rain-free! Thank you to all those brave Village People who came to join us. Between the BBQ tickets and Raffle we made £771 for St. Mary’s Gunthorpe Church restoration and maintenance fund - while having a fun evening. The next Friends event will be the Harvest Supper in the Village Institute on Saturday the 2 nd of November at 7pm. To reserve seats, please phone Gunthorpe Hall on 01263- 861373 - the cost will be £10 for adults, £6 for children 12 and under - and pay on the night. Seating in the Institute is limited so please book your seats early. The menu will be shepherd’s/cottage pie, carrots and peas with autumn fruit crumble to follow served with cream and/or custard – all home-made and delicious. A vegetarian option will be available if you book it when you reserve your seats. Please bring your own wine. Juice, tea and coffee will be included. There will be a raffle so please bring some ‘spare-change’. We hope many will attend – we always have a good time! WELCOME A warm if somewhat belated welcome to Sara and Justin O’Brien and their children Rowan (10) and Hazel (5) who now live in 2 Springfield, along with their pet cats and rabbits. Justin is Head of Mathematics at Fakenham Academy and Sara is an English teacher and is home schooling their children as well as tutoring others. They moved here from Hindolveston. We hope they enjoy their home in our friendly and eclectic village. including bowling for the pig, bottle fishing, skittles, coconut shy and welly-wanging. Thanks to the Aylsham band for playing and providing the very pulse of the fete. More thanks to the helpers, especially newly-arrived residents who threw themselves into the fray. And a special thank you as always to Jeremy and Marie Denholm and their staff at Gunthorpe Hall who provide the setting and work so hard in supplying refreshments to all from a bumper tea-tent which is kept busy throughout. Special thanks go to Steffan Aquarone, County Councillor for our ward, who opened the fete and stressed the importance of thriving community events such as our fete, and to Melanie Griggs from Gunthorpe Ward at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital who was kind enough to come and give out the prizes. As the fete came to a close it was great to see happy faces hauling away their Grand Draw prizes, plants and flowers, cakes and treasures from the bottle stall, craft stall, bric-a-brac and jumble. Everyone’s hard work paid off and after all expenses the proceeds this year were an amazing £4,925 to be shared between the PCC and Village Institute. One last thank you; somewhere out there is someone, or more than one person, who are incredibly generous and have again sent us an anonymous donation of £200 towards the Fete takings. We would like to thank you for your extremely kind donation. Val King 01263 862265 valatt@btinternet.com Jenny Kelly 01263 860095 jennykellynorfolk@hotmail.com LIFE WAS CHANGING Peter Jackson, whose early life in Bullfer Grove was serialised in Lynx issues 116 and 118, spent part of the the Second World War as a locomotive fireman based in Melton Constable before joining the RAF. Living in Briston at the time he recalls how WW2 started for him. This is Part One of his story: As youngsters we had little comprehension of the war that was brewing in Europe. The papers that came to us second-hand, and more than often studied from the squares of paper hanging from the string in the privy, told us of a Mr Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of England, who was trying to negotiate with the German leader. Not understanding what it was all about, and then the questions GUNTHORPE ANNUAL FETE After days of heavy rain the 28 th of July, the day of our Fete, opened not with blue skies but a grey mist over the gardens of Gunthorpe Hall. This did little to dampen the spirits of helpers and fete-goers alike. There was a happy atmosphere which included the usual rush to the fabulous cake stall, excitement around the jumble and bric-a-brac stall and unalloyed competitive spirit at the games stalls 18
asked were more than often replied to with “not for you to worry about”, or “children are to be seen and not heard”, we did not really comprehend what was happening. However in September 1939 and gathered around the radio for the Special News item that had been forewarned, it was announced that we were from this moment on at war with Germany. I doubt many of us had any idea what the full implications those words had for us were - certainly least of all myself. I had but a year to go to school, and already had an after school job in the West End stores working as errand boy and general dogsbody. By 1940 food was a very important issue. Mother trying to bring up a large family always struggled to find food enough with what they could afford - no State help for lower the paid in those days. There was going to be a challenge for all housewives in similar situations and shortages of what little they could afford. In our case Father would be bringing home less than three pounds each week and the things they could afford were barely enough to keep the wolf from the door as the saying was. Most villagers had gardens and allotment's to supplement the larder, these now more than ever would come into their own. We all had a number to learn off by heart, "very important", Father said. Without it he assured us we could be taken away to prison, as aliens. In addition to the number each person was issued with a Ration Book from the Ministry of Food, and a gas mask that came with its own little cardboard box. Mother made cases for ours and many other people who on seeing them wanted one. The gas mask must go wherever we went - not that we ever travelled far. If I remember rightly, special permission was needed to go any further than ten miles at the time. My Identity Card number was TSBB793, and I remember learning all the numbers to be on the safe side, not difficult as they were all in rotation. The material Mother made the gas mask covers from, was "Barrage Balloon" one that came down in the woods at Creymere, having broken loose from its moorings during some military exercise, and was badly torn - I expect it was of no further use for its purpose. Placards displaying the words "Have You Got Your Gas Mask" were in evidence outside Halls and Cinemas. The fear of gas being used was evident, and we had exercises in using those appliances. Those who had volunteered for the Home Guard and Fire Wardens had the military design in its specially adapted haversack. Very young children had a much larger contraption that enabled the Mother to put them inside and bellows to circulate the air operated by hand. There were pamphlets distributed on how to make an Air Raid Shelter in the garden, and on how to protect the house from gas entering - this basically was wet blankets hung over the doors and windows from inside over a bath of water. Not forgetting the “Black Out” - after dark all doors and windows had to be blackened out. There were rolls of black paper for those luckily enough to find it. The streets were patrolled by the Wardens ensuring no house emitted any form of light. any small glimmer would receive a shout from the Warden “put that light out". Car lights, not that there were any quantity of them, had to be screened with a hood that made it virtually impossible to see but a few yards ahead: also cycles’ lamps had to be covered in the same manner. Any obstruction one might walk into had to be painted white. John Blakeley VILLAGE CHRISTMAS PARTY Following the success of last year’s village Christmas party there will be a similar combined party for the Institute and the 50:50 Club on Saturday 14 th December commencing at 7.00pm in the Institute. The 50:50 Club draw for December will take place at this event. Full details will be included in Lynx issue 129, on the Institute Notice Board and with a flyer to be distributed in the village and at the November 50:50 Club coffee morning. LANGHAM Contact: Christina Cooper 01328 830207 christinacooper27@googlemail.com FRIENDS OF LANGHAM 200 Club Draw Winners July 2019 £10 August 2019 £10 84 Mrs L Terry 9 Mr S Newman 132 Mr P Allen 112 Ms S Glaister 158 Mr M Schoenmaker 11 Ms R Fairhead 76 Mrs Warwick 170 Mrs C Freeth 38 Mr F Blundell 75 Ms P Wright 20 Julia Thompson 142 Mrs G Pannier FOL Committee 19
Page 1 and 2: BALE - BINHAM - COCKTHORPE - FIELD
Page 3 and 4: Church Services for Bale and Stiffk
Page 5 and 6: …from Cllr. Steffan Aquarone When
Page 7 and 8: someone you believe needs help, or
Page 9 and 10: Just a Cuppa Every Friday 10.30am -
Page 11 and 12: name. As in my garden, painted ladi
Page 13 and 14: BINHAM ART GROUP We had an amazing
Page 15 and 16: Let a corner of your garden grow wi
Page 17: October and Wednesday 13th November
Page 21 and 22: teacher to ‘consenting adults’.
Page 23 and 24: MORSTON REGATTA WINNERS Morston Par
Page 25 and 26: expressing our thanks to Alex for t
Page 27 and 28: There were also christenings of gra

Local Lynx Issue 128 - October/November 2019

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