Swaffham Newsletter

Swaffham History Group
It seems ages now since the Group met for their first
ever Christmas Dinner (in the past it has always been
a tea). This time we enjoyed the full festive spread
(with vegetarian options) at the White Hart and the
meal was thoroughly enjoyed with excellent service.
By the time this is printed we should have had our
first meeting of 2020 when the Group was due to
examine its full archive - now a mammoth document
- which has been put together by our Archivist, Barry
Ellis.
It is hoped that it will not be too long into the new
year before some new booklets will be published by
the group, including another shedding more light into
Swaffham in Tudor times.
For more details regarding the Group please phone
01842 879140 or email jbaz@go-plus.net
Wellbeing Group Christmas Party
Ian Clews (aka Señor Momento) played for the
Wellbeing group’s Christmas party in Swaffham’s
Community Centre on 18th December 2019.
Although the party started off with a few Christmas
songs the music soon turned, by popular request,
to livelier Rock and Roll classics.
32
Swaffham Jazz Club
As there is no meeting in January here are some thoughts
on listening to jazz in a relatively small, intimate venue,
rather than a large concert hall or theatre.
I recently went to a jazz evening in a large hall set out in
theatre style rows of seating. If you wanted a drink you
had to hold your glass all evening, or put it down on the
floor and risk it being knocked over. If you wanted to slip
to the bar to avoid the interval crush you were likely to
disturb the whole row, and those sitting behind you. In
the interval at this venue I went looking for the loo, got
lost, and ended up opening a likely looking door only
to find it was a room set aside for the band, who were
sitting there in splendid isolation.
How much better it is to sit around a table with your
drink and also, if you get up during the music, not bother
anyone else. It’s great to be able to talk to members of
the band before they start playing, during the interval
or at the end of the evening. Also, in our intimate set
up, most of our bands are happy to play requests –
sometimes we are invited to make them. This rarely
happens in a large venue.
All the musicians who play for us say how much
they enjoy playing to our attentive and appreciative
audience, rather than in a pub where they end up
providing back-ground music to a wall of chat.
Another great feature of our club is of course Norman’s
fabulous raffle with its generous number of varied
prizes.
Thanks to all our regular supporters in 2019 and we
look forward to seeing you again in 2020. Happy New
Year from Norman and Geoff.
Coming up – all welcome.
Tuesday 11 February Colin Mason Quartet and Friends
Tuesday 10 March The Ella McCready Trio
Swaffham Conservative Club, 23 London Street, PE37
7DD. Starts at 8pm. £8 on the door.
Swaffham Spiritual Awareness Group
Meets in the Community Centre,
Beech Close, Campingland, Swaffham
at 6.30pm.
2 February, John Ennis, Peterborough
16 February, Linda Rae, Ashill
We offer healing from 5.30pm prior to our Sunday services
Our trained healers can help with various types of pain and tension from
stress. This service is free although donations are gratefully received.
Swaffham Arts
Garlic Theatre brought another delightful and
entertaining puppet show to the Community Centre in
early January, the month when, over recent years, we
have put on a programme designed for children, but
the skill and imagination, the craftsmanship and artistry
can be appreciated and enjoyed by people of all ages.
This month we welcome “Musical Offering”, a recently
formed ensemble, led by the violinists Graham and
Alison Cracknell, who recently moved to Norfolk and
are already making a mark on musical life in the area.
The ensemble draws together friends who have worked
in professional chamber orchestras based in London
and abroad over many years. Their aim is to show the
rich diversity of music from the Baroque and Classical
periods, and to share the heart-warming enjoyment of
the wealth of music from that time. The programme
they are going to perform is entitled “Fathers and
Sons” (with Friends), the fathers and sons being the
Bachs and the Mozarts, and the friends, William Boyce
and George Philip Telemann, and will include some
of our best loved and favourite pieces of music. The
concert will take place on Sunday February 23rd at 3
pm in Swaffham Assembly Rooms. Tickets, priced at £9
members and £12 non-members, are available from
Ceres Bookshop (01760 722504) and The Green Parrot
(01760 724704), and on the door. This will be a lovely
concert. We look forward to seeing you!
Welcome to Swaffham
Community Centre
Feel free to pop in and admire our
gallery of work by local artists
and then treat yourself to tea and
home made cake in Patisserie Iceni.
GALLERY
ICENI
OPEN WEEKDAYS 9AM 8am -- 4pm 5PM
www.icenipartnership.info www.iceni.info 01760 01760 722800
The Campingland, Swaffham PE37 7RB
With the weather
turning cooler, please
consider making a
donation of ingredients
to the fridge to give
someone a hot meal.
33
Mayor's Parlour
Dear All, Now all the ‘decs’ are
down, diets are commenced and
everyone back to work, the council
resumes, our first job being to get
the budget sorted. We are working
very hard to keep the precept
down and be fair to all the Town expenses.
My visits over Christmas were great, I was down for
Iceni, Meadow House and the Community Hospital.
Iceni was dressed up beautifully with lots of things
to do for the residents, Meadow House was a long
stay as they were having a party which was great
fun. The staff and residents are all wonderful and
so good to be with.
The hospital was also very welcoming and very
busy, it was good to learn about the new approach
to nursing, almost seems as though it’s going full
circle and back to the good old days!
I was disappointed to learn that the facility for
taking x-rays at the Community Hospital has not
been resumed, despite the available equipment,
due to lack of staff from the QE, let’s hope one day
they will think again, it was very convenient.
Prior to Christmas Swaffham Rotary went into action
and provided hundreds of bare root hedgerow for
Haspalls Rd Recreation Ground, when these come
to fruition they will enhance this area enormously.
I’d like to thank Swaffham Rotary very much for this
and their continued support in the town.
Having mentioned Swaffham Rotary I must thank
the Iceni Partnership also for their wonderful
Christmas lunch and Swaffham District Lions for
their great work within the town, what would we
do without you all.
A word about the Recreation Ground toilets, these
are closed at the moment unfortunately, due to the
vandalism, if things don’t improve they will stay
closed and only be open for events. This is such
a shame after all the work done by our generous
volunteers.
As for the Green Britain Centre the investigations
are still ongoing, ultimately it will come out to the
town for your opinions.
VE Day arrangements,
8th May 2020, are in
full swing, headed by
council members and
you the public, thank
you for those taking
part.
Look after yourselves
and I’ll speak again
soon.
Jill