Swaffham Newsletter

Swaffham Climate Action
& Environment Group
Swaffham Social was a great opportunity to talk to people about our
We will start the New Year with support
from Breckland District Councillor, David
Wickerson, who has facilitated our meeting
on Thursday 11th January at 10am in the Methodist
Church. We look forward to welcoming Cllr Helen
Crane, Executive Member for Waste, Environmental
Health, Licensing & Sustainability at the council and
Jason Cole, Net Zero Innovation & Delivery Manager
to put in the money saved can be a good incentive.
at the Norfolk Climate Change Partnership (NCCP).
Helen will be presenting an update on the Breckland
Sustainability Strategy and Jonathan will be talking
about the recent news that Swaffham will be the
Breckland community involved in the Norfolk Net
Zero Clean Growth project. All are welcome to come
along and hear the latest news from them and we
suggestions, and receive all meeting notes and information.
are very grateful to both Helen and Jason for coming
to update the group, and to David for organising this.
Come and join us
As always everyone is welcome to our regular
monthly meetings, usually on the second Thursday
of each month at 10am in the Methodist Church.
Please get in touch with either Cathy Mumford on
01760 721847 / 07799 642271, cathyjmumford@
gmail.com or David Jones on 01760 722468 / 07806
435066, dljdav@gmail.com to check on meeting
dates and times as they can vary.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year! We
have to all remain positive about how we in Swaffham
can make a contribution towards a better future,
more resilient to climate change.
group and we were pleased to have a list of potential new members and a
good level of interest in our stand. It was lovely to see the range of activities
and social groups in the community. The Community Fridge is a brilliant initiative to reduce
waste, a big contributor to climate change. By using the Community Fridge, making sure that
we only buy the food we need, and ensuring it is all used, we can all make a difference. An
estimated 9.5 million tonnes of food waste is created annually in the UK and if this goes into
landfill it releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. If you have leftovers or a surplus
food it can often be frozen or recycled into another recipe and a piggy bank (or a spreadsheet!)
We have resumed monthly in person meetings in February but will be trying out a new
format of alternating between morning meetings in person and Zoom meetings in the evening
so please get in touch to find out the latest. Contact Cathy Mumford on 01760 721847,
cathyjmumford@gmail.com or David Jones on 01760 722468 / 07806 435066,
dljdav@gmail.com. Anyone with an interest in climate awareness in the community is most
welcome to join us. If you are not able attend, you can still join the group, contribute with
Swaffham Arts
Date for the diary: March 16th at 7.30pm at Swaffham
Assembly Rooms. Chaos Collective will perform a
concert of music to celebrate the achievements of
Swaffham Cultural Consortium's events and findings
of the past three years, devoted to appreciating the
qualities of our town.
We hope you will be able to come. More details later.
View Swaffham Newsletter Online
www.swaffhamcommunityhub.co.uk
8
NarVOS
Indoor meeting at The Assembly
Rooms, 1 Market Place, Swaffham
PE37 7AB Wednesday 31 January 2024
at 7.30pm “The Norfolk Plover”
Our first guest speaker of 2024 is a long-time friend
of NarVOS and an unwavering supporter of the
Breckland avifauna, the incomparable Chris Knights.
Chris has lived in Norfolk all his life and been keen
on birds and natural history subjects for the greater
part of it. He first became interested in photography
in the late 1950’s which has played an everincreasing
part in his life, many of his pictures have
been taken on his own farm in Norfolk and on his
travels to various parts of the world including Spain,
Poland, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. Over a 25-
year period he made wildlife films for television.
Chris has recently published his spectacular opus on
the bird which symbolises the unique habitat in which
we live, the Stone Curlew, known affectionately as
the Norfolk Plover.
Talks by Chris have always been popular and in no
small part to the extraordinary lengths to which Chris
has gone in capturing at close hand his favourite
subject on camera. Chris’s beautiful book will delight
all of those with a love for the countryside, farming
or wildlife and we can look forward to hearing the
stories of how the book came to be written.
Please come along. Visitors welcome. Admission £4
on the night; free to NarVOS members. For more
information contact Ian Black on 01760 724092 or
go to www.narvos.org.uk
Caram Voice in Norfolk
Volunteer With Children
Looking for a fun volunteering opportunity that fits
around your other commitments? Want to help some
of our most vulnerable children and inspire them
towards better, brighter things?
For some children in care, most adults in their
lives are social workers or other paid professionals.
Please consider becoming an Independent Visitor,
a volunteer who visits a child for a few hours each
month to build a valuable and consistent relationship
by spending time together doing fun activities.
Thorough training and support provided, as well as
reimbursement of reasonable expenses.
To find out more about volunteering as an Independent
Visitor with Coram Voice in Norfolk please email :
norfolk@coramvoice.org.uk, or visit coramvoice.org.
uk and select current vacancies.
Swaffham Walking Group
Swaffham Walking Group is a small friendly group of
keen walkers who enjoy the countryside and cake.
Meeting every Wednesday at 9.30am and every
Sunday at 10.00am in various locations around
Swaffham and the surrounding villages to enjoy a
walk from around 3 to 6.5 miles. Afterwards enjoying
Tea, Coffee & Cakes/biscuits. For more information
and details on the next walk, please contact Graham
Lathwell on 07486 901 948.
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Swaffham Cultural Consortium
To celebrate and end the series of community events
which have been funded over the last two years by Historic
England the Swaffham Cultural Consortium is holding
a Heritage Week in mid-March with events around the
town during the week, a final display of everything we
have done in the Assembly Rooms on Saturday 16th
March and a concert shared with Swaffham Arts in the
parish church in the evening.
The 16th will also feature the launch of Mapping the
Marketplace website and some of the associated booklets
produced by Swaffham History Group. Every building on
the Marketplace has been researched for this project but
we will need the community’s help to fill the gaps and tell
us what mistakes we have made!
The finds that were discovered on the Campingland dig
will also be on display. At the moment they are being
photographed and recorded by the Camera Club. There
will be a free mosaic workshop for all ages and many
photographs of everything we have done. Breckland
Council will also be on hand to display what the High
Street/Heritage Action Zone initiative, also part funded by
Historic England, has achieved around the Marketplace.
The Hive at Great Cressingham
Baah Humbug at The Hive!
A fantastically varied Autumn Inspiration season at The
Hive in Great Cressingham was rounded off at the year
end with an entertaining afternoon reading a dramatized
version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Not
everyone got to be an angelic Tiny Tim or a curmudgeonly
Ebenezer Scrooge, but everyone did manage to say ‘Baah
Humbug’ at the finish!
Across 2023, The Hive welcomed over 300 visitors to
its many activities which span creativity, spirituality and
well-being. This included walks, talks, yoga, singing, Celtic
traditions, art, poetry and music – as well as the Christmas
play-reading. All events at The Hive are free and we can
continue to do this as people donate generously to cover
the basic costs, for which a big ‘thank you’.
Our new season will be launched in the Spring with many
of the activities which people already enjoy together
with some new ideas. Do follow us on facebook at /
GreatCressinghamHive/. A happy and healthy new year
to everyone!