ÔRound the TableÕ
We held our first
meeting of 2009 at our usual venue, the Village Hall at 7.30pm on January the
15th. There were 11 members present and at least 4 new faces, one of whom
decided to join us and became a member.
The subject was
of a general nature with discussion on future meetings and visits. Some members
were of the opinion that we should buy the Ordnance Survey maps of the Village.
The first survey was in 1884 but not published until 1890 and can only be
obtained in a scale of one inch to one mile. The best by far is the revised
edition which was published in 1904 and is 25.3 inches to the mile and for the
study of old buildings and ancient sites the most practical. Richard has shown
us the copies he has before and they retail at £25.00
per map. We would need 8 to cover the entire Village. It was suggested that we
should put in for a grant to purchase the maps and later have them laminated
but no decision was made.
Paddy was able to
tell us about his project of plotting all the known field names. For this he
intends to use the 1884 survey map overlaid over a current one. Most of the old
field boundaries are still intact although some of the smaller fields have
gone, no doubt ploughed out during the years 1938 -43 when the war made it
necessary to create bigger fields to accommodate bigger farm machines. A lot of
this was also done during the late 1960 and 70s when the Common Agriculture
Policy made corn growing profitable. Field names were common in the 18th and
19th centuries when crop rotations became good husbandry. It enabled the farmer
and landowner to keep his workers informed as to what would be planted in each
field. A few examples mentioned are, Turkeycote, Toads Hole, Homestall, The
Chase, Town Close, Walnut 20, Honeypot, Pikgle piece, (not sure this is the
correct spelling) I was always told that this was a small odd shaped field of
less than 5 acres. As one very well known Norfolk farmer told me in 1952, as
all scoots boy". Paddy is keen to get these recorded because they are no
longer used and are soon forgotten.
Recording of
Village life by using an Audio system was again discussed with Pam talking
about of her recent enquiries. I got the impression there was some doubt as to it's feasibility owing to a lot of peoples reluctance to
speak into a microphone and the initial cost of the equipment. This will be a
subject for further debate.
Someone also
raised the question of the Village allotments and what little I know is that
the land was purchased under the 1892 Allotments Act by the Parish Council.
The land was
probably offered voluntarily although the Government could make a compulsory
purchase order if no land was offered. The Tenancy Register for West Dereham
started in 1908 with an area of just over 20 acres of which there are 8 garden
allotments and measure approximately 11 yards wide and 75 yards long. The rest
of the area was divided up into 1 and 2 acre plots and the income obtained is
used for the Village precept. Up to 1998 most of these were tenanted by
villagers but it became increasingly difficult to get anyone to take them on
and it was decided by the Parish Council to offer the main area to a local
farmer to crop commercially. Up until 2004 they were only 3 garden plots being
used, the rest were waist high in weeds. At that time I suggested to the then
Council that I take on the vacant plots and clean them up so that they could be
brought back into cultivation the following year. This attracted new tenants in
2005 some of whom were successful with their cultivations, others fell by the
wayside. This year has seen all 8 plots let and I have started a waiting list.
A Bite
out of History
Meeting on the
19th of March at the Village Hall, 15 members were entertained by Father Paul
Kinsey with a talk entitled, ÔA Bite Out of HistoryÕ.
Father Paul is a
community Priest at All Saints Church, Hillington Square, Kings Lynn and his
subject was a light hearted talk about food through the ages, the changes in diet,
how it was cooked and served.
We heard how much
of what was consumed throughout history was due to both Church and State
manipulation. Certain fruits were considered evil which came from religious
teachings which included fasting at certain times during the year and the
eating of fish at others.
The Romans
introduced foods from the Mediterranean in the grape wine and olives they
brought with them two thousand years ago which compared to the Saxon diet at
the time which was very poor. It consisted of ÔpottageÕ which was very much
like a vegetable stew with the addition of any meat that was obtainable but
this was usually beyond the average peasant.
After the Norman
Conquest food got a lot better for the privileged few, the one meal of the day
was served cold as the kitchens were so far away from the tables. The top table
was where the Earls and Barons took their food helping themselves with what
ever was within reach. There were no such thing as plates so it was placed on
ÔtrenchersÕ which were made of wood or the base of a loaf of bread which had
itÕs upper crust cut off and eaten by those on the top table, thus we get the
term Ôthe upper crustÕ. Forks were a 14th century innovation so food was eaten
using a small knife and ones fingers. What remained of bread trenchers was
eaten by the lower ranks which resulted in the saying ÔdonÕt take a bit out
your breadÕ, this was because it was to be some other poor souls only meal of
the day.
By the 16th
century food had improved considerably for the upper and now more affluent
middle classes. Farmers Markets are not a new idea, they flourished right up to
the end of the 19th.century and by say 1500 every village and town had market
days where country folk brought there surplus food to sell or barter.
Elizabeth the 1st
loved to travel round the country and came to Norfolk only once in her life by
visiting Norwich in the summer of 1578. She left Greenwich in July to spend two
months on the road with a vast train of courtiers, soldiers and servants said
to number over 400 with all the attendant baggage, carts and horses. She stayed
in Norwich from August the 16th to the 22nd. Fancy the bill for feeding that lot,
during her travels she bankrupted many of her subjects. The Queen herself never
ate in public, she had bad teeth you see and only pretended to take food, Her
favourite dish was Cherry Pie and she had an orchard of 25 acres of Cherry
trees to provide her with this luxury.
By the 1639 the
Puritans were described as plain in speech, dress and food. Minced meat pies, often
coffin shaped, came about at this time and were a savoury dish as opposed to
what we eat at Christmas these days which have fillings of dried fruit.
After the
restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 we see the influence of French food in England
and the publication of one of the first cookery books by Hannah Glass.
ItÕs around this
time we hear the word ÔcakeÕ, it was not a new thing, Romans ate cake made with
honey and figs. Throughout the past cake has been used as an offering to ensure
the next harvest often being ploughed in to the soil on commencement of the
winter cultivations after harvest.
It was at this
time that food started to be served in courses rather that as before, all at
once. Dining for the rich became a much more a leisurely affair and could last
for hours all influenced by French cooking. No room here then for boiled
cabbage and mashed spuds.
Cheese was often
used during baptism, confetti at weddings was derived from sugared nuts cast at
the Bride and Groom after the ceremony. Sugared Almonds are still used at such
events in Italy to this day. Corpse Cake was eaten at funerals and as itÕs name
implies was usually made by the deceased. How, I ask, did they know they were
going to die? Then were had the Sin Eater who was employed at the wake to
partake of bread and ale thus to ÔeatÕ the sins of the departed.
So called Ôfast
foodÕ was certainly around in the 1840s, Charles Dickens, the Author, describes
small pieces of fish being fried on the street while you waited, then wrapped
to be taken away to be eaten at home. Most streets in towns and cities were
awfully noisy places with the calls and shouts of street vendors selling all
manner of food from trays hug round the neck or small carts and barrows. Some
also sold small cakes and biscuits outside Churches on Sundays where the all
knowing would buy as some preachers took their sermons very seriously and
preached for hours.
During times of
war wedding cakes were made from cardboard as ingredients were rationed and
generally unavailable anyway.
Paul also
conducted a little quiz, we get Nutmeg from Mace, the most expensive spice is
Saffron, The small metal container he showed was a spice box, poor mans
asparagus is Samphire, a salt marsh plant, the description of the dessert was
Baked Alaska, the Pieman wanted to see your penny, Rhubarb is a herb, and Delia
Smith said she used a Microwave oven to keep an ash tray in. ( She used to be a
smoker you know.)
On the 6th of May
we had one of our periodic visits to places of historical interest and on this
occasion it was an evening trip to the Churches that are enclosed by the
Stanford Battle Area. This area covering up to 30,000 acres is under the
control of the Ministry of Defence and Ruth Marsters, who organised the trip,
had to book over a year in advance. The window of opportunity is very small
owing to the large amount of military activity and the ever increasing need for
training purposes. Visits are allowed at certain times of the year with
priority given to those who have relatives interned in the cemeteries of the
churches.
A small coach was
hired and 47 people from Downham Market, Stoke Ferry, Boughton, Whittington and
West Dereham travelled to the site which is situated about 7 miles north of
Thetford. Our party included relatives of those people who once lived there.
Conducting our tour was R.S.M. Gedge. There is a large hut where some archive
photographs are on show and two cousins, who had never met before, one of whom
was able to recognise his Uncle on one of the prints. His relative who was with
another party happened to be standing near by when he pointed this out to those
he was with.
There are four
Churches standing today, there were originally six but two fell into decay
after the Reformation and by the 19th century very little remained. Still
intact are St. Andrews at Tottington, All Saints at Stanford which has a round
tower, St. Andrews at Langford which has no tower and St Mary at West Tofts
which was a medieval building extensively restored by Augustus Pugin in the
Gothic style during the 1890s.
We were able to
go inside to view the splendid Gothic decoration for which Pugin is so well
know for. The permanent staff hold a Christmas service in this Church.
For those readers
who may be unfamiliar with the history of the place I will offer a brief
account. During 1940 the British Army was being re-trained after the retreat at
Dunkirk. This area was selected, one of several others in the UK to represent
Northern Europe where those training here would eventually end up fighting
WWII. The significance of these battle areas was to use live munitions and
therefore civilians could be at risk if they were still living on the land and
using it for their normal activities which were mainly farming. There is a case
where a farmer was shot dead while moving cattle at the Orford site. Most were
tenants of the landowner Lord Walsingham and compulsory evacuations commenced
in July 1942. In all nearly 1000 men, women and children were put off the property.
A safe period was granted in August-September to harvest the corn crops that
had been drilled the previous spring. It also included two pubs, The Cock Inn
at Stanford and The Three Horseshoes at West Tofts, a school and the Post
Office at Tottington, an area covering 17,000 acres.
Today the site is
of Special Scientific Interest, wildlife abounds and it is a safe breeding
place for the Stone Curlew which at one time was nearly extinct.
On the 16th of
July Richard French conducted the third of his Village Walks. The area of this
walk was from the site of the Old Free Chapel at the east end of the Row/Ryston
Road. On hand with knowledge of the area were Paddy Murfitt and Fred Lucas who
have lived on this street for coming on for forty years. Some weeks previous
Richard and Paddy spent an afternoon with Ken Barker who was born on the Row
during the 1930s. He has a great store of memories going back to 1940 when the
cottage he was living in along with his parents and siblings was bombed by the
Luftwaffe, the Nazi Air Force. Firebombs lodged in the roof and this and the adjoining
cottage caught fire and were burning fiercely by the time the local Fire
Brigade arrived. Fortunately the family got out safely along with those next door
and nobody was injured. Both homes were badly damaged and eventually were
pulled down. You can still see the gap made in the group of terraced cottages
to this day as they were never re-built. The Barker family was re-housed in
Methwold but came back to West Dereham after the war. Ken lives a little
further on today in a modern bungalow built in the 1960s and has now retired.
Many of the small
groups of farm labourers cottages have been demolished to make way for modern
homes in this area and this is very evident when comparing the old O.S survey
of 1904 with that of today. By the 1950s many were in a very poor state having
had little money spent on maintenance for perhaps fifty years. With no piped water,
toilets or bathroom most had demolition orders placed on them by the local
health authorities. some have survived of course, Fiddlers Roof is a typical
example having been three at one time converted to one home in the late 1960s.
There is clear visible evidence in the brick work to show where the old
divisions were and the fact that like most of the cottages and farm houses in
West Dereham were all single storey, thatched roofed up until about the 1830s.
It was in one of
these cottages that the lover of a woman lived who it is alleged, poisoned her
Husband in 1938. After a tip off the Police had the body exhumed and from the
autopsy conducted found to have died from a poisoning. The wife was arrested
and charged but when the case was brought before Kings Lynn Magistrates Court
it was thrown out due to insufficient evidence. All the people concerned left
West Dereham soon after the case was closed.
This brings us to
Willow Farm and what was know for some time as Thorrolds Farm later called
Church Farm. A vast complex site of various buildings at one time, very little
of which remains today apart from one farm house and the remains of a stable
block. Council built properties in the same area were started in 1946 and
continued up to the 1970s. Bell Barn is on the opposite side and to continue up
to the junction with Lime Kiln Road you arrive at the site of The Bell Inn.
This pub closed in 1940 and has since been demolished. Further along near to
Bath Road junction is the White Horse Pub, this building is now a private residence
but did not close until 1965. This site also had a Blacksmiths shop adjoining
and where the bungalows are now was a paddock which went right up to the Bell
Yard. Traction Engines were also kept here up to the 1950s. Cecil Page was
landlord in 1937 and Len Hunt up to the time it closed. The Bell had Thomas
Porter in 1854,Elijah Sharman 1883 and Frederick Garner 1904.
One of the
bungalows off to the left was also a shop at one time and run by a Mrs. Smith
who was Len Hunts sister. This establishment closed in the late 1960s.
A short walk from
there up to the Old Vicarage now the home of Clair and Nick Cann where we were
entertained with wine and a buffet which rounded off the evening very nicely.
Jack Walker proposed a vote of thanks and those assembled showed their
appreciation in the usual manner. The weather managed to remain dry throughout
the evening but by the time some of us had walked back to the Village Hall from
where we started it was raining. I am very grateful to Paddy and Fred for their
input during the course of this walk.
History Fair Downham
Market
On the 12th of
September some members took part in the History Fair at St. Edmonds Church in
Downham Market. The arrangements were set up by Janet Gough who was able to get
us space from the organisers. It was an all day event and we were able to
display many of the booklets that have been published during the past four
years by group members. There was also a display of T shirts and mugs all
embellished with emblems relating to West Dereham. There were lots of other
villages represented including Fincham, Hilgay and Ten Mile Bank. There was a
great deal of interest in our village from visitors many of whom were tracing
family members. Useful contacts were made and some names were matched with the
cottages where they lived in the mid part of the last century. (1950s)
There were
activities throughout the day with guided tours of the Church and a group of
Saxon re-enactors who dressed, displayed articles and weapons of the period.
Members who took
part were, Janet who made all the arrangements along with Pam Bullas. Ruth Marsters, Jack Walker and Pam Walker and myself.
RSPB Lakenheath Fen
Our regular
meeting was held at the village hall on the 17th of September when the guest
speaker was Dave White local promoter for the Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds. He gave us an illustrated talk with the main emphasis on the wetlands
of the Fens. The RSPB started as an organised Society in the 1880s when many
birds were becoming extinct due to the demand for exotic feathers for the
Ladies hat trade.
The Avocet had
not been seen nesting for over 150 years and the Bittern was almost gone. Many
of these birds were able to start breeding again during the Second World War
when many secret locations were set up along the coastline for testing and
training purposes. The wet lands of the Fens once covered 1,300 square miles
and in the late 20th. century almost all this acreage had been drained, the
land being used for intensive agriculture. Over the past 50 years there has
been great efforts by the Society to recover some of these areas and recreate
what was there 400 years ago and put back small sites to the same condition
they were in before the Adventurers started there draining work in the 17th
& 18th centuries.
The Hanson
Wetland Project has been instrumental in recreating reed bed fens at
Needingworth Quarry and Lakenheath Fen which we visited on one of our outings a
couple of years ago. These schemes also bring back the plants that loved the wetlands
such as the cuckoopint, water violet and common meadow rue. Other areas include
Redmere, Whittlesea Fen, the Nene washes and Fen Drayton. As a consequence of
all this work many of our rarer birds are coming in to breed in ever greater
numbers and in particular those that are reed bed dwellers. Reed & Sedge
Warblers, the Reed Bunting and Bitterns are just some of these.
The Golden Oriel
has been nesting in the Black Poplars that remain at Lakenheath Fen since 1967.
The Bearded Tit has increased to 72 pairs and the Bittern has nested this year
for the first time. Other birds included the Plover or Lapwing, Red Shank and
Snipe have all been coming to the sites in numbers. Of the more exotic birds
there are the Black Tailed Godwits and Yellow Wagtails who are summer migrants
to our shores. Water Fowl abound of course with the Swans, Bewicks, Mute and
Hooper, Ducks include Pintail, Widgeon, Potchard and Gargany. Birds of Prey
find good pickings as well so in come the Marsh Harrier and the Merlin, Britain
smallest predator bird.
In 2007 a pair of
Cranes turned up and stayed the winter to be joined by a second pair a year
later. One pair has raised a chick this year and the others managed to hatch
off two chicks but subsequently lost them. Actually the best site to see Cranes
is Heigham Holmes which is in East Norfolk and owned by the National Trust. It
lies close to the village of Martham and covers about 500 acres, the boundaries
of which have remained unchanged for 100s of years. It is open for only one day
a year and is grazed by a tenants farmers cattle during the summer months.
There are at least 20 pairs of Cranes and in the winter there are 18,000 Pink
Footed Geese with a total wildfowl population of 22,000.
The meeting
closed at 9.30pm after a vote of thanks given by our Chairman Jack Walker. The
subject matter of the talk proved to be very popular with over 35 members and
guests attending which also resulted in new members joining.
Fenland
in Crisis 1919-1939
October 15th we
were pleased to welcome back again the very popular Mike Petty for another of
his illustrated lectures this time entitled Fenland in Crisis 1919-1939.
The 20 year
period between the wars witnessed a great many changes in the way ordinary
people lived and although some were designed to make living standards better,
unemployment, poor housing, social unrest and natural disasters made a mockery
of the then slogan, Homes fit for Heroes. The men and women returning home
after the end of WWI found that the class system that had been the order of
things in 1914 was breaking up. They had seen what life was like in foreign
parts and had no intention of going back to the way of life they left in 1914.
A lot of effort
was placed on improving public services with Doctors being more accessible who
held surgeries in Pubs and forming sick clubs to enable people to save to
provide care for unforeseen illness, child birth/care.
Library services
were improved and built in the smaller towns which did not have one.
Reading was
encouraged and schools were brought up to date with money from the Church of
England. Radio broadcasts expanded and the new wonder of the Cinema opened up
the world to many more people.
Right up to 1940
local councils undertook the building of houses for working families who were
unable to pay the rents on a lot of private properties. These homes were built
to modern standards and although these early properties did not have piped
water or bathrooms they were vastly superior to most of the other local
housing. They had large gardens both front and back which provided an area for
growing vegetables and keeping livestock. Rents were kept low and affordable.
The Fens main
enterprise was of course farming and therefore the biggest employer of labour.
The floods of 1919 were caused by the collapse of banks due to the weight of
water they were holding back. German POWs were employed to try and rebuild but
with the decline of agriculture many began to wonder if the effort was worthwhile.
By the early summer the banks were back in place only to be breached again in
later years.
That same year
saw wages for farm work drop from £2 two shillings and sixpence to £1 sixteen
shillings. Tenant farmers were no better off as landlords were in fact putting
up rents and by 1927 many were finding it a struggle. Workers were given pauper
wages of £1 ten shilling per week. Wheat prices continued to fall as imports of
American hard wheat increased. Farmers costs had gone up 70% where as prices
only increased 17%. Arable decline was taking place and there was worse to come
with a railway strike of 1924,the general strike of 1926 and the Wall Street
crash of 1929.
Farming practices
had to change, more mechanisation started to show it was possible to increase
production. New industries began to take labour from the land which in turn
lead to better employment. Sugar Beet is a crop that improved farm income from
1923 and by 1939 was expanding rapidly. Road transport improved with buses and
lorries but was to the detriment of the Railways which lost the carriage
business. Sugar beet brought about an increase in all traffic, road, river and
rail as the crop had to be delivered to the factory.
By the 1930s
marketing farm crops was taken up by the formation of various marketing boards
and Co-ops. The Government fixed the price of wheat and guaranteed it for 12
months but later went back on this deal which infuriated members of the
Governments Advisory Committee of whom many were farmers and land owners. One
in particular, Frederick Hiams a fen land owner & farmer resigned over this
Government fiasco.
In 1928 tithe
charges looked like causing a total collapse of agriculture and in 1930 there
were demonstrations in Cambridge and Ely under a banner of Save
Agriculture-Save Britain. Many of these demos were supported by Oswold Mosley
and his fascist movement members.
Areas of the Fens
flooded again in 1928 which instigated the formation of area Drainage Boards
who were able to levy a rate for the improvement of the drainage system. Denver
sluice was improved and use of diesel engined pumps made the work so much more
efficient. The cost was spread to all landowners who passed the charge on to
tenants which was strongly resented.
There were many instances
of tenant farmers being turned off the land and their equipment and livestock
being put up for auction to recover the debt. These turned into farce when
those attending would bid very low or offer no bids at all in order to foil the
whole purpose of the sale. These people were often friends and relatives of the
farmer and no one would dare to bid up against them as they might be next.
After the merging
of the many railway companies in 1924 into what became known as the Big Four
rural passenger traffic declined to a point where a lot of rolling stock became
redundant. Passenger carriages were soon to be found in villages put down on
plots to be turned into homes for those who wanted more independence. It was described
at the time as 'emergency housing'.
In 1936 after the
King died, piped water was being laid and electricity poles were to be seen
marching across the fenland but the clouds of war were yet again gathering and
the area braced itself for another conflict when the ability to feed the
population was to be a major priority.
Mike Petty is an
authority on Cambridge and the Fens and has written many books on the subject.
He was Librarian of the Cambridge Collection for 35 years and was awarded an
MBE & an Honorary Degree from Cambridge University for his work. Mike
offers a personal research and picture search service and is available to give
lectures and talks to Club & organisations for a small fee. Contact by
Phone 01353 648106 or e-mail mikepetty@tiscali.co.uk
On the 17th of
October the Church of St Andrews welcome a visit by the Church Monument
Society. The party of 23 lead by Dr Julian Litten, the Societies Vice
President, were welcomed by Church Warden Graham Presley and Pam Bullas
representing the Heritage Group. They had visited other Churches in Norfolk at Narborough,
West Acre and were going on to Stowe Bardolf later that afternoon. The visitors
spent about an hour looking round the Church and itÕs monuments after a short
introduction by Dr Litten.
Refreshments were
provided by Graham and Church & Heritage group publications proved to he
very popular with the visitors who spent freely and made generous donations to
the Church.
By 4pm the visit
ended with the departure of the coach to Stowe Bardolf. The Society is London
based and its members come from all walks of life and from all parts of the
country.