Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Charles Notley)

    Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Charles Notley)

    This is the grave of Corporal Charles H Notley, located at Earlham Cemetery in Norwich. I haven’t been able to do much with this one, there are two Charles Notleys and I can’t find enough out to work out which one this is to work back. So, all that I know is that his service number is 5499057 and he was in the Army Catering Corps (I think that’s the one I’d have joined if I was forced into the army), initially with the Northamptonshire Regiment and then attached to the Royal Pioneer Corps (or just the Pioneer Corps at the time, the Royal bit came in 1946). Charles died on 24 June 1944.

    So, another one that I’ll come back to in the future….

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 230

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 230

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Numms

    This is a practical idea, with the word being defined by Grose as “a sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt”. The etymology of the word is unknown, although it was in use from at least the late eighteenth century.

  • Who Said It First in Parliament?

    Who Said It First in Parliament?

    I like this web-site, you can type in a word and it mentions when it was first used in the House of Commons.

    http://parli-n-grams.puntofisso.net/hansard.php

    It currently still only has data from 1919 onwards, but it’s still intriguing. In the above image, apparently the first time that the word Thatcherism was used was in 1978.

  • Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Charles Weavers)

    Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Charles Weavers)

    This is the war grave of Sapper Charles Weavers, located at Earlham Cemetery, in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. I can’t get very far with this one. I know that he was born in around 1882, the son of Charles and Thereza Weavers and in 1891 they lived at Leonard Street in Norwich, with the older Charles working as a fishmonger. But I can’t find the younger Charles on either the 1901 or 1911 census, he’s not mentioned in the media and his military records have been lost.

    I do know that he enlisted on 3 May 1915 with service number 85263 and he was discharged on 29 January 1919, having fought with the 34th Norfolk Division and the Royal Engineers G Depot. He was discharged following a medical, when he was aged 38, for the reason of being “no longer physically fit for service”. Charles was awarded with a Silver War Badge, often worn by men to show that they had fought in the war amidst people abusing them during the conflict for being in the UK.

    Charles died on 10 February 1922 at the age of 40, and I’d like to know more of the story here….

  • Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Frederick Thomas William Jillings)

    Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Frederick Thomas William Jillings)

    This is the war grave of Frederick Thomas William Jillings, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. Frederick was born in Lowestoft in 1901, his parents being Frederick and Ellen Jillings, who lived at 11 Bevan Street in the town. Frederick (the elder) had a boot repairing shop and Frederick had two older sisters, Elsie and Florence.

    By the 1911 census, the family had moved to 4 Gertrude Road in Norwich, with Frederick the older being a boot machinist, as were Frederick’s two older sisters. When the First World War broke out, Frederick was only 13 and since only 18 year olds were ever conscripted, it probably felt a long way away for him. There was sadness in the family though in 1917, when Ellen died, leaving her husband and three children.

    The First World War loomed large though and Frederick joined up in mid-1918, just when the conflict looked like it might be coming to an end. He was sent to join Number 2 Southern Company in Hampshire, but was then moved to the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in Blackpool. Above is a painting (© IWM Art.IWM ART 3681) of the inspection tent for the RAMC in the town, which is the unit that Frederick was sent to. At this time Frederick was told he needed glasses during his medical inspection and it’s a nice thought that he was perhaps one of the soldiers in the image….

    Unfortunately, Frederick’s war came to an end after just 149 days of service, he became ill and was transferred to Colchester General Hospital. He died there of bronco-pneumonia on 12 February 1919, at the age of just 18.

    As an aside, Frederick (the older) continued living at his property at 4 Gertrude Road in Norwich until his death in 1944, with his two remaining children both staying single and living with him. They must have been fiercely difficult years for him during the First World War, losing his wife and son within just a couple of years each other.

  • Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Harry Land)

    Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Harry Land)

    This is the war grave of Harry Land, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. Someone might contact me here, as I’ve had to make a big assumption to work this one out. The military records of Harry aren’t available, nor is there any information on the Commonwealth War Graves web-site giving further details of an address of next of kin.

    So, working back, he served in the 10th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, a reserves unit which never left the UK. On the date of Harry’s death, this battalion were stationed in Dovercourt in Essex, having just moved from Colchester. And on the day that Harry died, 23 April 1916, a death was registered in that area of someone with the same name who was born in 1884, so we now have a birthdate.

    There is only one Harry Land in East Anglia that I can find with that birth-year, he was born on 24 May 1884 and was the son of Harry and Charlotte Land. At the 1891 census, Harry (younger), his parents and siblings were living at King’s Road in Norwich, with Harry attending the Prospect Row Council School and then the Carrow Boys School. The family lived at Cypress Street at this point, moving to 9 Geoffrey Road in Norwich by 1901, when Harry was working as a gas-fitter and bell-hanger. At the 1911 census, Harry still lived with his parents and siblings, this time at 45 Carlyle Road in Norwich and he was now working at a corn and seed store.

    This is the best I can do, and I don’t understand why he would be in the Suffolk Regiment, something which concerns me slightly about whether this is right. Anyway, hopefully this little mystery might get solved one day.

  • Greggs – Free Sweet Treat

    Greggs – Free Sweet Treat

    I went to Greggs to belatedly collect my “free sweet treat” they sent me for my birthday. I’m so easily bought, I’ve pledged to myself to make an effort to visit Greggs even more in 2021….

    It looks a little forlorn there, but the eclair was very lovely. As an irrelevant aside, M&S made a big thing of telling me in the summer about the birthday gift I could look forwards to. They’ve posted me a load of vouchers that are useless to me and then promptly forgot my birthday. I’ve decided M&S don’t think I’m wealthy enough for their shops, so I’ve deleted their M&S Sparks phone app in a childish form of retaliation  🙂   I don’t think that I was ever classy enough for M&S. Greggs aren’t as judgemental, for the many and not the few….

  • London – Tier Two

    London – Tier Two

    That’s a relief, since despite not having planned to travel for the rest of the year, I had accidentally booked a train journey to London and some hotel nights in early December before the Government’s announcement. So, here comes London and some ‘substantial meals’ with craft beer. I’m pleased that Brewdog have told me that they consider unlimited chicken wings to be a substantial meal (because it clearly is), so I’ve booked that as a little treat for myself in London….

  • Norwich – St Benedict’s Church

    Norwich – St Benedict’s Church

    I’ve been meaning to visit the ruined church of St. Benedict’s for a while, but finally managed it on my little meander yesterday. As mentioned in that post, this is how the church looked in 1934.

    This is the rather urban environment from 100 years ago, with the landscape now entirely changed. Grapes Hill has been mostly destroyed by road construction, whilst the Second World War saw the end to this area of housing. And, indeed, also to St. Benedict’s Church, destroyed by German bombers in 1942.

    This is a sad end to the church, although a designer at one point tried to make it the centrepiece of a new housing development. Personally, I’m unsure why a decision wasn’t made to secure and retain the walls that were left, making the area into a peaceful park and then putting the housing around that. Instead, this is probably the inevitable outcome, but at least the tower is still here.

    The tower has now been pretty much abandoned though, barriered off to prevent anyone getting near to it. This is an eleventh century tower (or possibly slightly later, the nave was from that date and the tower was likely built slightly after) of not inconsiderable importance and is rightly Grade I listed. There was a large archaeological investigation in 1972 when the housing was built here which meant that the area is well recorded. There was a font of note dating from 1320, although that was safely transferred to Erpingham Church as it escaped damage during the air raid bombing.

    The church had been restored in the early 1860s, with a re-opening event on Thursday 4 August 1864 to show off their new organ and interior restoration. It had been a hard fought battle to get funds for this, I can’t help but feel sad for those who would have sacrificed to make a donation to repair this building given the ultimate outcome.

    There was perhaps a more interesting meeting in August 1894, when concern was raised about the church’s tower and roof, which was leaking. Someone at the meeting said that it was the duty of the parishioners to ensure that the church remained in good repair, something that would have no doubt gone down with some incredulity given the limited wealth of the residents. But, legally, this was right, it was their problem and the stones falling from the tower damaging the roof needed fixing.

    A debate, which from reporting seemed quite heated, ensued about what had actually happened to the church funds. It was said that a third of the charitable funds from the church went to the poor, a third to the churchwardens and a third to the fabric of the building. So, what happened to that third to ensure that the fabric of the building didn’t suffer? No-one seemed quite sure.

    The chair of the meeting declared that they were a poor parish and help was needed, saying the church couldn’t meet the ordinary expenses of the building, let alone extraordinary ones. So, a fund-raiser was needed. There was then a debate about how much some basic repairs would cost, with £5 being suggested. One person at the meeting wasn’t impressed, he said the scaffolding would cost more than that. Someone else mentioned they were pleased that the matter discussed now was raising money and not worrying about the money had gone. This is why I suspect the meeting got quite sidetracked…. Anyway, it was agreed that the church should raise some money from a few supporters to pay for immediate repairs, leaving a general request of parishioners to meet the expected larger bill required to properly fix matters.

    As can be seen, a big effort has been made to provide an informative history to the church….. Other than this (which I had to zoom in to see as it’s behind the barriers) there is no information board about the site at all, something that the site probably could do with. Informative and orientation boards can be enormously useful to understanding a building and giving some interpretation to what the area looked like.

  • Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Walter Harry Loades)

    Norwich – Earlham Cemetery (Walter Harry Loades)

    This is the war grave of Walter Harry Loades, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section.

    Walter was born in 1894, the son of Joseph and Caroline Loades (nee Chatton). He had an older brother, Sidney, and a younger brother, Reginald, and they lived at 24, Brunswick Road in Norwich (in a property which looks on Google Maps to have been pulled down). Walter worked as a clerk and I’d like to think that his life was peaceful (well, he was single anyway).

    Unfortunately, the First World War meant that Walter had to enlist, and as his service records have survived, there’s plenty of information about what happened next. He saw a medical officer in Grantham on 26 May 1916, with Walter bring described as healthy. The records are detailed enough for us to know that he was 5’6″ tall, with a 33 inch chest and a weight of 9.7 stone.

    He joined the machine gun corps and was sent as part of the British Expeditionary Force to serve in France. The records note that he was on a boat from Folkestone to Boulogne on 17 July 1916, then he was transferred to nearby Camiers the day after. On 23 July 1916, Walter joined his company, but was sent to a field hospital on 2 November 1916 with scabies, a common problem in the trenches.

    After returning to his company, Walter was badly wounded on 16 February 1917, with gunshot wounds to his legs, face, elbow and mouth. He was sent for medical treatment to the hospital shop Gloucester Castle on 9 March 1917, then transferred two days later to the Mill Road Infirmary in Liverpool. He remained there until 23 May 1917 when he moved back to his home county and the Norfolk War Hospital (later better known as St. Andrew’s Hospital) where he remained until 5 September 1917.

    Unfortunately, his medical situation remained dire and he was transferred to Tooting Hospital for treatment. He died there on 11 September 1918 at 15:00 with the doctor noting that his ‘spastic paraplegia’ was the cause of death. Walter was buried at Earlham Cemetery on Tuesday 17 September 1918 at 12:00 with his family present at his burial. The War Office seemed unaware of the burial and when enquiring was told that Walter’s father, Joseph, had arranged the burial for his son. This likely explains why this grave is in a different part of the graveyard to the war burials, with the headstone I assume being added at a later date.

    The declaration signed by Joseph on behalf of his deceased son, confirming the death and having that witnessed by Alfred Gates, the Vicar of Lakenham, who lived at 7 Newmarket Road in Norwich. Joseph died in the first part of 1939, so at least never saw the outbreak of another war which he thought his son had died in order to prevent. I can’t help but feel that this must have been endlessly traumatic for the family, not just a death but watching their son seriously injured for such a long period.