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  • Dereham – Former Guildhall

    Dereham – Former Guildhall

    This is the former Dereham Guildhall and although heavily modernised, some sections from the sixteenth century remain in the wall and basement. It’s also been tidied up from when George Plunkett came to Dereham and took a photograph of it.

    What is interesting from a heritage point of view is this, evidence of a separate property that is now joined with the main building. Those blocked up windows tell a story of their own, some are clearly evident, but there are a couple of harder to see blocked up windows on the first floor.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 120

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 120

    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….

    Fiddle Faddle

    I’ve decided that I very much like this phrase, which is defined as “trifling discourse, nonsense. A mere fiddle faddle fellow; a trifier”. I think that ‘trifier’ is a mis-spelling for ‘trifler’, but ignoring that, I suspect that many people could guess what this phrase might mean even without the definition.

    In the United States, the phrase is probably better known for different reasons, namely that it’s a brand of popcorn that was introduced in 1967. The original phrase dates back to around the sixteenth century, and it’s just the present tense of fiddle and the past-tense of fiddle, which was then ‘faddle’.

    And we can see the sad evidence of this charming little phrase going out of usage…… Having written that, I’m sure there are some people who still use the phrase. But not enough, I shall make an effort to use this more on the blog.

  • Travelodge Hotels Being Rebranded into Accor?

    Travelodge Hotels Being Rebranded into Accor?

    Poor Travelodge has been rather battered about over the last few years, primarily as it never really caught up with the resurgence of Premier Inn. Travelodge has been financially damaged, not least by its internal structure, and it forced a large number of its hotel building owners to take a reduction in the rent that they could collect. This didn’t thrill the owners of many of these properties, who joined together to form the Travelodge Owners Action Group.

    This week, this group of landlords has revealed that they are considering switching hotel brands, which they can do thanks to a handily inserted break clause which they have. A spokesperson for the group said:

    “Our mission as an action group has always been to protect the interests of domestic savers and investors, who have been forced to contend with the aggressive tactics of offshore hedge funds willing to expend unparalleled resources to protect their profits, even at the expense of their own stakeholders. We are carrying on the fight against this unjust abuse of insolvency law that has been fuelled by weak government intervention and will do everything possible to mitigate the damage caused by this CVA.

    Following the inclusion of a landlord break option for over 500 Travelodge hotels within the terms of the CVA, we are in talks with a number of leading global hotel brands aimed at providing savers and investors with the long-term stability they require. Advanced discussions are ongoing with major operators such as Accor, Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Jury’s Inn, Magnuson Hotels and others. The purpose of this is to present a range of alternative options to Travelodge landlords, so that they can decide which structure would work best for them.”

    So, there are numerous hotel chains which might take over some of the sites, forcing Travelodge out. The one that I’m most hopeful about is Accor, they could operate a fair number of these sites and probably pay a larger rent than Travelodge are managing to. It’s unlikely to come to anything in the near future, but if Travelodge don’t work out their CVA in the next couple of years, that might mean an increased number of Accor locations for me to pop along to….

  • Dereham – Name Origin

    Dereham – Name Origin

    Since I had an afternoon in sunny Dereham, here’s what The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames has to say about the history of the town name.

    Dereham, Norfolk. Derham in Domesday Book, Estderham in 1428. Likely the Old English, Deorhamm, for an enclosure for deer.

    There are two Derehams in Norfolk, the larger of the two is also known as East Dereham and West Dereham is around 25 miles away, nearer to Downham Market. A nice and simple town meaning, which has remained gloriously unchanged (well, nearly) for a millennium.

  • Dereham – Church of St. Nicholas (Bell Tower)

    Dereham – Church of St. Nicholas (Bell Tower)

    When they wanted some new bells for Dereham Church they realised that their existing church tower wouldn’t be strong enough. So, they came up with a new plan in 1520, which involved building a separate tower within the churchyard. From the side, the tower looks as though it’s a church of its own, it’s a substantial affair.

    The tower was built in the early sixteenth century, comprising of four layers and its height has made it useful as the location for the town’s public clock. The clock was added in 1902 and was designed by JB Joyce Clockmakers of Whitchurch, with their successor company restoring it in 2008 when they also added gold to the clockface. This separate bell tower set-up isn’t unique, but is rare in the UK, the most notable form is probably that at Chichester Cathedral, although Norwich Cathedral once had one.

    During the Napoleonic Wars, the tower was used to house French prisoners of war. One such prisoner, Jean de Narde, tried to escape on 6 October 1799, managing to climb a tree and he refused to come down when requested. So they shot him out of the tree, which wasn’t ideal and it received some criticism from locals. He’s buried in the church’s graveyard, although he didn’t get a gravestone until 1858 when Anglo-French diplomatic relations had improved a bit.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 119

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 119

    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….

    Field Lane Duck

    This sounds delicious, it’s defined by the dictionary as “a baked sheep’s head”. Field Lane was a street in London, near to where Saffron Hill is today near to Holborn, where stolen goods were commonly sold. That area gained a reputation for deceit, thieves and stolen products, so anything related to Field Lane would be known as something just a little fraudulent. The phrase was primarily a late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century one, becoming less commonly used when Field Lane disappeared in the mid-nineteenth century. So anyone buying meat that they thought was something a little decadent might well have been considerably disappointed.

  • British Airways – Selling Off Art

    British Airways – Selling Off Art

    British Airways said they’d be flogging off a few pieces from their art collection, which is pretty substantial. This is Cool Edge by Bridget Riley, which BA seem to have had in their collection for some time.

    The estimate is £800,000 to £1,200,000 which makes it just a little bit outside of my price range. And taste range to be honest. But, if anyone wants to buy it, it’s up for sale at Sotheby’s (https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/evening-sale-london/bridget-riley-cool-edge)…..

  • Dereham – Church of St. Nicholas

    Dereham – Church of St. Nicholas

    The Church of St. Nicholas in Dereham is quite a lumpy affair (this isn’t a proper architectural term and I imagine that Pevsner would be appalled at my language here) and there’s a separate bell tower arrangement (more on which in another post) because the previous one wasn’t strong enough to support the lovely new bells the church had acquired. There was a church here as early as the mid-seventh century (although the Danes destroyed that when they came to visit), although the current structure primarily dates from between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.

    What is left of the lantern tower is visible in the above photo, it was reduced in height in 1539 following the completion of the bell tower. It has been done neatly, but it means that to me the church doesn’t feel like it has enough height.

    The southern side of the church.

    The south-west porch, the inner door here to the church is the earliest part of the building, dating to the twelfth century.

    The west end of the church.

    The east end of the church, which is also the chancel end.

    The north side of the church.

    I decided against going into much detail here, as the church is so complex I’ll need to break it up (the blog post I mean, not the church itself). Partly to ensure that I can understand what’s going on, but fortunately, there are some pretty complete histories available for this church.

    I have visited the interior before, I’ll locate the photos, although hopefully I’ll get to see the interior again soon enough when things return to some sort of normality. I have though written about St. Withburga’s Well before, which is located in the churchyard.

  • Acle – St. Edmund’s Church

    Acle – St. Edmund’s Church

    The round tower of St. Edmund’s Church in Acle is from the twelfth century, although most of the rest of the structure is from the fourteenth century. The look of the church from this southern side shows the exterior of where the rood stairs were located, as well as the different heights of the nave and chancel.

    The building was restored internally in the 1860s, with Richard Phipson (perhaps best noted for his work on St Mary-le-Tower in Ipswich) working on the nave and Ewan Christian (perhaps best known for designing the National Portrait Gallery and restoring Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral) working on the chancel.

    There was another major restoration that was completed in 1904, which primarily dealt with the roof, with the work being overseen by Herbert Green, the Diocesan surveyor. It was noted that before this restoration that the underside of the roof was plastered, but this was removed and replaced by oak boarding. Some work was also done to fix the floor of the nave, which had become dangerously uneven by this point. I’m not actually sure what happened to Richard Phipson’s 1866 plans, as he had planned to remove the plastered ceiling to show the oak cradle roof.

    The thatching is in need of some repair on the north side (and the church is mid-way through a fund-raising campaign to sort this out, as well as to see what damage lies below), but I hope it’s rethatched rather than covered in something looking much more modern, as happened at Potter Heigham.

    The north porch, which is now the main entrance to the church.

    The south porch, which like its northern counterpart, also has a room above it.

    The twelfth-century round tower, although that top section is later, probably from the thirteenth century. The tower is listed as being older by some sources, perhaps as early as the ninth century. Whatever its age, it is likely that there was a church here in around the ninth or tenth century.

    Unfortunately, as with many churches at the moment, the interior wasn’t open to visit, so that’s yet another building that I’ll have to return to when some form of normality returns.


    The church in 1955.

  • Acle – Town Sign

    Acle – Town Sign

    The town sign in Acle was unveiled in August 1974 at what appears to have been a surprisingly well-attended event. On one side there’s a wherry, Acle bridge, the church tower, a windmill and a tree, whilst on the other side there’s a horse and cart going over Acle bridge, with the church making another appearance. I can’t suggest it’s worth a special trip from another country to see it, but it’s one of the better signs I’ve seen.