Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • King’s Lynn – War Memorial

    King’s Lynn – War Memorial

    King’s Lynn war memorial was unveiled on 26 January 1921 by HRH Princess Mary and was dedicated by Bishop Suffragan of Thetford. The memorial was designed by Oswald Partridge-Milne (1881-1968) who was an architect that had a broad portfolio of work, he also designed the interior of Claridge’s Hotel and Sprowston Court in Norwich.

    There are 563 names on the memorial commemorating those who lost their lives during the First World War, and the monument was later amended to mark those who died during the Second World War.

    There was a little issue though discovered after HRH Princess Mary had unveiled the memorial, which was that Herbert Doy was surprised to find his name listed amongst the dead. His name was been reported as missing during the First World War and his safe return was overlooked when the memorial was being prepared. The town said that it would remove his name from the war memorial, although there’s no gap and so I’m unsure how they did this unless they prepared another bronze section.

    Here’s a full list of the names on the memorial.

  • King’s Lynn – Tower Gardens (War Memorial Bench)

    King’s Lynn – Tower Gardens (War Memorial Bench)

    This beautiful bench is one of a pair located at Tower Gardens in King’s Lynn, in front of the town’s war memorial. They were funded by the Rotary Club and the Borough Council, certainly the most eye-catching bench that I can recall seeing.

  • King’s Lynn – Greyfriars

    King’s Lynn – Greyfriars

    Work started on Greyfriars friary in the late 1240s and it remained open until the Dissolution of the Monasteries saw its demise in 1538. This photo is taken from the nave end of the friary, which is where members of the local population would be allowed to visit, with the sections at the rear being reserved for the friars.

    The grassed area is where the cloisters once stood.

    A model of how the friary once looked.

    Under usual circumstances, it’s likely that the stone would have been carted away and used in other construction projects following the closure of the friary. However, the lantern tower was useful for shipping given its 28-metre height and so it survived and was maintained to perform that function. The tower was at risk for a while recently as it had started to lean, but thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage, funding was secured in 2006 to restore the structure.

    The inside of the tower, which is the best-preserved example of such a Franciscan structure left standing in the UK.

    Another view of the tower, with the stone at the front of the photo marking where the altar was formerly located. When the friary was closed, the site was never really built on and so it was decided in 1911 to tidy the area up and to turn the land into a public park known as Tower Gardens.

    The site of the former infirmary. This is a really well-managed site, they’ve made it clear to see the layout of the friary and there are numerous information boards to give further details about the site’s history.

  • King’s Lynn – Tower Gardens (NHS)

    King’s Lynn – Tower Gardens (NHS)

    This is a really nice floral display in Tower Gardens, I’m not sure how long these things take to create, but it’s a lovely gesture.

  • King’s Lynn – Re-Opening the Globe

    King’s Lynn – Re-Opening the Globe

    I’m conscious that there are many smaller independent pubs that are in need of support now, but my favourite ones were still closed and I wanted to pop in to see how JD Wetherspoons were managing with the re-opening of their outlets.

    There’s a little welcome station with hand sanitiser and paper menus, along with a large sign telling customers what to do. I must admit I read the sign and forgot that I was meant to write down my name, which they didn’t make very clear and I’m easily confused at the best of times. It didn’t much matter as they took that information via the App when I ordered, but otherwise, it all looked organised.

    There are protective barriers in the pub now and the self-service coffee machine has distance markers to keep people suitably distanced. I must admit, this is probably as much as they could have done, although some of the barriers weren’t ideally placed and people snuck between them and then brushed past other customers at tables. The best-laid plans of any pub are usually circumvented by some customers though….

    I hadn’t expected the unlimited coffee to be back, but it’s all working as usual. I ordered via the app, which is the preferred method, and it was brought over soon enough. There’s a new policy where customers can’t re-use a mug and they have to get another one, and I never worked out the most efficient way of doing this and where to stand. The pub was well-staffed though, so my standing awkwardly seemed to work sufficiently well.

    The pub was relatively busy in the afternoon and I suspect they’d have been better having someone at the door to explain what was going on, but it’s good that there is some vague notion of normality returning now to the pub sector.

  • Norwich – Pret Chapelfield

    Norwich – Pret Chapelfield

    And another closure, Pret at Chapelfield in Norwich is closing permanently. The Haymarket one is staying open, but I imagine the rents here were just too high at the moment. I can’t help thinking that they never really rewarded their customers, they ignored the loyalty schemes that most of their rivals offered and I did think that was quite brave of them. There was always the danger that they desperately needed customers and that eventuality came to pass, although perhaps that wouldn’t have made much difference in the scale of things. But, a sad loss for Norwich (although maybe some independent operators might disagree), the staff here were always friendly and helpful, with the food being of a decent quality as well.

  • Stalham – St. Mary’s Church

    Stalham – St. Mary’s Church

    St. Mary’s Church in Stalham dates to the fourteenth century.

    The chancel in the south side is rather devoid of windows, but there are at least some on the north side. The chancel was entirely reconstructed in 1827 (and the rood screen was removed), with the nave and aisles also restored in the 1850s. The west porch was reconstructed in 1872 and the chancel was once again amended in 1886 when the roof was raised.

    The 70-foot high west tower once had a belfry on top, but that fell down. Which isn’t ideal.

    The tower, impressive in height as it already is, was never finished to its originally intended height thanks to the Reformation and the upheaval in the church. The window was amended and patched up, with the remains of that handiwork still being clearly visible, and perhaps there were once dreams that it would one day be completed.

    This is probably one of the few churches which had a fire engine unit in its churchyard, but more on this in another post. Also rather interesting, or to me anyway, is that the Maid’s Head pub was built in the town in 1380 so that the builders of the church had someone to go for a drink. I look forwards to going back to see the church when the interior is open, for numerous reasons, but partly to see the font which was hidden in the floor to prevent it being destroyed during the Reformation and was only rediscovered in 1964.

  • Potter Heigham – St. Nicholas’s Church (Walter Robert Linkhorn)

    Potter Heigham – St. Nicholas’s Church (Walter Robert Linkhorn)

    Walter Robert Linkhorn is buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas’s Church in Potter Heigham. He was born on 29 March 1887, the son of farm labourer William and Sarah Ann Linkhorn, and the official records say he was baptised on the same day (very efficient if true, but probably not). At the 1891 census, Walter was living in Potter Heigham with his parents, along with his older brothers James, Edward, Charles and Francis, as well as with his older sisters Sarah and Priscilla.

    By the 1901 census, the Linkhorn family had moved to Hickling Road in Catfield and along with his parents, he was living with James, Sarah, Charles and Francis as well with his nephew Norice (that name doesn’t sound right, but I can’t see what else it says) and niece Victoria. All of the males of the Linkhorn family were by this time working as farm labourers, although I can’t imagine what other jobs there would be in the Potter Heigham area.

    Walter joined the Royal Naval Reserve with service number 5073/DA and served on HMS Attentive III. I don’t have much knowledge in this area (well, none really), but I think HMS Attentive III was shore-based, so something of an administrative unit. Walter died of illness on 14 March 1919, having reached the rank of deck-hand, with his next of kin being his father, William Linkhorn, who by this stage lived at Howe Hill in Ludham. As an aside, some of his medals were sold recently in an auction, which seems a slightly sad end to the story.

  • Potter Heigham – St. Nicholas’s Church (Fence in Tree)

    Potter Heigham – St. Nicholas’s Church (Fence in Tree)

    This caught my eye at St. Nicholas’s Church in Potter Heigham as I like the idea that the tree and fence have been here for decades, getting ever closer.

  • Potter Heigham – St. Nicholas’s Church

    Potter Heigham – St. Nicholas’s Church

    I still struggle to think of Potter Heigham without linking it to Latham’s and their memorable radio ads, but this church is a little way from there and in a relatively peaceful countryside spot. It dates from the twelfth century, although the nave was substantially remodelled in the early sixteenth century. The round tower has some heritage, probably twelfth century but perhaps as early as the eleventh century, with some Norman elements visible in the main structure of the tower and church.

    The chancel is from the thirteenth century and remains thatched, making a curious difference to the leaded nave. And, this is recent, the nave was changed from thatch to lead in the last decade and although I’m sure it was necessary for some technical reason, I can’t say it looks aesthetically particularly pleasing.

    The sizeable porch, which has gates from the Queen’s coronation in 1953.

    The church’s round tower had an octagonal top added in the fourteenth century, a relatively common regional addition that has been better executed here than in some local churches.

    The sizeable and peaceful churchyard, which seems a little bereft of older graves and I do wonder where they’ve gone. It hasn’t always looked in such good repair, when some antiquarians visited it in 1870, they noted “the churchyard looked as if the inhabitants were using it as a place for the cultivation of the rankest weeds”. They also added that the church needed “judicious restoration”, which was a typical Victorian strategy that often caused more damage than good to the buildings.

    Getting inside the church isn’t yet possible, although it apparently holds some treasures in the form of medieval wall paintings and a hammer-beam roof of note.