Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Swaffham – St. Peter and St. Paul Church (Robert Huson)

    Swaffham – St. Peter and St. Paul Church (Robert Huson)

    There’s no logic to these posts, just some graves of people at St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Swaffham which seemed intriguing.

    Robert Huson was born on 26 July 1808 and was baptised on 14 August 1808 in Swaffham, the son of Robert Hudson and Susan Allen. He married Mary Huson, who was 14 years younger than him, and he worked as a carpenter. He had a son, Arthur Huson, when he was aged 50 and by the 1871 census he was living with his wife and Arthur on Lynn Street in the town. He died in 1872 at the age of 64, with his son Arthur becoming a grocer, going bankrupt and starting over again. Relatives of Robert and Arthur still live today, but unfortunately, I can’t find out anything more about Robert Huson’s life. He rather disappeared off the radar, or at least the radar visible to me, for some decades and I can’t make out what he did with his life. One day I’ll solve some of these random little mysteries….

  • Swaffham – St. Peter and St. Paul Church (Guy Dennis Buckeridge)

    Swaffham – St. Peter and St. Paul Church (Guy Dennis Buckeridge)

    This grave is located within the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Swaffham.

    Guy Dennis Buckeridge was born in Johannesburg in 1895, the son of Alfred Dennis Buckeridge and Amy Buckeridge, but they moved to the UK at some stage and lived at 8, Cardigan Road in Richmond-on-Thames. He appears on numerous passenger lists though, returning to South Africa frequently. He joined an air force unit in Reading in 1916 and in early 1917, he began training as a night-time pilot.

    Lieutenant Buckeridge flew his last sortie on 21 August 1917 when he flew from RAF Marham in Norfolk. During his flight his aircraft got trapped in a spinning nose dive and he died the following day, at the age of 22. His next of kin, which was his wife, was duly informed and he was buried at Swaffham, which was near to where the aircraft had crashed and not far from RAF Marham.

    Norman Frank Dennis, who was Guy’s older brother, died on 26 April 1940, killed whilst serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

  • Swaffham – St. Peter and St. Paul Church

    Swaffham – St. Peter and St. Paul Church

    The bulk of Swaffham’s main church was constructed between 1454 and 1490 and was built on the site of the previous church, of which nothing now remains.

    The main entrance to the church is at the west door. The tower took longer to build, not being completed until 1510.

    Looking towards the altar.

    And looking back towards the west end.

    The impressive hammer-beam roof, which dates to when the church was built.

    The war memorial window, which was designed by William Morris & Co.

    The pews in the main part of the nave date from the nineteenth century, having replaced the earlier box pews. These pew ends in the choir area are survivals from the earlier period, somewhere around the sixteenth century.

    The Pedlar of Swaffham and his dog, which are from an old folkstory, the details of which I’ve pinched from Wikipedia:

    “At last it happened that a shopkeeper there, hard by, having noted his fruitless standing, seeing that he neither sold any wares nor asked any almes, went to him and most earnestly begged to know what he wanted there, or what his business was; to which the pedlar honestly answered that he had dreamed that if he came to London and stood there upon the bridge he should hear good newse; at which the shop-keeper laught heartily, asking him if he was such a fool as to take a journey on such a silly errand, adding: “I’ll tell thee, country fellow, last night I dreamed that I was at Sopham, in Norfolk, a place utterly unknown to me, where methought behind a pedlar’s house in a certain orchard, and under a great oak tree, if I dug I should find a vast treasure! Now think you,” says he, “that I am such a fool to take such a long journey upon me upon the instigation of a silly dream? No, no, I’m wiser. Therefore, good fellow, learn wit from me, and get you home, and mind your business.”

    The pedlar observing his words, what he had say’d he dream’d, and knowing they concentred in him, glad of such joyfull newse, went speedily home, and digged and found a prodigious great treasure, with which he grew exceeding rich; and Soffham (Church) being for the most part fallen down, he set on workmen and rectified it most sumptuously, at his own charges; and to this day there is his statue therein, but in stone, with his pack at his back and his dogg at his heels; and his memory is also preserved by the same form or picture in most of the old glass windows, taverns, and alehouses of that town unto this day.”

    This brass was part of the memorial to Sir John Audley of Swaffham and it was moved to the wall to protect it from damage, although the brass dedicated to his wife had gone missing by 1781.

    I hadn’t realised that there was a connection to Oliver Cromwell in Swaffham, but this is the memorial to Catherine Steward, his maternal grandmother. Steward was born at Castle Acre in 1545 and died in 1590. The Scotsman reported in 1911 that Queen Mary, Prince Albert and Princess Mary had come to visit the church, and spent some time looking at this memorial. Not that the Parliamentarian troops of Cromwell showed the church much mercy in the seventeenth century, they fired guns at the wooden angels in the roof, smashed windows and destroyed some statues.

    On the subject of the local media, there was an announcement in the Bury and Norwich Post which has an interesting turn of phrase:

    “The banns were published in Swaffham Church between Robert Savage and Mary Avey, but two days later the young woman was attacked with a cold and inflammation and on the following Saturday she was a corpse”.

    I didn’t see anyone else whilst visiting the church and I can’t imagine it gets a lot of visitors at this time of the year, so it’s marvellous that they’ve kept it open during the day. The door is also an automatic one, which makes it more accessible than the arrangement (albeit a necessary one, as automatic doors don’t come cheap and often don’t exactly fit into the decor) in some churches.

    All rather lovely.

  • Swaffham – Red Lion

    Swaffham – Red Lion

    The Red Lion has been selling beer to the people of Swaffham since the late seventeenth century and there are also rooms at the rear of the pub for those wanting accommodation. The landlady at the Red Lion from 1896 until 1956 was Emma Dickerson, that’s certainly some stint working at any location. There’s a nice vibe about the pub, with the service being friendly and it feels like a community pub which is welcoming to all.

    In August 1761, someone pinched a “badly engraved and bruised on the foot” silver pint mug from the pub, with the landlord putting up a reward of half a guinea for its return. There’s such a sense of history about locations like this, albeit a crime that took place 258 years ago isn’t an inspiration for the future, it’s intriguing to think what this pub looked like back then.

    There were six real ales, which was a number that surprised me slightly, with a varied choice available. Unfortunately, my half pint of Elgoods Blackberry Porter was on the turn, although it remained drinkable. I suspect the staff would have happily changed it, but it wasn’t unpleasant, although the flavour was wrong, so I just kept it (I probably wouldn’t have been so forgiving if it was a pint). I’m moderately surprised that what appeared to be their only dark beer hadn’t sold a little quicker.

    All told, it’s a friendly little pub and the staff were cheerfully putting up Christmas decorations to make it feel festive. Not sure I like the positioning of the pool table there as it has taken out some of the space for seating and distorted the atmosphere somewhat, but if that’s what the customers like then I suppose it has to go somewhere. I didn’t order food, but it’s well reviewed and seemingly unpretentious. The owners seem to be working on improving the look and feel of the building, with everything being clean and well maintained. Hopefully, it’ll merrily on serving for customers for another few hundred years….

  • Swaffham – The Future of Banking

    Swaffham – The Future of Banking

    Welcome to the future of banking…… Barclays closed their Swaffham branch in 2018, Natwest have closed theirs and the couple that remain look like they might go as well. But, this exciting van has replaced the Natwest branch, with the extensive hours of 13:30 until 15:00 on Mondays and Thursdays, this has certainly got the people of Swaffham comprehensively covered…..

  • Dereham – Dereham Library

    Dereham – Dereham Library

    After my failed visit to Swaffham Library, I was pleased to see the council have bothered to open Dereham Library. So, I thought I’d look at the Pevsner here to see what I’d missed in Swaffham. I was moderately confused as to why they have the London North West guide in Dereham, but the Norwich & North-East makes more sense. Although, it doesn’t cover Swaffham or Dereham, that’s the North-West and South Norfolk book, which Dereham library should have. So, I check the on-line catalogue and there is a copy in Dereham, which pleases me.

    Anyway, to cut a long story short, a very friendly and helpful member of library staff ponders where this book is. We’ve concluded someone has pinched it as they can’t find it either. Anyone reading something as wonderful as Pevsner should not be stealing it!

    But, just bloody marvellous…. (although to be fair to the very helpful staff member, they did offer to get a replacement copy sent to Dereham library for future visitors).

  • Swaffham – Swaffham Library

    Swaffham – Swaffham Library

    I had this marvellous idea during my trip to Swaffham that after a couple of pubs and a visit to the church, I’d quickly read Pevsner in the library and then do a little perambulation as he’d call it, before visiting the museum. Anyway, the library is closed if you don’t have your library card. I don’t. So, I abandoned Swaffham, its library and its museum. It’s not for me to comment on who is responsible for inaccessibility of public libraries, but it can’t be good for the future of the library service.

  • Edwinstowe – Royal Oak

    Edwinstowe – Royal Oak

    After a less than successful visit to the nearby Black Swan (which was fine, but devoid of any real ale), we headed back to the Royal Oak which looked perfectly adequate from the exterior. It’s an Everard’s pub and it felt like one of those successful pubs which had managed to satisfy the diners and the drinkers. The staff were welcoming and signage made clear that walkers were welcome, which is something I do like to see. The pub is dog friendly as well, although they’ve made what I consider the sensible decision to ban dogs from the main dining area.

    I’m a big fan of the Titanic Brewery and their Plum Porter never disappoints me, so that’s the option that I went for. I also ignored the fact that the bottles in front of the pumps, which are meant to indicate the beer colour, hardly seemed accurate as Plum Porter isn’t that colour. Anyway, the beer didn’t disappoint here either, with the barman pro-actively mentioning that he’d top the pint up after it had settled. The choice of beers was well measured, with a variety of different beer types, with craft beer options also available.

    It’s apparent that they have a system where customers must sign in at the bar for the car park, since there were signs which appeared to be located everywhere, on the front door, on the bar, on every table, on the wall, in the toilets and no doubt in the car park. It seemed a clunky way to handle the car parking situation, although I’m sure it must be frustrating for them if people are abusing it.

    Anyway, a very lovely pub and it was clean and organised throughout, with the beer selection meeting my requirements.

  • Sheffield – Real Ale in the 1970s

    Sheffield – Real Ale in the 1970s

    When I was in Sheffield, the locally produced CAMRA magazine, Beer Matters, had been published and it was the five hundredth issue. They were looking back at the history of real ale in the city and in 1975 there was a bar crawl of the city which took in every single real ale being sold. This totalled ten cask beers, of which four were on handpump and six on electric pump, along with a few real ales in bottles. The cost of these beers, and the buses to get between them, cost £3.

    We are fortunate indeed for the many volunteers within CAMRA who established the organisation and have ensured we’re not in a similar position today with such a limited choice. The magazine also notes that if someone attempted the same pub crawl today, visiting every pub, it would take at least forty nights and days to complete.

  • Sheffield – Fat Cat

    Sheffield – Fat Cat

    Roger Protz, the great beer writer, wrote that the founder of this pub, Dave Wickett, told him:

    “Dave told me a wonderful story of how he bought the Fat Cat, refurbished it and was ready to open but he didn’t have any beer. He phoned Wards, who were still brewing, and none other than the head brewer came round and asked to see the cellar.

    “I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he told Dave. “I’ll put a cellar tank in with pressure points on the bar and away you go.”

    “I don’t want that,” Dave said. “I want casks and handpumps.”

    “Nobody wants to drinks that anymore,” the man from Wards said and stormed off in a huff. In desperation Dave phoned Timothy Taylor in Keighley and asked if he could buy an 18-gallon cask of Landlord and was told Sheffield was outside the brewery’s delivery area.

    So Dave drove to Keighley, put the cask in the boot of his car and took it back to the pub. Two days later he phoned Taylors who said they expected he’d been unable to sell the beer.

    “No,” Dave told them. “It went in two days and I want two more casks.”

    “In that case, we’ll deliver,”

    Taylors said and with just three cask of ale Dave Wickett helped the brewery turn Landlord into a national brand.”

    The pub opened in 1981, so this was one of the forerunners of the real ale movement in the city, a brave and innovative decision at the time. There was also an innovative change in 1986, when there was a non-smoking room introduced into the pub, which was the first one in Sheffield.

    The Chasing Casks Irish Stout from Kelham Island Brewery, which I recall was well kept, although unfortunately I remember nothing more, other than I marked it as 4 out of 5 on Untappd…. We followed in the problem group from the previous pub into this location, but fortunately they found another place to sit in the pub whereas we found a suitable area elsewhere.

    The high tide mark on the side of the pub. There were some floods the week after we visited, although I’m not sure if this area suffered any damage.

    The pub was busy, but the staffing was friendly and engaging, with the barman being conversational and knowledgeable about the beer options. All very comfortable and the building itself is quite intriguing, and Nathan managed to walk us round about three rooms before he found the bar. But, I don’t like to comment on such things….

    My favourite TripAdvisor review…

    “CRAP larger, unfriendly bar staff with no personality made us feel like we was an inconvenience”

    This is a win-win when I see a review like this, because I can see it’s a pub that obviously doesn’t sell Stella and lager is mis-spelt far too much….

    I liked this pub, although I mildly regret that it was so busy I didn’t get more chance to look at the building itself. CAMRA have a detailed history of the pub and the interior, so perhaps I’ll get to go back in the future to have a better look at this.