Talk 2: The story of a summer shawl made in Norwich by Diana Cooke

These talks are open to all but are given by members

‘… the passage of wool from sheep to the looms of the English weaver is one of the almost totally obscure areas of the mediaeval wool trade’ according to historians. It brought wealth to England, but Norfolk wool was never of the best quality and its production is in good part a mystery. There are, however, a few clues.

Pilgrim badges can give a unique insight into the medieval practice of pilgrimage and one great centre was the shrine of St Mary at Walsingham. These badges are now often found by metal detector users in the countryside and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Dr Michael Lewis is Head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the British Museum. He is an expert on the Bayeux Tapestry and among his books is `Saints and their Badges’.

The greatest naval defeat suffered by the Royal Navy in World War 2 was the sinking by Japanese shores-based aircraft of the new battleship Prince of Wales and the veteran battlecruiser Repulse. Widely blamed on the commander of ‘Force Z’, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, there is overwhelming evidence that this tragedy was the cover-up of all time, stretching to implicate not just the Admiralty but also Winston Churchill and President  Roosevelt. This was a last, desperate throw of the dice to save Singapore and Britain’s Far Eastern Empire — and when it all went wrong, the easiest man to blame had chosen to go down with his ship, and was not alive to defend himself.

Martin Stephen was formerly High Master of St Paul’s School and Headmaster of the Perse and Manchester Grammar Schools. He has written many books, including ‘Scapegoat! Death of Prince of Wales and Repulse’, the Henry Gresham series and Diary of a Stroke and is an authority on the poetry of the First World War.

Ganseys were popular all around the North Sea and the British and Irish coasts, from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century; the tradition followed the routes of the fishing fleets and made its way to the small ports. The tradition lives on in Great Britain with a few Norfolk fishermen, and seems to be becoming popular as a fashion item too, judging by the number of requests to knit them.

The impression conveyed by nearly all the surviving parish churches in Norwich is that they late medieval (1400-1550), however the earlier configuration of more than half of them can be demonstrated. This lecture brings the evidence together and assesses it.

The two churches shown are St Mary Coslany and St Etheldreda.

Norfolk County Council’s finds Identification and Recording Service at Gressenhall records some 15,000 objects a year found by metal detector users and others. Norfolk produces more finds than any other part of the country and these are recorded in the national Portable Antiquities Scheme database.

The talk will give an insight into some of the fascinating discoveries that have come from Norfolk over recent years.

The pictures show a 7th-century. gold pendant with inlaid Roman mosaic glass, from Gayton near King’s Lynn.

The true story of a Norfolk Fisherman and his wife. I found the story while researching my family tree.

When researching my family tree, I like to take a person and research them from birth through their lives to their death and this is what happened with the talk about Laura and John.

At the time of the Norman Conquest Anglo-Saxon Norwich only reached as far west as the Great Cockey, near to Gentlemen’s Walk. One of the major changes brought about by the Normans was to move the market place to a new site (the present one) and two create a new built up area to the west, known as the New Burgh or French Borough. This grew eventually to incorporate the three new parishes of St Stephen, St Peter Mancroft and St Giles.

This talk will concentrate largely of the history and development of a large part of this area in the parishes of St. Peter Mancroft and St Giles. We will make our way (virtually) along Bethel Street and St Giles (originally, Upper Newport and Nether Newport) as well as some interesting sorties into the alleyways and courts that lead off them.

The talk will be preceded by a short AGM.

* This is a different talk by Jonathan than the one originally advertised on William Allen, Grocer and Shipping Tycoon.

Norfolk in the First World War is an illustrated lecture exploring the role and significance of the county, and its people during the years 1914-1918. The strategic importance of Norfolk in military history during that period will be examined, but the main thrust of the talk will be through a ‘social history’ approach that will focus on the profound impact of war and warfare on people on the home front in the county. Neil Storey is one of the foremost authorities on the military history of the county during the First and Second World Wars and is the author of Norfolk in the Great War and Norfolk Goes to War.

Roger Bland

Roger has just published his book ‘Coin Hoards and Hoarding in Roman Britain AD 43-c. 498’ and has stepped in at the last minute and will base this talk on one given recently in New York.

Roger Bland was President of the British Numismatic Society from 2011 to 2016. He retired from the British Museum in 2015, where he was Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory and Head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Before that he was curator of Roman coins at the Museum.

Please join us for Mardle night when there will various exhibits around the room plus the chance to partake in seasonal refreshments.

* Due to illness this is a change to the scheduled talk. Louise’s talk on “Cromer and the Georgian Seaside Resorts” will be given at a later date.

Norfolk and Suffolk formerly comprised the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia. While historical sources for this entity are few and far between, archaeological discoveries are enabling us to understand its establishment and life far better. This talk will examine some of these recent finds and discuss what it tells us about the kingdom. In particular I shall describe the exciting hoard of goldwork discovered at Binham over the last ten years.

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, celebrates the 200th anniversary of its foundation in 2016. Lucilla has been researching the development of the Museum over two centuries, using mainly contemporary sources such as letters, diaries, museum and university reports. The story that emerges both traces the growth of the collections and reveal some of the intriguing personalities who’ve shaped the Museum, from its founder and first benefactor, Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion, to its thirteen Directors to date, among whom MR James, of ghost-story fame, was one. Her talk will introduce select highlights from this story.

The famous poets of the Great War represent only a minority of the poetry written by serving men and women in the war. This talk reveals some of the outstanding poetry written by largely unknown poets of the First World War, the breadth, depth and variety of which is not only extraordinary in itself, but gives a completely different outlook on the war from that which has become conventional. This is the war as experienced by those who fought in it, as distinct from those who wrote what we now think they ought to have written.

Martin Stephen was formerly High Master of St Paul’s School and Headmaster of the Perse and Manchester Grammar Schools. He has written many books, including the Henry Gresham series and Diary of a Stroke and is an authority on the poetry of the First World War.

When Margery Paston (of the famous letter-writing family) announced her intention to marry her family’s land agent Richard Calle, her mother and brothers were appalled. They did everything they could to prevent the marriage, even at the cost of gossip and scandal. They failed, and in 1469 Margery and Richard were married. But why were her family so determined? Richard was solvent, well educated and well liked; many must have shared his own opinion that he was a good match for Margery. The Pastons, by contrast, were flat broke at the time and awash in enemies. Was it just snobbery that prompted their opposition, or were there more hidden factors in play?

Susan Curran is an author and publisher. Her illustrated history book The Marriage of Margery Paston was published in 2013. Read More…

The talk will be preceded by a short AGM.

Peter is a well known local author with a long-standing Norfolk pedigree. He is President of the Friends of Norfolk Dialect society and has a regular column in the EDP. His latest book Dialect Matters: Respecting Vernacular Language (Cambridge University Press), is a collection of these columns. He will highlight the history of the Norfolk dialect and explain why it has such a distinctive structure.

Rethinking Ancient Woodland: recent research on Norfolk’s woods

Tom Williamson is Professor of Landscape History at the University of East Anglia and author of many books and articles about the landscape of East Anglia, and Norfolk in particular. His most recent books are on Norfolk Gardens and Designed Landscapes (with Patsy Dallas), An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650 – 1950 and Rethinking Ancient Woodland (with Gerry Barnes).

Mardle night will also have various exhibits around the room plus the chance to partake in seasonal refreshments.

The Norfolk Lunatic Asylum: St Andrews Hospital (1814-1998) uniquely used the same site and some buildings in providing custody, control, care, comforts and cures, but ‘the asylum’ was also about relationships between patients, their families, medical and nursing staff; daily routines and treatments; and local and external forms of authority: all involving narratives which are difficult to establish. It was also used as a ‘War Hospital’ during WW1 and as an emergency civilian hospital in WW2. As an N.H.S. hospital it was soon faced with closure but mental health care in the community proved easier to prescribe than to deliver, and arguably neither blueprints nor sufficient resources have been provided.

An extraordinarily rich group of hoards of precious metal coins, jewellery and plate have been discovered in Britain and especially East Anglia dating from the last 50 years of the Roman rule in Britain: examples are the Hoxne, Mildenhall, Thetford and Water Newton treasures. These very rich finds have forced us to rethink the traditional view that Britain and East Anglia was something of a backwater in this period. This talk will draw on a project to study why so many hoards are known from Roman Britain to give new insights into why they were buried.

Our insight into the life of a country doctor John Hales, a prominent 19th century doctor in Holt, is through the diary kept by his wife and the books of his daughter Jane Hales.

Illustrated with original prints, maps and photographs the talk will provide an overview of the development of stage and mail coach services, look at the economic and social importance of the stagecoach, the experience of the travellers and the Norfolk routes including Holt, Cromer and Norwich.

Louise Allen: Stagecoach Travel. Shire Books

The talk will be preceded by a short AGM. Click herefor AGM details.

The overwhelming success of Wells as a trading port in the middle of the nineteenth century was owed to the foresight of a small group of business people who were responsible for the major redevelopment of both the harbour and the town. Their actions were made possible by two local acts of parliament passed on the same day.The town went from stagnation and bankruptcy in the 1830s to the prosperity of the 1850s. Much of their work is still visible, including the fine stone harbour.

Roger Arguile’s talk will describe the run up to the passing of these acts, the opposition to them and their effects. He has drawn his story from the hand written records of the hearings before the House of Lords which are held in their library.

Rescue Wooden Boats
Kate will be talking about the work of Rescue Wooden Boats, Stiffkey and particularly the restoration of the lifeboat Lucy Lavers and her return to Dunkirk this summer on the 75th anniversary of the evacuation from Dunkirk.

Mardle night will also have various exhibits around the room plus the chance to partake in seasonal refreshments.

Will Savage: Ice Houses

Ian Groves: Deserted Villages in Norfolk

Diana Cooke: A bee bole in Blakeney

Click here for notes on meeting

A welcome return of a very popular lecturer. Margaret will be revealing beasts and monsters in medieval art.

Surviving objects show how local craftsmen working in gold and silver provided church and secular objects for the wealthy. East Anglian goldsmiths (and the term includes those working in silver) provided both church and secular plate to the wealthy and heavily populated counties of East Anglia. This talk focuses on the years between 1500 and 1750, the period of most of the surviving locally-made items, and gives insights into the craftsmen and their work.

Mary has contributed an article on East Anglian silver in the book East Anglian Silver 1550-1750.

The lecture will focus on the hardships and dangers of work delivering to public houses on top of all the tasks in the fields, maltings and brewery.

Margaret is the author of “A local 18^th century diarist Mary Hardy” a new study of working and religious life in the Blakeney area. The five volumes are based on the diaries of Mary Hardy and the author has generously presented a copy to the History Centre.

Read more about the talk…

Read more about the book…

Click here for notes on meeting

Drawing on his extensive collection of photographs Brian will explore some features of local villages.

A short AGM will be held before this talk.

Click here to see the AGM papers

Andrew will use examples from a variety of sources, including local war memorials, to illustrate stories behind the people who fought and died.

Industry in the country market town of Fakenham

Stage Managing the Landscape Humphrey Repton’s work in Sheringham Park and the National Trust’s role in preserving it today.

Plus exhibits on local WW1 records, sheep bridges along the coast, post boxes, Cley Headmaster’s Logbook, photographs, memorabilia, and seasonal refreshments

Tidal Lands:

an exhibition on the natural history and history of Blakeney Point, the harbour and surrounding villages.

In Blakeney Village Hall: every day 10.30am to 4.00pm.
Admission Free