Tag Archives: Norfolk

From St. Michael the Archangel Church Booton Nearly, to St. Peter and St. Paul’s Salle, Norfolk

It was a rather cloudy start to the day but we thought it was about time to make an other attempt to find and visit St Michael the Archangel Church, Booton in Norfolk.

This time I took all the precautions I could think of and programmed the satellite navigation carefully entering GPS coordinates .

I thought this would be a full proof approach as the last time we just headed out and hoped for the best that it would be all plain sailing with a good sense of direction and a little logic.

Now it all went wrong this time around 3 miles from our destination where we encountered a large red notice advising that the road ahead was closed and to follow the diversion signs, so off we went but between the Sat Nav and the yellow diversion signs we found our selves going around in what appeared to be ever decreasing circles. As we entered Reepham for the hundredth time I thought we should not take the Bruce’s advice and try again but rather than give up head for St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle.

Now to get to St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle you do not need GPS as the tower is visible as you leave Reepham. It is a church of superlatives and it never disappoints there is even a tradition that Anne Boylan was buried in the church after she has been beheaded at the Tower of London and secretly exhumed from St Peter ad Vincula chapel London.

AND YES we will try and visit St Michael the Archangel Church, Booton an other day!

Salle Village Sign, Salle, Norfolk

Salle Village Sign

St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk

St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle

St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk

St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle

St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk

St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Salle

Relevant Web Links:

Norfolk Churches

Haunted Palace Blog

The Anne Boleyn Files

Echos of Kent Treble Bob Majors and Terrington St Johns

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The village of Terrington St Johns, Norfolk sits between Wisbech in the west and Kings Lynn in the east. Its splendid St John’s Parish Church lies to the north of the village at Peyke’s Cross.

St John The Baptist Church, Terrington St Johns

St John The Baptist Church

I have never seen any reference that links it to the novel by Dorothy. L. Sayers, The Nine Taylors unlike its near neighbour Terrington St Clements, but during a recent visit I was reminded of The Reverend Venables vaulting ambition by a plaque in the church commemorating a peel of bells, although Theodore Venables and his ringers had eight Bells at their disposal where the church at Terrington St Johns has six.

Memorial Plaque Peal of Bells, Terrington St John

Memorial Plaque

“There are, perhaps, a few heavier rings, said the Rector, but I hardly know where you would rival us for fullness and sweetness of tone. Number seven, in particular, is a most noble old bell, and so is the tenor, and the John and Jericho bells are also remarkably fine in fact, the whole ring is most “tuneable and sound”, as the old motto has it.

“It is a full ring of eight”

The Reverend Venables to Lord Peter Wimsey

The Nine Tailors

By Dorothy L. Sayers

Emneth Village Sign, Norfolk

The King of East Anglia and A Tenuous Connection To Ringo Star

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Our destination is Emneth, it sits in Norfolk close to the Cambridgeshire border just south of the A47 which runs from Birmingham in the west to Great Yarmouth in the east.

If your approach is from Peterborough along the A47 you will need to turn right away from the town of Wisbech toward Outwell and Downham Market, do not get carried away bear left long before you reach Outwell or you will miss the joys of Emneth completely.

As you approach you will be faced with the imposing presence of the Church of St Edmund’s it cannot be missed. The Reverend W. V. Awdry was vicar of the parish between 1953 and 1965 and many of the Thomas the Tank engine stories were written in the old vicarage at Emneth.

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Church of St Edmund, Emneth, Norfolk.

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Church of St Edmund, Emneth, Norfolk.

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Memorial Window to The Reverend W. V. Awdry

Interesting Web Links:

 

St Edmund The King of East Anglia

St Edmund, Original Patron Saint of England

Thomas the Tank Engine

The Thomas the Tank Engine Man: The Life of Reverend W. Awdry by Brian Sibley

Note: I thought of inserting a link to Ringo but had second thoughts, do not ask me why!

A Lake District Connection Norfolk

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Now if you have a fancy for a trip to the Lake District, the last thing you want is to be sitting in a car heading in the direction of Norwich and Diss, but that is where we found ourselves on a hot sunny day in July. The destination was the small village of Forncett St. Peter, Norfolk.

 

If you think I have lost my bearings never mind my sense of direction you may well be right, but I do have an explanation in that the village of Forncett St. Peter has impeccable Lakeland connections. It is where Dorothy Wordsworth lived and worked for around six years and her brother the famous poet William visited while studying at Cambridge.

 

St. Peters Church, Forncett St Peter, Norfolk, England

St. Peters Church, Forncett St Peter, Norfolk, England

Cookson Memorial, The Wordsworth Connection, St. Peters Church, Forncett St Peter, Norfolk, England

Cookson Memorial, The Wordsworth Connection, St. Peters Church

 

The Gates to The Old Rectory, Forncett St. Peter, Norfolk, England

Useful Links:

Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust

Biography of Dorothy-Wordsworth

Blo Norton, Norfolk

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If I can beg forgiveness from anyone who is familiar with East Anglia and in particular with those who are conversant with the county of Norfolk, I have a confession to make, in that all the years that I headed the car between Thetford and Diss I had never encountered or heard of the village of Blo Norton until very recently.

It was after our visit to the Elveden in Suffolk that I came across the name of Blo Norton.

I wonder what deems a village to be of more interest than its neighbours, is it the manor house and its occupants old and new, the church with all its historic pedigree that was the centre of village life,its position in the landscape, I am sure it could be any of these if not all and Blo Norton is no exception.

It sit near the banks of the river Little Ouse which heads westerly joining The River Great Ouse at Brandon Creek, Blo Norton Hall was the home of Prince “Freddy” Frederick Duleep Singh for the last twenty years of his life, in the early twenty century Virginia Woolf made it her holiday home and then there is The Church of St Andrews the last resting place of Frederick Duleep Singh but perhaps what makes this place more interesting is its name.

St Andrews Church, Blo Norton, Norfolk

St Andrews Church

Prince “Freddy” Frederick Duleep Singh

Memorial Seat in St Andrews Grave Yard, Blo Norton, Norfolk, England,

Memorial Seat in St Andrews Grave Yard, Blo Norton, Norfolk, England,

Village Sign, Blo Norton, Norfolk

Village Sign, Blo Norton, Norfolk, England

Web Links

Blo Norton

The River Little Ouse

Blo Norton Hall

Frederick Duleep Singh

Willoughby Lincolnshire: The Pocahontas Connection

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The year was 1607, Mary Queen of Scotts only son was king of England,  Scotland and Ireland and on the north bank of The Haven Boston Lincolnshire  the Scrooby Separatists later to be known as The Pilgrim Fathers made their  first attempt to escape and seek religious freedom.

Also the first English settlement in the New World in Jamestown Virginia  North America had just been established. Among the hundred and five men who  set sail from London a year earlier was a Lincolnshire son named John Smith  of Willoughby, he was responsible for establishing trading links with the  American Indians.

It was during this time that he was captured by a group of Indians who  murdered some of his companions and threatened to execute him but according  to the story John Smith told he was rescued from this fate by the  intervention of the eleven year old Pocahontas who pleaded for his life.

John Smith became president of Virginia in 1608 returning to England in  1609.

In 1614 Pocahontas married John Rolfe of Heacham Norfolk.

St Helenas's Church Willoughby LincolnshireSt Helenas’s Church Willoughby Lincolnshire

John was born in Willoughby Lincolnshire in 1579. He was Baptised in St  Helenas’s Church on the 9th January 1580.

He died in London in 1631.

The Stained Glass Windows from left to right: The Western Window, The John Smith Window and The Eastern Window

The Stained Glass Windows from left to right: The Western Window, The John Smith Window and The Eastern Window

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Detail taken for the three stained glass windows St Helenas’s Church Willoughby Lincolnshire Commemorating John Smith’s Life and Times

Heacham Norfolk: The Pocahontas Connection

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John Rolfe of Heacham Hall Heacham Norfolk sailed to America to seek his fortune not long after Captain John Smith of Willoughby in Lincolnshire set sail to North America as one of the early American settlers in 1607.

St Marys Church

St Marys Church, Heacham, Norfolk, England

 

John Rolfe is best know for introducing Tobacco into Virginia he and his other Norfolk companions anchored in Chesapeake Bay and named their settlement Jamestown. It was during this time that John Rolfe meet Pocahontas the daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Algonquinn Red Indians.

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Pocahontas Memorial

 

In April 1612 when Pocahontas was about 15 years old she was lured on board a vessel and taken to Jamestown as hostage, In around 1613 she converted to Christianity under the instruction of Rev Alexander Whitaker born in Cambridge, who had settled in North America in 1611, it said that it was during these instructions that John Rolfe and Princess Pocahontas meet feel in love and married in 1614.

The Pocahontas Connection

Heacham Village Sign