Come to the Hockham Horn Fair Sunday 30th May

The Hockham Horn Fair dates from a charter granted by Henry III in 1272 for a fair to be held each year. The fair starts around midday. There will be local stalls, refreshments and activities going on as well as entertainment including maypole dancing and molly dancing. Come and see the Hockham Horn Dance preformed. You can find out more about this historic fair on Chris Garrod's Great Hockham website.

Come and join the Smashing Saxons - Watton Library Thursday 3rd June 2pm - 3pm

The Watton Library is running an free event to discover Saxon life in Norfolk and make a clay thumb pot. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Please ask branch staff or call Watton Library on 01953 881671 for more details. The 'Capturing Our Wayland Heritage' project will also provide a display on Saxon finds from the Wayland area at the event.

'Look Up' in Wayland - Join the hunt for building dates

We miss a lot of the world around us by not looking up above our normal eye level.

Today we are starting a new Capturing Our Wayland Heritage project called ‘Look Up’ and we would like everyone to look up for a particular reason.

We would like you to join in the hunt for all the buildings in the Wayland area with dates on them. The collection will build up into a valuable resource for the study of local architectural styles in the area.

Dates are often to be found high up on buildings on date stones or marked out in bricks or flints set into in the walls. Sometimes dates can be found inside building too, carved on beams or over fireplaces. All types of buildings can have them houses, barns, schools, village halls, chapels etc.

When a building has been found we would like people to do four things
1. Take a photo of a general view of the building
2. Take a closer detail view of the date
3. Make a note to say where the building is and its date.
4. Then email them to sue@wayland.org.uk or post directly on to the project's Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/group/wayland-heritage/

The copyright of the photos will remain with the photographer, we would just want your permission to use copies as part of the study resource available to the community.

The photos below are a sample of the kind of images and info we are hoping to collect from around the area.

 The Belvoir building, High Street, Watton, genral view above and detail below. The date stone reads 'Labour and Watts 1929'. It will be interesting to find out who 'Labour and Watts' were.

If you would like to do a bit more research on the buildings you identify that would be wonderful and we would be pleased to help.

If you have not got a camera you can still help by making a list of the buildings you find, and someone else can take some photographs, or the project can help you start taking your own photographs.

Contact Sue White – Wayland Heritage Officer

Tel 01953 880216
Email sue@wayland.org.uk
Project blogsite http://wayland-heritage.blogspot.com

Consolidated B-24 Liberator emergency landing near Watton 1943

Consolidated B-24 Liberator
Originally uploaded by Doug Sheley
The B-24 was called 'Pregnant Peg' from the 577th Bomb Squadron, 392nd Bomb Group (Wendling) http://www.b24.net/, 8th Air Force.
This is one of the many wonderful images that can be seen on the 'Capturing Our Wayland Heritage' online Flickr photo group pages. The group has 38 members and over 700 photographs have been up loaded on to the site. If you take photographs in the Wayland area, or have old images, that you would like to share, why not join Flickr and the group (it is Free)at http://www.flickr.com/groups/wayland-heritage/

‘The Parish of Stow Bedon Breckles and Lower Stow Bedon’ Published on the Web

The book ‘The Parish of Stow Bedon Breckles and Lower Stow Bedon’ was researched and produced as a local community project in the parishes covered by the book in 2005. It was funded by a grant from ‘Awards for All’ and was given free to parishioners and interested parties. The book is now sadly out of print. Working with Rosemary Macintosh we are pleased to have helped in making it accessible once more to parishioners and researchers. The project is greatful to Gary Pearce for the preparation of the original material for digital publication.
The Parish of Stow Bedon Breckles and Lower Stow Bedon. This document has been temporally removed from the web for updating.

2nd Heritage Photo Group Meet is 19th May 2pm at Scoulton Village Hall

The first meeting of the Wayland Heritage Photo Group got off to a good start with ten members gathering to setting out plans for future activities, this was followed by a walk around Watton. With thanks to Paul Adcock and Julian Horn the group got to see some highs and lows of Watton that are not normally open to the public. You will see from the photos below that we explored the underground tunnels, which are thought to be around 200 years old, under the Clock Tower.

Then the group went up on to the roof of the building behind the Clock Tower to look at the timber framed core of the building adjoining the tower. Inside part of the building the original exterior wall is still visible with a rare example, for Watton, of decorated plaster. 

The next meeting on 19th May will meet at the Scoulton village hall at 2pm. Julia Grover from the Scoulton History Group will show the group some early photographs of the village and then we will take a walking tour of the area. If you are planning on coming or have difficulties with transport please give me a email on sue@wayland.org.uk or phone 01953 880216.

Norfolk's Farming Artifacts - 17th May, BBC One, 7.30pm

Artefacts showing how Norfolk fed the world are being broadcast on TV for the BBC's A History of the World series.

Coke's Monument at Holkham Hall and the journal of Wymondham farmer Randall Burroughes, held at the Norfolk Record Office, are featured on the programme about the "The agricultural revolution". Susanna Wade-Martins, who gave a wonderful talk to the project before Christmas, talks about the Thomas Coke 1st Earl of Leicester (1754 - 1842), who promoted new farming methods on his Holkham Hall estate, and his Monument, built in 1845. Professor Tom Williamson talks about the 1794 journal of the farmer Randall Burroughes of Burfield Hall, Wymondham.
Ploughs, Cows and Clover is broadcast on 17 May 2010, on BBC One at 7.30pm.
See film clips of the program on http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8677000/8677036.stm