Wood Rising - Church Barrel Organ

The organ was built in 1862 by Flight & Robson; restored 1957; one barrel replaced 1960. Repertoire of 30 "hymns". It was filmed being played at the church open day in 2009.

Evening Sunshine at Merton Park , Wayland, Norfolk

A short film shot in the beautiful early evening sunshine at Merton.

Queens Hall - Souvenir Programme 1956

Following the Wayland Heritage Discovery Day at Queens Hall last Friday it seemed a good time to start looking at the history of the hall. We are lucky that a copy of the original 1956 souvenir programme has survived in Lesley Cowling's family collection of Wayland documents. The three pages that give a history of what was then called 'Watton Coronation Hall' have been added here. The full programme has been scanned and can now be read online (in the window above) and downloaded from Google Docs, if you click on the small icon top right in the window above you can see it in a larger window, click on File, top right, and you can download it free from there.

If anyone can give some of their time to help scan documents like this please, get in touch with the project heritage officer  sue@wayland.org.uk

Heritage Drop-ins on Wednesday Afternoons - dates for March 2010

The March 2010 dates for the Wednesday 'Heritage drop-in Afternoons' 2 - 4pm at Wayland House, Watton are 3rd, 10th and 17th March

Pop-in to find out more about the project.

Come in and pick up some tips on how to research your local history on-line.  View your village from the air with Google Earth and discover archaeological features from the air.

We need volunteers for scanning and recording historical photos and documents of Watton, Wayland and the Battle Area, could you help us record the past for the future

If you have a topic you would like to research or a local story to tell which you would like to pass on to future generations we would be happy to help.

Thank you to everyone that came to the 'Wayland Heritage Discovery Day'

Thank you to everyone that came to the Discovery Day on Friday. As you can see from the photo on the left we had a good time. All the hard work of the local heritage, needlecraft and photographic groups made it a very interesting and enjoyable day.

We were luck to be able to have John Lord demonstration the ancient art of flint working all through the day as part of the 'Wayland Heritage Discovery Day'. The speed and skill with which he works the flint is amazing. Visit his website to find out more about his work and where else you can see him flintknapping www.flintknapping.co.uk

Dr John Davies's talk on 'Boudica's Norfolk' ended the 'Wayland Heritage Discovery Day', with a wonderful fresh look at Iron Age Norfolk. Covering some of the results that new research and discoveries are revealing about our county. The Ashill and Saham Toney within the Wayland area may prove to be of particular importants.  Dr Davies has recently published to books on Boudica's Norfolk.

Again many thanks to all of you that attended.

John Lord - Flint Knapping Demonstration - 26th Feb at the Wayland Heritage Discovery Day - Queens Hall, Watton

John and Val Lord will be demonstrating their ancient art through out the day. John is a master of the art of flint knapping, and Val is an expert in producing the bindings that would have held the flint tools in place in their wooden mounts. Don't miss this chance to see them at work, if you have found any worked flints John would be interested to see them, and will be able to tell you about how they were made. You could be adding important information to the heritage of the Wayland area.

Wayland Heritage Discovery Day - 26th Feb

There will be a major heritage event at the Queens Hall, Watton on Friday February 26. Every one in the Wayland area (and beyond) is welcome to this event. During the day there will be opportunities for visitors to explore all kinds of topics. There will be opportunities to try some online research, local groups will have demonstrations and displays and there will be photograph exhibitions and film shows.

The subjects covered will range from 2 World War photographs, local architecture, parish records, heirloom textiles, traditional crafts, quilting and hands-on have a go at making a rag rug and much more. Local heritage groups will show some of the resent material and activities they have been working on.If any Wayland residents have photographs, postcards, needlework or artefacts of any kind they would like to show or to learn about, we would love to see them too. Everyone can contribute to capturing our wayland heritage for the generations to come. We will have cameras and scanners there on the day so we can record the items that are brought in, so your precious heirlooms will not have to leave your sight. There will be oppotunities to sign-up to take part in workshops and activities during the comming year.

The Discovery Day will run from 10.30am and in the evening at 7pm there will be a special treat when John Davies from the Norfolk Museums and Archaeological Service will speak on ‘Boudica’s Norfolk’. Dr Davies has recently had two books published on the subject, the video clip below shows him talking about one of them. The video was produced by Poppyland Publishing.