Reports on past meetings

Helen Murray’s talk was about Newhaven Court, Cromer – not the street of that name but the very large family house which used to stand there until it burnt down in 1963. Helen herself is a descendant of the family who had lived there until WW2 and had intensively researched the history of her family… [Continue Reading]

Jim Stebbings first explained that the term ‘topsy-turvy’ in a Gilbert and Sullivan context came from a poem Gilbert had written where everything is ‘upside down and back to front’. This concept in a G&S context is first seen in Trial By Jury (1875) where the judge marries the female plaintiff. This theme recurs in… [Continue Reading]

Giles Orpen-Smellie (the current Commissioner) spoke on the role of Norfolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner. He explained how, after Robert Peel founded the police in the 1820s, this country came to have the police forces it has today. In 1964 the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson decided that political oversight of the police should be… [Continue Reading]

Our speaker was Wally Webb, the well-known former radio presenter with Radio Norfolk. He described how in his younger days he joined the RAF and during his time there he got involved with club discos and then hospital radio. In 1980 he left the RAF and joined the BBC on a freelance basis. His job… [Continue Reading]

This month’s talk was by club member Paul Rundle. We learnt that during WWII Britain rounded up all of the spies which Hitler had sent over; all but one of these had already been identified before their arrest, largely thanks to Enigma messages which had been decrypted. Some spies were arrested soon after landing in… [Continue Reading]

Tim Groves, a retired primary school teacher, gave a fascinating talk entitled ‘The Development and Growth of Sheringham as a Seaside Resort’. Tim started by passing round some interesting artefacts, stressing the enjoyment and significance of ‘hands-on’ history. One of the objects, a 19th century corn measure, belonged to one of his ancestors. After a… [Continue Reading]

Award-winning publisher, Peter Stibbons, gave a talk on aspects of Cromer’s history. He first took us back 8,000 years ago, when Doggerland, an area of land that connected Britain to continental Europe and containing large areas of Norfolk, was devastated by a great tsunami and submerged beneath the North Sea, causing Cromer to become a… [Continue Reading]

Jacqui Palmer (Heritage Development Manager at the Henry Blogg Museum) spoke in particular about Henry Blogg, Cromer’s famous and most decorated lifeboatman in RNLI history, who in the course of his long career was awarded 3 gold medals from the RNLI, 4 silver medals, and also the George Cross and British Empire Medal. One of… [Continue Reading]

Our Christmas lunch at The Links Hotel in West Runton was followed by a talk by Dr Rob Knee of the UEA, on the old Paston family of Norfolk, concentrating mainly on the fifteenth century. Rob began his talk in a startling manner by coming in dressed in mediaeval costume – a luxuriant red robe… [Continue Reading]

Club member, Paul Newman, had been a government advisor on sustainable development for many years. He began by quoting António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, who has said “Climate change is the most important item in the world’s in-tray”. Here are just a few points from Paul’s very detailed talk: (a) The ice of… [Continue Reading]