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]
Reports on past meetings
February 2023 – Aspects of Cromer’s History
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]
January 2023 – RNLI at Cromer
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]
December 2022 – The Paston Family
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]
November 2022 – Climate Change
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]
October 2022 – The role of the High Sheriff and some Gurney family history
Michael Gurney spoke about some of his family history and about his role as High Sheriff of Norfolk in 2021-22. The Gurneys are a distinguished Norfolk family in their own right and Michael is the 13th Gurney to be High Sheriff of Norfolk since 1399! Moreover Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845), prison reformer, was born a Gurney,… [Continue Reading]
September 2022 – Poppyland Comunity Radio
Paul Hensby and Mike Goldwater spoke to us about Poppyland Community Radio. This is an online-only service which started in February this year and is based at The Belfry Centre in Overstrand. Its aim is to combat loneliness and to encourage a sense of community; its programmes include “mardling” (chat) sessions, interviews and a wide… [Continue Reading]
August 2022 – Hocus Pocus!
Club member Terry Robinson spoke to us on “Hocus Probus! A Spell of Magic”. He explained how he had been interested in numbers since a young age and raised the question of whether numbers were originally invented or discovered – a question that he left us to ponder! He pointed out how IT is dependent… [Continue Reading]
July 2022 – Weather Forecasting
Chris Bell (who may be familiar from his TV appearances as a weather forecaster on Look East) spoke to us about meteorology. Chris is one of the directors of Weatherquest (a private weather forecasting company) and he also lectures in meteorology at the UEA. It was fascinating to learn of the many areas of life… [Continue Reading]
May 2022 – At Home with the Tudors
On 3 May, we enjoyed a very humorous talk by Simon Partridge, entitled “At Home with the Tudors”. He pointed out that the Tudor period ran from 1485 to 1603, and in that period most people were either very wealthy or very poor. The very wealthy had large houses but small windows as glass was… [Continue Reading]