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]
Reports on past meetings
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]
April 2022 – Nepal; Now and Next
Steve Scott-Fawcett began by giving us some basic facts about Nepal, e.g. it is about half the size of the UK, with a population also about half the size of ours. Geographically there are three main areas: the high Himalayas close to the northern border, then the central ‘hilly’ area (to us still mountainous!), and… [Continue Reading]
March 2022 – The Lusitania
After an excellent lunch at the Links Hotel in West Runton, we enjoyed an equally excellent talk by Mr James Stebbings, about the RMS Lusitania. This ship belonged to the Cunard line, and was launched in 1906. It was the pride of the Cunard fleet and in 1908 received the Blue Riband accolade for making… [Continue Reading]
February 2022 – The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster of 1874
After an excellent lunch at the Links Hotel in West Runton, we enjoyed a vivid and well-illustrated talk by the author Phyllida Scrivens. Her theme (which is also the title of her book, published last year) was “The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster of 1874”. On 10 September 1874, late in the evening, a mail train… [Continue Reading]
January 2022 – The Good Friday Agreement
Our usual excellent lunch at the Links Hotel in West Runtonwas followed by a most interesting and well illustrated talk by club member Paul Rundle, for which he was thanked by our chairman and all present. Not all members had been able to attend but nonetheless there were 29 of us there, including some new… [Continue Reading]
November 2021 – Scholars, Saints and Sinners
We were given an entertaining and informative talk by Mr Chris Armstrong, who is a Trustee and Vice-Chair of the Norwich Historical Churches Trust. His subject was “Scholars, Saints and Sinners”, and the theme was “some of Norfolk’s most colourful clergy in the 19th century”. Chris, himself from a line of clergymen, said that in… [Continue Reading]