Page 14 - Town & Around - January 2019
P. 14

14 Town & Around January 2019                                                      Tel: 01485 540620 email: editor@townandaround.net
        A Page from the Sage




                ell here we go, another Page from                             from Colchester on the road from Ipswich to
                the Sage for the month of January                             London. These droves generally contain from
        W2019, and another new year.                                          three hundred to a thousand in each drove so
          As you all know I get lots of people ask me                         that works out at about 150,000 pass that way
        things about all subjects about Dersingham                            each  year,  and  yet  this  is  one  of  the  least
        and  Hunstanton;  I  was  asked  about                                passages. The numbers that travel by way of
        Cumberland House at 28 Northgate, if it was                           Newmarket Heath, and the open country and
        still there, I did not know much about it, in                         the forest, and also the numbers that come by
        fact I had never heard of it so I put a bit in the                    Sudbury  and  Clare  being  many  more  in
        November issue of Town and Around asking                              numbers.
        for help.                                                               They have found it practicable to make the
          It was not long before I had Neil Quincy on                         geese travel on foot too, and it is very frequent
        the phone telling me all about it. Up to 1914  by                     now to meet droves of a thousand sometimes
        it was apartments then during the war it was  Dick Melton             two thousand in a drove, they begin to drive
        taken over by the army, then after 1918 it was                        them generally in August by which time the
        again apartments then some time in the 60s or                         harvest is almost over and the geese will feed
        70s it became the Tudor Rose nursing home,  traction engines, the tooting of whistles, the  on the stubbles as they go thus they hold on
        it is now a block of flats, so there you are  heat of the paraffin flares and the ornate old  to the end of October when the roads begin to
        Cumberland  House  is  still  there  at  28  organs  with  figures  beating  on  drums  and  get to stiff and deep for their broad feet and
        Northgate.                         crashing  cymbals  to  fill  the  air  with  short legs to march in.
          I had another dear old gentleman ring me  mechanical music. There were the galloping
        up, Mr Wilf King who was an AA patrolman  horses, Thurston’s Dragons and cake walk,  A farming tale
        for many years, he patrolled along the North  the penny on the mat (helter skelter), there  This is a little tale about an old boy that
        Norfolk coast on his bright yellow motorcycle  were the renowned swinging boats shamrock  worked on the land 60 or so years ago, he was
        and sidecar. On the morning of the first day  and  resolute,  taking  their  names  from  the  a man of enduring simplicity, his education
        of February 1953, the day after the great flood  yachts which competed for the America’s Cup  had been basic in the extreme, if he bought
        Wilf  and  some  of  his  other AA  patrolmen  in the days when Sir Thomas Lipton carried  something and the change came to three half
        including a Mr Starling from Heacham had to  the British flag to victory, and there was Billy  pence,  he  insisted  on  receiving  three
        go round the coast of Norfolk putting up over  Wood's International Boxing Academy where  halfpennies, it was no good offering him a
        one  hundred  signs  telling  people  about  foolhardy local lads risked life and limb in an  penny and a halfpenny if he did not get three
        diversions, flooded roads, sand on the  effort to overcome the travelling pugilists, on  coins  he  was  sure  he  was  being  swindled,
          roads and no entry signs. When I spoke to  a more modest scale there was an absolute  there was on one occasion when he bought a
        Wilf he said he remembered it as if it was  plethora of hoopla stalls, coconut shies, and  cockerel from his boss on being asked the
        yesterday.                         shooting galleries, not to mention the stalls  price, his boss replied: well do you think a
          I saw in the press the other day where a  offering fairground rock in a wide selection of  crown would be alright? Oh I don't about that
        small seaside town down the south of England  flavours and colours.   Master, said the old boy, I was thinking more
        had a small high street that was just over 300  The greatest variety, however, was to be  like five shillings.
        metres long had 14 coffee shops in that one  found  in  the  many  booths  which  housed  When  he  first  started  work  for  that
        small  street.  A  man  put  in  a  planning  attractions as diverse as knife throwing acts  particular farmer, quite naturally he’d been
        application for another one in an empty shop  and flea circuses, many offered a selection of  anxious what wages he would receive, but the
        but the council said no. We have a few coffee  animal exhibits, from the biggest rat in the  farmer had been quick to allay his fears, don't
        shops here in Hunstanton but not that many;  world (that turned out to be a coypu) to a  you worry about that the farmer said, I’ll pay
        there  are  lots  of  charity  shops,  cafes,  selection of freaks of nature like a five legged  you what you are worth. The old boy's face
        restaurants, hotels, bars and a dozen fish and  sheep. In some cases, however, the animals on  fell, that’s no good to me Master, he said, I’m
        chip shops, the one thing we do not have is a  show  were  accompanied  by  somewhat  getting more than that already!
        public house. The definition of a public house  scantily clad young ladies like Rona the Rat
        is no rooms to let, the licensee living on the  Girl, sharing her cage with crawling rodents,  Addresses
        premises, no food, no electronic music, and a  or Tianga the Jungle Girl, who held up such  In the press on Friday there was a planning
        nice open fire with a piano standing up the  things as lizards for members of the public to  application  for  number  2  Marine  Parade,
        corner for anyone to play.         inspect, those heady days have long gone and  South Promenade Hunstanton, this puzzled
                                           unfortunately will not return.     me  as  I  had  not  heard  of  Marine  Parade
                  Travelling Fairs                                            Hunstanton.  The  Southern  Promenade
          There are still a lot of travelling fairs about  Taken from Daniel Defoe's, tour  Hunstanton goes from the southern end of the
        like the King’s Lynn mart, the Nottingham  through Great Britain (1724)  fair to the hump (Heacham boundary), there
        Goose Fair, Hull Fair and many more but they  Suffolk  is  particularly  famous  for  is only one building along that stretch and that
        are nothing like the steam fairs of old.  furnishing  the  city  of  London  and  all  the  is the cafe in the power boat car park. The
          In Norwich twice a year the Cattle Market  counties around with turkeys, and it is thought  length of promenade from the southern end of
        and  the  Agricultural  Hall  were  cleared  at  there are more turkeys bred in this county and  the promenade to Johnson’s Slipway is the
        Christmas and Easter to make way for these  the part of Norfolk that adjoins it than in all  Central Promenade and the length from there
        fairs, the showmen would arrive and in no  the rest of England.       to the cliffs has always been, and still is, the
        time at all both hall and the market would be  A person living in this place has counted  North  Promenade.  If  the  name  has  been
        packed  with  every  conceivable  kind  of  300 droves of turkeys (for they drive them all  changed  or  a  new  road  constructed,  then
        diversion  with  hardly  an  inch  to  spare  in droves on foot) pass in one season over  maybe someone will let all the good people
        anywhere; it was still the traditional type of  Stratford  bridge  on  the  River  Stour  which  of Hunstanton know about this.
        gathering, with the hissing steam from the  parts  Suffolk  from  Essex,  about  six  miles  Oh  dear,  I  read  in  the  paper  where  the
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