Page 8 - Town & Around - May 2022

8 Town & Around May 2022 Tel: 01485 540620 email: editor@townandaround.net

A page from The Sage

ell now this is the Town and Around been born), we went to watch the first
for the month of May 2022 from the organized Christmas Day Swim and it snowed
WBoy Dick, Sunny Hunny. I am all morning and the beach was white with
writing a bit about the weather in west snow but in the afternoon the sun got out.
Norfolk over the last 120 years. Wind, water, The next time we had any bad weather in
ice and snow. west Norfolk was on Wednesday 11th
On the 22nd of February 1908 there was a February 1978 when there was a gale force
very bad gale in west Norfolk in the gardens wind and we lost our dear old pier and it done
of Sandringham House. There was an avenue some damage to the Wimpy Bar, the
of old elm and lime trees leading from the promenade near the boating lake and the fair
front of Sandringham House to the Norwich ground, it also did a lot of damage to many
Gates. Every one of these trees was blown caravans at Heacham. At Wells the Coaster
down and had to be replaced. Function was washed up on to the quay.
From December 1927 till January 1928 I cannot get out and about now to the beach
parts of Norfolk had the worst blizzards ever and around the town so I have to use the
remembered and most of Norfolk was cut off webcams to keep an eye on the beach. At the
for many days. West Norfolk had a present time the beach at Hunstanton is
lot of snow but not gale force winds as the Dick Melton looking good with all the westerly winds it has
wind was coming out of the east, so the worst 01485 535658 washed the stones and small rocks up to the
parts of Norfolk affected were Cromer, promenade and this gives more protection to
Yarmouth and Norwich. butcher’s roundsman delivering meat around the foot of the promenade. What we need now
From 1940 till 1949 all the winters were the villages in the vicinity of Dersingham. The is the old Seagate slipway putting back, not
cold but the summers were warm, including day of the blizzard was a Tuesday, I started only was it an easy way to get on to the beach
the summer of 1947 even though the winter my round driving a small Morris Eight van, but it also acted as a good breakwater
of 1947 was one of the worst on record. The the first village I went to was Shernborne and (groyne). What we have to remember is most
bad weather started in January and went on till while I was there it started to snow very hard of the promenade is over seventy years old
the end of March. Many villages like Docking with a strong wind blowing the snow off the and some of it over one hundred years old. We
, Sedgeford and Burnham Market were cut of fields so I made my way to Dodds Hill and will never get a new promenade so we have
for days at a time. The road at Redgate Hill in then on to Sandringham then on to Anmer to protect what we have, without a promenade
Hunstanton was all twists and turns those along King’s Avenue. By this time it was Hunstanton would just fade away. It is
days, and with the wind blowing from the east blowing a right old blizzard! I got about a Hunstanton’s biggest attraction and without it
it got blocked all of the time. There was still a quarter of a mile past the stud, I had my you could say goodbye to Sunny Hunny.
prisoner of war camp at Snettisham Beach headlights on and then just in front of me was A member of the Civic Society jot in touch
with the prisoners of war waiting to be a Seamans of Gaywood milk lorry in the with me asking me if I knew anything about a
repatriated back to Germany; these prisoners middle of a large snow drift. I went to the story about some goats, flags and the Golden
were brought up to Redgate Hill to keep the lorry and I said to the driver: “come on mate Lion Hotel so I decided to put a stoty (some
road open. The only tools they had in those we can’t stop here”, and I locked the van with squit) about what I think was the connection
days were shovels, no JCB’s in those days! I the meat still in it and walked through the with these three things.
lived at Dersingham then, I was only seven blizzard back to Dersingham. The first thing In 1846 the Golden Lion was built and
years old and we lived about a mile from the we did was have a basin of red hot soup, one many people called it Le Strange's folly as the
school. We walked there and back four times of the estate drivers towed the van and the nearest places to it were Old Hunstanton,
a day as there was no school dinners then but lorry out on the Thursday with the meat still Heacham and the lighthouse. In 1861 the
we did not miss a day of school. These days frozen, and on the Friday the boss borrowed a population of Hunstanton was 490, most of
if you get two flakes of snow they shut the tractor and small trailer and took some meat them living in Old Hunstanton.
schools. to West Newton, Hillington, Flitcham and In 1846 boat trips went from King’s Lynn to
The next time west Norfolk had bad Anmer. Some of the snow still laid on the Hunstanton; it was two shillings return and
weather was the night of January 31st and the ground in the small lanes a week later. most of these people went to the Golden Lion
early morning of 1st February 1953. The wind The next lot of bad weather we had started for refreshments. At this time the resort had
had been blowing hard for four days from the just after Christmas 1962 and went on till the one hotel and five small cottages, then in 1861
north west then on the Saturday night we had end of March 1963, it was not so much the the railway line from Hunstanton to King’s
the great flood the worst flood since the 1770's snow as thee icy roads. We had snow on and Lynn opened at a cost of £80, 000 to build.
on the east coast of England. Many people off but we had a very sharp frost every day, I Trade at the Golden Lion built up and a lot
who lived near the sea at King’s Lynn, was working in a gang riddling potatoes out more building started so the Golden Lion
Snettisham, Heacham and Hunstanton lost of an outside potato grave on a farm down decided to put all flags around the building to
their lives that night, 31 at Hunstanton, nine Clenchwarton Marsh; it was about twelve attract more attention. Then the railway
at Heacham, 25 at Snettisham and 15 at miles from Dersingham and I made the brought in more people so the Golden Lion
King’s Lynn. At Dersingham the water came journey on a good old Norton motor cycle brought in goat boys with their goats and
in two miles that's up to where the by-pass is with a side car weighted down with a concrete small carts to take peoples luggage up the hill
today. kerb stone. I was never late once and I had to from the station to the hotel, and that is the
The Queen was at Sandringham and during be there by 7am. I can tell you I was really connection between the goats, flags and the
the next few days she and Prince Philip visited pleased to see the back of that winter. Golden Lion hotel in Hunstanton.
King’s Lynn and Hunstanton to see the A lot of the old boys used to talk about the Well that’s about all for now, I have been
damage and speak to the many people who white Christmas’s when they were young well eating some nice mussels all winter I reckon
had helped in this terrible disaster. I worked it out that between 1906 and 1970 there will soon be some nice crabs about, don't
The next lot of snow we had was a blizzard snow fell in Norfolk on only five Christmas forget keep on a troshin’.
on February 29th 1958. The blizzard lasted all Days and they were 1906,1923,1927,1938 All the best,
day and covered most of Norfolk especially and 1970. In 1970 I lived in Seagate with Joy The Boy Dick, the Sage,
west Norfolk. At the time I was working as a and three of our children (our fourth had not Sunny Hunny