August 2019 Newsletter

Gosberton House Care Home August 2019 Newsletter Cromer Pier Circa 1930 As we put this month’s Newsletter together there is not the usual contribution from Anita updating us on what we got up to in July and what we have to look forward to in August as it is the week running up to her wedding as she gets married this Saturday 20th July. I am sure that there will be lots of pictures of the happy event to share with you when she gets back and some of them may make it into next month’s Newsletter. In the meantime, I thought that we could have some funny stories to make us smile, some short stories to read and some puzzles to keep us busy ! I am sure that your day will be wonderful Anita, but to get us started here are some amusing true tales of weddings that didn’t quite go to plan. I’m feeling 22 “My first marriage, a virtual elopement, the reception was held in a Southport night club with a dozen or so mutual friends. During the festivities, I went outside for a reason I can’t remember now and the bouncers wouldn’t let me back in again because I didn’t look older than 21. (They were nearly right – I was 22). I had to hang around outside until someone I knew came looking for me. Given the way things subsequently turned out it would have been better for both of us if I’d have gone home!” Cricket team feud “I wasn’t even at the wedding. I was playing cricket, an away fixture at Lytham St Annes, near Blackpool. As we played, the pavilion was being used for a wedding reception. When we heard shouts from the pavilion, we realised that a fight was kicking off. Members of the home team rolled up their sleeves, ran off the pitch, and pitched in. Members of our team stood, open-mouthed, nosed pressed up against the windows, as guests went flying over trestle tables loaded with food. We’d never seen anything like it. When we heard police sirens, the opposition players rushed out, covered in blood, beer and sandwich paste, and insisted we carry on with the game as if nothing had happen. A surreal day’s cricket, and I can’t even recall who won… ” Wrong wifey “I wasn’t there but at my parents wedding my dad got up for his speech and said “on behalf of my wife Jenny and I” – my mum’s name is Sue, Jenny is his sister in law !!!” "He left the wedding reception with one of the bridesmaids." "When I was going through law school I used to process serve in the evenings -- handing our summons and delivering divorce papers, etc. "I usually never had time to read the complaints, but I was having trouble finding the husband to serve the divorce papers on -- he had deserted from the Navy -- so I hoped that the papers might have some clue in them as to how I could find him. "Turns out the complaint stated that 'He left the wedding reception with one of the bridesmaids and at that point the wife determined that the marriage was over ...' "Looks like he has quite a track record in deserting." History of Cromer As it summer time, I thought we would take a look at another popular seaside resort, Cromer ……. Cromer At the time of King William's Domesday records, 1086, there is no mention of the town of Cromer. Instead, we read of Shipden, a town that now lies beneath the sea. In medieval times we read of Cromer, alias Shipden. The town centred on two becks which fall into the sea, the east beck which joins the sea at the natural break known as the Gangway, and the west beck, which nowadays is piped underground, joins the sea close to the pier. Fishermen and merchants plied their trade from the beach below, and sheep farmers keeping their flocks on the hills behind the town. In 1285 the king granted Cromer a Friday market and a yearly fair of eight days. The church of St Peter and St Paul replaced the two earlier churches, that of St Paul (which was a smaller church on the site of the present one) and that of St Peter (which was already close to the receding cliff edge when the building of the modern church began). In 1565 Cromer is listed as a landing place with a pier, with 117 householders. The merchants traded far afield, and Cromer vessels crossed the North Sea, sailed to the Baltic and even to Iceland and Greenland. The trading vessels of Cromer continued to land on its open beach until almost the end of the 19th century, when the railways offered a more efficient means of transport. Undoubtedly business had declined over the centuries, with the general decline in the importance of the county of Norfolk as a centre for the wool industry. Fishing continued to be a mainstay of the town, with cod, mackerel and other longshore catches providing a year round return, before the decline to the crab and lobster specialisation of today. Tourism began to be of more importance from the beginning of the 19th century, and it is from that period that the first written guide to Cromer dates. The end of the war with Cromer Beach in Late 1930's France provided the opportunity for this influx of visitors. The Gurney family of Earlham Hall were some of the earliest visitors of this sort to the town. The mixture of sea views and bathing, the woods and walks behind the town and the activity on the beach brought those with leisure time and the time to draw and paint to Cromer, including a number of artists of the Norwich school. The coming of the railways and the accompanying publicity started by the travel writer and theatre critic Clement Scott - who coined the name Poppyland for the area - led to a further rush of visitors in the final decade of the 19th century. Many of those visiting the town contributed to local prosperity and building substantial houses. Others took the opportunity to develop businesses based on the holiday trade. The great hotels, few of which remain, date from this time. With the decline of the town after the medieval period, the church itself had fallen into a considerable state of disrepair. The Reformation and the time of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth had also contributed to the deterioration of many church buildings. The church windows had largely been bricked up and the chancel had been demolished. Reverend Thomas Gill had resorted to the use of gunpowder for this purpose in 1681. The restoration of the church was undertaken in the reign of Queen Victoria, and it was substantially restored for the beginning of the 20th century. Cromer also became known because of its lifeboat station. Today the offshore lifeboat station is at the end of the pier, whilst the inshore lifeboat operates from the beach. In the 19th century, almost every coastal town or village in Norfolk had its lifeboat. In the 1920s motor lifeboats began to take over from the pulling and sailing boats. The building of the pier-head station at Cromer meant that the lifeboat could launch in almost any weather, and Cromer took over responsibility for much of the coastline to the east, and in particular for the Haisboro' Sands. The work of Coxswain Henry Blogg and his crew became known nationally, and has been continued by his successors led by Henry 'Shrimp' Davies, Richard Davies, Billy Davies and today's Coxswain, John Davies. Today Cromer and district remains a very popular spot for visitors. Of course it is not possible to guarantee the sunshine and warmth of overseas destinations, but the summer can offer open beaches, country walks, safe sea bathing and a variety of interesting places to visit. The area now offers a selection of activities, from the local museums, the swimming pool at Sheringham, heritage railway journeys, 'Seaside Special' at the end of the pier - plenty to interest everyone except perhaps those who want to be absolutely certain that they can lie on the beach all day and dance all the night away! A Double Lesson A carload of hunters, on holiday, were looking for a place to hunt, pulled into a farmer's yard in County Waterford, Ireland. The driver, Brannagh, went up to the farmhouse to ask permission to hunt on the farmer's land. The old farmer said, 'Sure you can hunt, but would you be doing me a favour? That old donkey standing over there is 20 years old and sick with cancer, but I don't have the heart to kill her. Would you do it for me?' Brannagh replied, 'Of course I will,' and strolled back to the car. While walking back, however, Brannagh decided to play a trick on his hunting friends. He got into the car and when they asked if the farmer had said if it was alright, he said, 'No, we can't hunt here, but I'm going to teach that old fellow a lesson he won't forget.' With that, the Irishman rolled down his window, stuck his gun out and shot the donkey. As he shouted, 'To be sure, that will teach him,' a second shot rang out from the passenger side and one of his hunting mates yelled, 'And me, begorrah, I got the cow.' Thought of the month………… The Chemist The owner of a chemist walked into his shop one day, only to notice a man leaning heavily against a wall.

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