BrininghamBriningham BeneficeBenefice CommunityCommunity InIn TouchTouch OctoberOctober 20202020 ChurchChurch && VillageVillage NewsNews THE BRININGHAM BENEFICE BRININGHAM St Maurice STODY St Mary BRINTON St Andrew SWANTON NOVERS St Edmund HUNWORTH St Lawrence THORNAGE All Saints www.brininghambenefice.org.uk Rector: Churchwardens: (01263) BRININGHAM: 862785 Miss Sylvia Took 860057 Mrs Karen Siddall BRINTON: Mrs Esme Bagnall-Oakeley 860247 860247 Mr Jeremy Bagnall-Oakeley HUNWORTH: 713306 Mrs Charlotte Crawley 861114 Ms Lucy Woodall STODY: 862247 Mrs Nicola Baker 860407 Mrs Morag Lloyd Advertising rates for the SWANTON NOVERS: ‘In Touch’ magazine: Mr Roger Langston 860163 1/8 page: £25 per annum THORNAGE: 1/4 page: £50 per annum Mr Joe Ashley 862298 1/2 page: £100 per annum Full page: £200 per annum Editorial Team: Invoices and receipts will be sent. BACS payments Teresa Anderson at; or cheques accepted. Contact: [email protected] [email protected] Cover Design: Denise Clark Views expressed in ‘In Touch’ are those of the individual contributor, and do not always reflect the official doctrine of the Church of England, nor necessarily the views of the Rector. 2 Prayer Rev'd Canon David Adam David Adam was born in Northumberland and as a young man worked as a coalminer. How- ever he was ordained and served as a parish priest for many years. In particular he was Vicar of Holy Island (Lindisfarne) from 1990 to 2003. He produced a small booklet of mod- ern Celtic prayers arranged around seven themes. The prayer below is on the theme of community. As you love each other, Grow in the love of God. As you give yourselves to each other, God gives himself to you. As you share your lives together, God shares his life with you. As you grow in awareness of each other, Grow in awareness of God. Let his love encircle your love. Let his life fill your lives. Let him bind you as one together And one with him. 3 Editorial In the last edition of In Touch magazine, we said that following Jenni- fer's departure the future was unclear. At the time of going to press, the living has been suspended and Churchwardens be having meetings in the coming weeks to discuss the way forward. This means there will not be an "Our Rector Writes" feature as, self- evidently, there is no Rector to write the column. Nobody on the In Touch team feels remotely qualified to attempt to write some sort of substitute column. So unless somebody else suitably qualified can sub- mit material, nothing under this subject heading will appear. To put it mildly this would be a great shame. So this is not, despite rumours to the contrary, an opportunity to change In Touch into a secular magazine. We recognise that the church plays a significant role in all our villages. We will work with the church- wardens to see if we can find a suitable alternative solution, and any appropriate information received on church matters we will publish. We're not in a position to provide this copy ourselves so if you have something to submit, send it in to us at brininghamintouch@gmx or contact the editorial team on 01263 862170. We do live in difficult times, as said in previous editorials, and we look to you, our readers, to help us keep In Touch alive. Meanwhile we shall struggle on as best we can. Teresa Disclaimer—Information about events advertised in this magazine was accurate at the time of submission/printing. However, given the fast developing situation that we are facing with the Coronavirus outbreak it is possible that events may have been or may yet be cancelled. Please check, before attending any events that they are still on, and also please give careful thought to whether it is appropriate for you to attend given recent Government guidelines. 4 NO BIG DEAL ? When researching the subject of churches in this area one of the sources for the piece on St Helen and All Saints, West Beckham was Churches of Norfolk by Simon Knott .Written or at least published in 2008 it does of course pre-date Covid-19 but nevertheless I think that the extract below has significant relevance for the present time and the future of the churches in our Benefice. Simon Knott wrote; “Like the vast majority of churches in this area, St.Helen and All Saints is open every day. You might think that this is no big deal , because this not an important historical building and there are few survivals of the past to explore .But that is not the point. The parish churches are the greatest single act of witness which the Church of England possesses , and to find little churches like this open throughout the secret narrow lanes of north Norfolk is to be aware of the presence of a living Faith, and to enter into a sense of the numinous. The people of this parish are doing the work of God, simply by opening up to wonderers and pil- grims. Opening up a church to casual visitors is an easy act of simple human kindness .Like smiling at strangers it is a little thing .But it helps to make the world a better place.” Phil Anderson—Thornage 5 Poem for the Month Forward by John Smart - Thornage This months poem is October by Robert Frost Robert Frost was a distinguished American poet who was part of the Dymock group of English rural poets before the First World War and a close friend of Edward Thomas. Most famous perhaps for 'Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening' and 'The Road not Taken', Frost was the only person to have won four Pulitzer prizes for poetry. Robert Lee Frost March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963 6 Poem for the Month October By Robert Frost O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; Tomorrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow. Make the day seem to us less brief. Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Beguile us in the way you know. Release one leaf at break of day; At noon release another leaf; One from our trees, one far away. Retard the sun with gentle mist; Enchant the land with amethyst. Slow, slow! For the grapes’ sake, if they were all, Whose leaves already are burnt with frost, Whose clustered fruit must else be lost— For the grapes’ sake along the wall. 7 JOHNSON JEX (1778-1852) This is something of a self-indulgent piece .I have for some time wanted to write something about Jex. Although he is mentioned in some histo- ries he is not ,in my opinion,, as well known as he should be. His grandfather ,John Jex, was born in Stody and became a blacksmith in Letheringsett. John’s son, William, was also a blacksmith and moved to Billingford near East Dereham where Johnson was born. By 1802 Johnson had left Billingford and taken over his grandfather’s old smithy in Letheringsett Jex was to live in Letheringsett for the rest of his life .He never mar- ried, was shy and ill at ease with people and was considered unambi- tious and reclusive. Indeed his tombstone describes him as a “scientific anchorite”. However although never formally educated (he preferred to spend time with Foulsham watchmaker William Mayes) over his lifetime Jex taught himself to read, write, draw and calculate. Even at the age of sixty he taught himself French in order to fully understand a particular book in its original language. In addition to being a master watchmaker he also made mathematical instruments, barometers , thermometers , gun-barrels and telescopes (both refracting and reflecting). In many instances Jex seems to have been well ahead of his time. An example was his desire to grow “pine trees” from seed possibly because he wanted to grow pineapples. A constant temperature was required so he installed his own self-regulating ventilation in his greenhouse .In a letter Jex mentions his thermostatic window-opener but provides no details although gravity circulation to hot water radiators is given more detail. Others did make public their advances in the field of heating and ventilation but these were at a much later date than the 1830’s when Jex developed his ideas. However it may well be that it is the Triple Prismatic Lathe that is the best example of Jex being well ahead of his time. This lathe was adver- tised in 1822. 8 TRIPLE PRISMATIC ENGINE LATHE : JOHNSON JEX Informs the Proprietors of Mills and Manufactories that he turns Axles, Shafts, Spindles, Cylinders, work- ing Barrels, Valves, Dutch Cones, Spheri- cal and Plane Surfaces, Pyramids, Cir- cles, Squares, Pentagons, etc., divides and cuts pinions and Wheels. Patterns with any number of Teeth from 6 to 2000 and upwards and cuts screws of all kinds from a Watch Screw to the largest Brass Screw, left or right, single, double or treble square or angular thread cylindri- cal or conical and to any required num- ber of turns to foot or inch. The accuracy with which all these operations can be performed by the above Lathe is highly deserving of the attention of all persons who employ Mechanism in the Manufac- tories. Johnson Jex casts Mill Brasses by a new and superior process which can only be had at his Foundry at Lether- ingsett, near Holt.” The whereabouts of the lathe after Jex’s death remained a mystery until the1930’s when RH Clark, a writer on historical engineering found it in a house in Weybourne .Clark and others tried to get it to work but with- out success.