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In association with Fakenham and district Sun - Fakenham's only free paper
Readers of the ‘Fakenham and District Sun free paper’ will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011.
For those who may not receive a printed edition, there is an opportunity here to view the current article as well as those from previous editions. |
December 2014 |
Christmas in Fakenham Market Place in the 1960s
This month’s local history photo was taken outside Aldiss’s department store in Fakenham Market Place at Christmas time in the early 1960s. Opposite Aldiss’s is John White’s Home Furnishing Store, which sold domestic and electrical goods, furniture, beddings, rugs, carpets, prams, bicycles, pianos and jewellery, promoting themselves as the ‘Complete Home Furnishers’. The building now houses Betfred’s betting shop and the Cancer Research charity shop. The brilliantly lit shop windows and the strings of sparkling Christmas decorations make the scene look very cheerful and seasonal. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive |
November 2014
Fakenham Festival of Music and the Arts – last century!
This month’s local history photo relates to the Fakenham Festival of Music and the Arts, a ten-day festival offering all sorts of music and cultural events held in Fakenham every two years from 1963 until the early 1990s. A small committee organised a programme that would appeal to everyone: there were performances by visiting theatre companies, prestigious orchestras, bands and soloists; local school choirs and orchestras held concerts; artists held workshops, lectures and exhibitions, and one year a group of Norwich art students came to Fakenham, stayed with local people and painted scenes in the town for a week, displaying their work in an exhibition at the end of their stay. The Fakenham Town Quiz was also a regular part of the festival, and our photo shows the winning teams in 1993. If you recognise those taking part we’d be grateful if you could let us know, as we don’t have their names. And we’d love to have any more of your photos or memories of the Festival. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive ARTICLE UPDATE; Top Picture: 1993 Trophy winners 'The Shuttlecocks' - David Ellis : Monica Edmonds Ann Ellis : Jane Shepherd - unnamed-. Bottom Picture: 1993 Plate winners 'The Anglican Angels' - Sue Hurst : Jenny Boley Chris Simpson : Andrew Stewart : Alison Harding. |
October 2014 |
Fakenham Town Band in the 1970s
This month’s local history photo is of Fakenham Town Band, taken at a practice session in the 1970s. Fakenham Town Band was founded in 1881 and is still going strong, giving up to 40 performances a year for the enjoyment of audiences and players alike. In the 1970s the band held their practice sessions in the former boys’ school at the top of Constitution Hill/Church Lanes in Fakenham, though nowadays they meet at the Trap Lane Pavilion. Among those present in this photo are Bob Grimmer, Pippa Cook and Jenny Jarvis (on flügelhorn). Can you identify any other members of the band? Please let us know if you can! If you’re interested in our local history you can browse photos of Fakenham and surrounding villages on this website. If you have any interesting local photos or stories, either old or recent, that you would like to share with us we’d love to hear from you. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive ARTICLE UPDATE - Band members pictured are; Back Row; Charlie George, John Moulton, Keith Cosby, Keith Durrant, Malcolm Cook, Bernard Wright (conductor), Terry Jarvis, Paul Howe, John Williamson, Unknown. Front Row: Bob Grimmer, Andrew Lynn, Jacky Antony, Rita Christmas, Pippa Cook, Jenny Jarvis. Seated: Paul Reeve, Lynton Edge, Unknown, Unknown, *not a playing member |
September 2014 |
The Oaks Youth and Community Centre, Fakenham
This month's local history photo was taken at the ’topping—out’ ceremony celebrating the completion of the Oaks Youth & Community Centre in Fakenham in the early 1970s (now the home of ’Fakenham Connect', the North Norfolk District Council local offices). The Youth & Community Centre replaced a couple of buildings (one now demolished) on the Queens Road Primary School site. The full name was Fakenham Youth & Community Centre (not to be confused with the nearby Community Centre, which had opened a little earlier). |
We think the lady in the photograph is Mrs. Margaret Allsop who was heavily involved in the management of the Youth Centre at that time, but are unsure who the gentleman in the centre with the walking stick is. The man on the left with the deerstalker hat and raised glass is John Munroe, the Fakenham Librarian at the time. The people in the background are the men who’ve just finished their work, employed by local building firm Fishers (now Fisher Bullen). Centre right is the District Youth Leader Organiser, Bob Howes. The Centre housed a coffee bar and activities area and was a popular venue for young people, where they met regularly under the supervision of Bob Howes, who was the youth leader for about 20 years in a wide area around Fakenham, including Wells, Dunton Adventure Centre and Norfolk Youth Flying Group at Little Snoring airfield.
Bob's son, James Howes has kindly donated to our community archive many wonderful photos from his father’s scrapbook of local youngsters from the 1970s onwards involved in all sorts of activities, including table tennis, canoe-building, sea canoeing, orienteering, snooker, raft racing, archery, outings, adventure holidays, singing, dressmaking, cooking and camping. Sadly, all the County Council Youth Centres closed across the county from the mid 1980s onwards.
More pictures relating to Fakenham youth Centre can be seen by visiting our web page dedicated to Fakenham Youth Centre.
Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive
ARTICLE UPDATE;
Information has come forward suggesting that the lady and gentleman in the Centre of the picture are Mrs. Margaret Allsop, Chairwoman of the Youth Centre Management Committee during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Dr G K Arthur who lived in The Oaks before it was demolished. The gentleman 4th from the left is thought to be former Fakenham Grammar School lad Peter Knowles. next to him (5th from the left) is parish councillor Tom Moore.
Bob's son, James Howes has kindly donated to our community archive many wonderful photos from his father’s scrapbook of local youngsters from the 1970s onwards involved in all sorts of activities, including table tennis, canoe-building, sea canoeing, orienteering, snooker, raft racing, archery, outings, adventure holidays, singing, dressmaking, cooking and camping. Sadly, all the County Council Youth Centres closed across the county from the mid 1980s onwards.
More pictures relating to Fakenham youth Centre can be seen by visiting our web page dedicated to Fakenham Youth Centre.
Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive
ARTICLE UPDATE;
Information has come forward suggesting that the lady and gentleman in the Centre of the picture are Mrs. Margaret Allsop, Chairwoman of the Youth Centre Management Committee during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Dr G K Arthur who lived in The Oaks before it was demolished. The gentleman 4th from the left is thought to be former Fakenham Grammar School lad Peter Knowles. next to him (5th from the left) is parish councillor Tom Moore.
August 2014
Commemorating the First World War
This month’s poignant posters commemorate the centenary of the entry of Britain into the First World War on 4th August 1914. The photos on the posters are of troops being blessed in Fakenham’s Upper Market Square and of newly trained recruits leaving from Fakenham’s Great Eastern railway station. While we are aware of the long-drawn out horrors they were to face, the young volunteers may well have believed it would be a short-lived war and been excited at the prospect of adventures to come. The posters have been designed by the Fakenham Heritage Group to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War. Throughout August, these colourful posters will be on display in locations around the town including the shop windows of Sweets and Things, Metcalf Jewellers, Hayes and Storr, Butchers Andrews (solicitors), Barclays Bank, (Community Board), The Bridal Shop, The Eye Man, Belton Duffy and at the Church.The posters will also form part of the WW1 display which can be seen at Fakenham’s Museum of Gas and Local History. |
If you’re interested in our local history you can browse old and more recent photos of Fakenham and the surrounding villages on our this website or visit Fakenham’s Museum of Gas & Local History, where volunteers will show you how to access the whole archive on their computer..
Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive (posters created by Peter Boggis)
Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive (posters created by Peter Boggis)
July 2014
The Original Factory Shop/Aldiss’ Department Store, Fakenham
The major fire of 25th May 2014 in the Upper Market Place, Fakenham sadly completely destroyed the premises of the Original Factory Shop and badly damaged several neighbouring small stores. The pen and ink drawing reminds us of the Victorian glory of the original building on the north side of Upper Market Place, which was occupied by the grocer Mark William Hodgett from 1880 to the early 1890s. The building then became home to Aldiss’ department store, a business which the first Managing Director, William James Aldiss, started in 1892 as a drapery shop in Norwich Street. The building later acquired a handsome and elaborate “Art Deco” façade on its first and second floors and a projecting oriel bay window, housing a popular coffee shop overlooking the busy market place. These familiar features are shown on the more recent photo of the building when occupied by the Original Factory Shop, taken in the snowy winter of 2009. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive |
June 2014
Fakenham Secondary Modern School Choir in the '60s
This month's local history photo is of the Fakenham Secondary Modern school choir performing a Christmas concert in a local parish church, around about 1962. Can anyone identify the children or teachers in the choir or maybe remember in which church the concert was held? The music teacher and choirmaster was Jack Burns. If you have any other interesting local photos or stories, either old or recent, that you would like to share with us we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us on 01328 863377 or email us via the ’contact us' section on our website. ARTICLE UPDATE Nov. 2020
Fakenham Secondary Modern School choir at St. Mary's Church Docking c.1962 Those named so far are: Teachers, Jack Burns; Jeff Rounce; Richard Cracknell and Roger Dixon (Fakenham Grammar); Pupils include: Dorothy Winner, Joan Keeley, Christine Boggis, Caroline Hendrey, Marion Elvin, Pamela Newell, Nancy Whitehead, Jimmy Jonas, Fred Settle, Richard Clay, ? Baxter, Anne Preston, Linda Mattless, Sandra Leggett, June Edwards and Peter Thatcher, (also suggested are Joy Bridges and Sally Eggleton) |
May 2014
Maypole Dancers at Hempton
This month we have a picture of a display of maypole dancing on Hempton Green. The girls were all from the Sylvia School of Dance, whose principal was Mrs M. Flashman. The pole was erected outside the entrance to the Church Room, and various other events were staged at the same time to raise money for Hempton Church Room roof fund. According to the accompanying news report, the Cup Final was being shown on TV at the same time, so they did well to attract a good crowd of onlookers. Can anyone identify the names of the dancers or the year? Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive |
April 2014
Spring Flowers
We thought this delightful photo of happy faces would welcome us into spring – it’s of a group of local primary school children with the flowering bulbs they’ve grown and was taken, we think, over 30 years ago in 1983 at Fakenham Junior School. Do you know the names of any of the children in the photo? If so, please contact us either via Facebook, by phoning us on 01328 863377 or through the ‘Contact Us’ section of this website: We believe those pictured include:- June Collins, Margaret Castle, Susan Pollington Michael Castle, Josephine Spalding, Stephen Boycott and Judy and Christine Bagshaw. |
March 2014
Fakenham Bell Ringers
This month we have a photo of the Fakenham bell ringers, taken in the early 1950s. There have been eight bells in the tower of Fakenham Parish Church of Saint Peter & Saint Paul since 1746. Apart from a period in the 1880s and again in the 1980s they have been rung regularly for Sunday services, weddings, funerals and civic events. Once an exclusively male domain, in the 1920s Jessie Cooke (far left on the photo) became one of the first women to ring here. Ringing is open to all ages and does not require great physical strength or an ability to read music. lf you would like to learn the art of bell ringing and keep this age-old tradition alive the band will make you most welcome. Just turn up on a Thursday evening at 7.30 pm. Featured in photograph, left to right: Jessie Cooke, Kenny Moyes, Bob Lingwood, Edith Ovens, George Cooke, Vincent Ovens, Gordon Dye Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive |
February 2014
55 years ago - Townsfolk bid farewell to the last train from Fakenham.
Our picture this month shows a crowd of local residents who have turned out to bid a sad farewell to the very last service train to leave Fakenham (west) station in 1959. Following that final late-night departure on February 28th 1959 the line that linked our Norfolk towns and villages to the Midlands and beyond was unceremoniously closed. Removal of the track and supporting infrastructure began immediately, reaching Fakenham by August that same year. Hempton road crossing gates closed for the final time on 19th August 1959 as dismantling continued eastwards. The old station at Hempton lay derelict for many years before the site was cleared and redeveloped. Jack Israel’s vegetable processing plant - known locally as "the onion factory" - became the first new business to occupy the former station site. Later the builders’ merchant Jewson Ltd occupied the site and are still there today. A small section of the old ’down’ platform and fencing survives today at exactly the point where this photograph was taken 55 years ago this month. |
January 2014 |
Amateur Dramatics in Fakenham in the past
This delightful photo was taken at a dress rehearsal of the musical ‘Carousel’ in 1977 performed by the Fakenham Amateur Dramatic & Light Operatic Society (FADLOS). Fadlos started 45 years ago to perform local plays with local people and were soon invited to be the resident in-house theatrical group at the newly-built Fakenham Community Centre. Featured in the photograph are Richard Boast (far back). Front from the left are; Gill Bland, Lynda Morris, Nicholas Bird, Andrew Sayer, ?, David Morris, and ?. If anyone can help complete the line up please contact us. (photo courtesy of Kevin Craske, FADLOS) Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham Community Archive |
© 2011 Fakenham & District Community Archive.
Created in-house by Fakenham & District Community Archive
Created in-house by Fakenham & District Community Archive