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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 2022
A Christmas greeting of old
This postcard from our community archive is postmarked 1905 and is typical of the sort of Christmas greeting that was sent at the beginning of last century, relatively plain and often showing a photograph of a local scene.
It shows an unusual view of the impressive west door of Fakenham Parish Church, one that is often passed by because it’s not the entrance door to the building but is at the foot of the tower, around the corner from the porch. The committee members of the Fakenham and District Community Archive would like to thank you for your photographic donations, memories and support over the past year, and we wish everyone a happy Christmas and New Year. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
November 2022
Goggs’ Mill
These two photos from our community archive are seventy years apart, but taken at exactly the same spot on the banks of the River Wensum at Goggs’ Mill, Hempton. The photo of children paddling in the water was taken in the early 1950s, while the other one was taken just recently. It’s hard to believe they are the same place!
Hempton Water Mill was built around 1720, and was owned and worked by Thomas Goggs between 1854 and 1888. Thomas Goggs started in business at the age of 21 and lived at Grove House in Tunn Street, where he died in 1913. Following Goggs’ death, William Thomas Seaman took on the mill at a rent of £70 per annum. The mill continued to operate until 1926, when milling ceased. The building, together with its plant and machinery and three acres of pasture land, was then sold. The unused building gradually became derelict: then in June 1954 the East Suffolk and Norfolk River Board ordered the demolition of the mill house and foundations of the mill, wishing to lower the river by about two feet to improve land drainage. The demolition took just one day! The current 20 foot cement bridge was then constructed over the river, and Fakenham Rotary Club levelled the banks and sowed grass to provide an attractive riverside walk. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
October 2022
A view from the church tower
This photo from our community archive was taken from the top of the church tower in Fakenham in the late 1980s and shows the view to the west of the town, overlooking the huge site formerly occupied by Edmondsons, a major employer in the town, with over 50 staff.
Edmondson Ltd sold and serviced private cars, commercial vehicles and agricultural and horticultural machinery from 1952-1995. Their main offices were in the Old Rectory (opposite the library). The business was successor to Southgate's Motor Carriage and Cycle Works, an old established firm who traded from the same premises and who had also previously been Ford Dealers. By 1961 a new forecourt and service facilities had been built. The car and agricultural workshops occupied the entire site on which the Tesco supermarket, Cromwell Barn and Sowerbys estate agents now stand. The company continued to trade here until closure in 1995. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive More old pictures of R. C. Edmondson and other local garages can be viewed here. |
September 2022
Old Fakenham
This month’s photo is of a row of attractive whitewashed cottages standing at the bottom of Hall Staithe
in Fakenham. They are clearly shown on a town plan dated 1838 and were sold by auction at the Red Lion Hotel in August 1946, subject to a demolition order by Walsingham Rural District Council. The cottages were attached to the Maltings, which is now the Elizabeth FitzRoy home, and whose car park partly occupies the area on which the cottages stood. Hall Staithe is a narrow lane leading down from the Market Place to the River Wensum, but at one time it was one of the main roads leading into town from the west, falling into disuse because it was so marshy. In the photo you can just see part of the bridge that spanned the River Wensum before it was re-routed to its present course. ‘Staithe’ is an east coast word that means ‘landing place’, so we assume that this area of the town would have been used for loading or unloading boats or mooring up. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham and District Community Archive |
August 2022
Visit to Fakenham by the Monty Python team
This month’s photo was taken in 1973, when the Monty Python team visited the print works in Fakenham to celebrate the publication of their book ‘The Brand New Monty Python Bok’ (sic). Shown on the photo are the Python comedians Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Also on the photo are a Cox & Wyman director, then employees Noel Bacon, Christine Ward, Maureen Duncan, Mick Hodge and Richard Lane. On the book jacket was an image of a large inky thumb print – apparently some people returned the book because they thought it was damaged! Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
July 2022
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The circus comes to town
This month’s photo was taken in either 1958 or 1959 and shows the elephants arriving for the circus, to be held on Hempton Green. They travelled by train to Fakenham East railway station in Norwich Road. On their way through town they would famously remember to stop at Alec Leach’s fruit and vegetable shop for a box of titbits. The elephants are pictured here passing the King’s Head pub at Hempton, escorted by a group of excited youngsters running or cycling alongside them. For more memories of how we lived in the past, do come along to our next public community archive session, where you can look through all our photos on laptops and in folders and scrapbooks. We’ve recently been recording local people recounting their memories, and you can listen to their stories on the ‘Oral History’ section of our website. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
June 2022
Our photo this month is of people cycling along Norwich Street in Fakenham shortly before the Queen’s Coronation, which took place on 2nd June 1953. The street is beautifully decorated with bunting and flags, in readiness for the celebrations on the big day.
We have a copy of the programme for the celebrations in town on Coronation Day. The events started with a morning church service involving all the churches in town plus the town band; the church bells being rung; a free lunch at the Red Lion hotel for all residents of Fakenham aged 75 and over; a Grand Carnival Procession through the town; a crazy football match; afternoon tea for all the children of Fakenham; an old-time cricket match in fancy dress; maypole dancing; carnival sports (including a wheelbarrow race, a pillow fight, a sack race and a three-legged race); and in the evening a Salvation Army band concert and community singing in the Market Place; a carnival dance; and finally a torchlight procession to Baron’s Hall Lawn for a fireworks display. A very full day! Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
May 2022
Here’s a lovely photo of husband and wife team Joyce and Edward Whitehead of Green Farm, Little Snoring, taken in the 1950s. Using their Nuffield tractor they’re carefully hoeing their young crop of sugar beet, sown in late March or early April. Nowadays of course weed control is largely taken care of by herbicide sprays.
Why not come along and browse through our huge collection of photos of local life, including several hundred on an agricultural theme? We meet on the last Tuesday of every month in the Parish Church from 2.00 – 4.00 pm and you can look through many fascinating photos and newspaper cuttings showing how we used to live. You can also bring photos for scanning into the archive, watch a slideshow, browse photo albums, scrapbooks and documents, listen to recordings of people recounting their memories or search the whole archive on our laptops. And of course join us over a cup of tea and a biscuit for a friendly chat! Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
April 2022
In the mid-1960s the Youth & Community Centre was based in some buildings (now demolished) at the Queens Road primary school. The Youth Service employed a full-time District Youth Leader, Bob Howes, whose role was to develop facilities for young people around Fakenham, including Wells, Dunton Adventure Centre and the Norfolk Youth Flying Group at Little Snoring airfield. He did this job for 20 years, from 1964 onwards.
In 1972 the centre moved into purpose-built premises (now converted to Council offices) next to the present Community Centre. From here a huge programme of activities for young people was organised: archery, canoe-building, camping, orienteering, local trips, fashion design, crafts, cooking, singing and general recreation. We have been given many lovely photos showing these different activities. The youth club also organised a fete, and this Girl Guides float was part of the procession through the town, around 1964. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
March 2022
Here’s a photo from our community archive which was taken in 1991 in the coffee shop at the very top of the old Aldiss department store in the centre of Fakenham. We hope this brings back happy memories of meeting up with friends or family while looking down on all the interesting things going on in the Market Place below.
The whole Aldiss building was tragically destroyed by a huge fire on the 25th May 2014, but was rebuilt in a different but equally handsome style. Four years later, in August 2018, it finally reopened as the Original Factory Shop. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
February 2022
In the early 1950s it was decided to demolish Goggs’ Mill, the old mill that stood on the River Wensum at Hempton, and replace the bridge there with a new structure. Here’s a photo of a local family out for a bike ride in January 1954 stopping to inspect the view from the new bridge.
The river is still a huge local attraction and has been enjoyed by people of all ages for many years: we love to walk along its banks, but we have also used the river over the years for swimming, paddling, canoeing, raft races, sailing, fishing and even for racing plastic ducks and cardboard boats! In its time it’s been frozen over with thick ice and, over a hundred years ago, has also burst its banks and flooded the lower town. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
January 2022
This photo is of No.19 Norwich Street, Fakenham. (It’s now ‘Crafty Ones’, a craft and gift shop.)
In the 1990s it was called ‘Weigh and Save’ (and subsequently ‘Scoops’) and had big floor-standing cardboard bins full of loose ingredients such as cereals, washing powder, flour, oats, nuts, coffee, tea, herbs and spices. Customers would take in their own containers and fill them with exactly how much they needed - so there was no unnecessary packaging and the goods were much cheaper than in other shops. In spite of much greater environmental awareness these days, this sort of shop is still surprisingly hard to find. Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive |
© 2011 Fakenham & District Community Archive.
Created in-house by Fakenham & District Community Archive
Created in-house by Fakenham & District Community Archive