Council destroys Banksy original

Without wishing to start an inter county incident, some may consider this a 'throwing stones and glasshouses' scenario where regional accents are concerned (Boy!), but ripping down an artwork by your most internationally famous living creative must be a bit galling for any cash strapped council.

BBC

Should you wish to speak or understand 'Norfolk' whilst enjoying this fine county, here are a few pointers.

Hats, holes and a hasty hawker

Local news from East Anglia.

Lost property is usually returned to the rightful owner if at all possible. In East Anglia it warrants a  police information operation with Suffolk police putting out an appeal after the errant chapeau, thought to be lost from an open top bus, was returned to the King's Lynn living owner after her day trip to Felixstow.

Whether you fall in to them or dig yourself into one, holes can be dangerous. Like the woman who fell in woodland burial site in Norwich. Unfortunately it wasn't a shallow 6 feet into a prepared grave that she fell into but 33 feet down a well where she stayed undiscovered for six hours. On the coast at Caister a fifteen year old nearly did dig her own grave when the 7 foot hole in the sand she had dug collapsed around her. 

EDP

News of a 180mph ice cream van, powered by a racing Jaguar engine and performing this weekend at Snetterton, reminded me of the Morecambe & Wise sketch - relevant joke is after five and a half minutes.

Village Show 2011

The royal family at North Pickenham Village Show and other highlights of this years competition entries.

All photos © J Reed

Sheringham Park

Sheringham Park, one 'r' is the given spelling, is a delight at any time of the year. Should you happen to miss the rhododendrons that flower from spring to summer, you may be able to enjoy the copulating toads or the brisk walk down to the stony seashore via the two lofty lookout towers, which give breathtaking 360 degree vistas, on the way. If you're really lucky, patient or have a relevant timetable you may see, and smell, the historic North Norfolk Railway.

© J Reed

Houghton Hall

Nothing to do with my local Houghton on the Hill, as far as I know, this gem is still a private house; the grey bit, the reddish buildings are the stables and now a museum cum canteen cum toilet-block. Albeit the custodian of HMRC owned historic soft furnishings, the bricks and mortar, situated just the other side of the gloriously dual ponded Great Massingham, are still owned by the relatives of the de facto first English Prime Minister. Even in the greyness of a July English summer, Houghton Hall is a truly grade one gracious place. The walled gardens are truly splendid.

 

All photos © J Reed

Dandy Dancers and Insightful Interviews

Whilst international attention eyes the gladiators on Centre Court in SW19 and in the ring in Hamburg, Sheringham on the north Norfolk coast saw a dance-off between 32 morris dancing teams from around Britain. There were various styles of dress from the colourful, flower strewn, camp handkerchief waving to the more sinister looking, blackened faces resembling those seen at Sweeps festival in Kent. Excellent EDP photo story.

William Kempe morris dancing from Norwich to London

Reporting techniques in provincial newspapers can be somewhat different to sensationalist tabloid titillating  storytelling. In a not at all funny tale where several people were seriously injured in a car accident,  Rebecca Gough in the EDP filed the following stunning insight:

'One woman said she had lived in her house on the A1066 High Road, for 22 years and had not seen a crash. "I didn’t hear anything, I hadn’t heard anything about it,”'

Not happy with this revelation, the point was driven home by another fascinating interview with a couple:

'“We didn’t see or hear anything but we don’t usually get accidents along here.”'

with the man adding that, although he hadn't actually seen another accident:

'“I think the only fatality I’ve seen was a cat about three or four weeks ago which I saw at the edge of the road.”'

Regional Press Award heading to Norfolk for sure.

Sat Navs, Black Cats and Unscheduled Bus Snags

Summer is always a bit of a short news season, perhaps even more so in Norfolk. So stories of big cats, lost American servicemen and disastrous delays on the gorgeous north Anglia coast abound in this weeks splendid Eastern Daily Press.

EDP

Small country, have satellite navigation - surely the high flyers of the American air force elite can't mistake Mildenhall in the west country for the America abroad namesake airfield base in deepest Suffolk? The Americans deny having lost anyone permanently, perhaps the hundreds of miles detour embarrassment is not often admitted?
'John Desmond, the landlord of the Horseshoe Inn, a popular pub in the Wiltshire village, said personnel arrived roughly 11 or 12 times a year.' A strangely accurate estimate.
Guys, head towards the rising sun, not the setting one, but don't detour to any houses of disrepute.

EDP

If you read books about wilderness walks you will be aware of the idea of a monster in the quite woods actually being a squirrel burying its nuts. I, too, have been guilty of this misappropriation. In the woods behind Narford Hall I could swear I had spotted some stray domesticated pale lamas, in fact they were disparate delinquents from the near albino deer herd at Houghton Hall. Anyhow, the sighting of something large and black in the shadows of a bleak Breckland brook could be mistaken identity. A Black Leopard in Breckland? Perhaps.

EDP

Transport chaos? Well, in fact the incident started at 11am and, although the local road bound tourist train was impeded, the two buses were sent on their way by 12.45. This may sound petty, but as all locals know, Cromer really is a roundabout with three main arteries with no obvious detours. Still, a finer place to be stranded to consume fresh crab can't be found.