WAYLANDER ARCHIVES
Please note that these date back to the creation of the website in February 2020 due to the pandemic.
JANUARY 2021
In January last year we were reporting on the events and festivities which had been taking place the previous month: Christmas fairs, carol services, carol singing round the village Christmas tree, club parties, the Christingle service in church etc., and we were looking forward to the Plough Monday parade round our village.
Later we listed some diary dates for the year: Valentine’s day, the May Bank Holiday with the special VE Day celebrations, the Horn Fair, the Flower Show and Bonfire Night. Well, how different it has turned out to be!
In the past, as schoolchildren we had to learn about significant dates in our history: 1066, 1349, 1381, 1665, 1666, 1914–18, 1939–45, and many more. Schoolchildren in the future will, undoubtedly, have to add 2020 to the list – the year of the Great Worldwide Covid Pandemic.
Here and now, we still do not know when it will end, and, importantly, what changes it has made to all our lives. In some ways it has brought out the best in people. In Hockham we still have the Hockham Good Neighbour Scheme which is likely to continue well into the new year and there is a spirit of goodwill, as many people have come to know their neighbours better than before.
Here in these Breckland villages we are a resilient lot. We will hope to to restore all those traditions we had before with as much, if not more enthusiasm than ever.
So.... Out with the Old Year and In with the New in 2021. Happy New Year!
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PLANNED CHURCH SERVICE ON 27TH DECEMBER HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED.
DECEMBER 2020
Lots of people have been asking what is happening about Christmas trees at Manor Farm this year. There is good news. Christmas tree growers fall under the same government guidance as garden centres which means that they can open for Christmas tree sales through and beyond lockdown. All the necessary precautions will be in place to be Covid secure and there will be plenty of freshly cut trees for sale at Manor Farm. Opening times are the four weekends before Christmas from 9.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m., but if you need your tree on a weekday please call 07704 897787 or 01953 498442.
In recent years the carol singing round the Christmas tree on the Green has been very popular, but, sadly, this year it will not happen, as there are sure to be restrictions still in place. Church services have obviously been affected too. There will be no school end-of-term Christmas service, and no traditional Christingle on Christmas Eve.
This is a great shame, because, thanks to the Townlands Charity, Hockham PCC has recently acquired a PA system, which will enable readers, especially children, to be more easily heard. But let us not be too downhearted. There is encouraging news about the development of vaccines and the scientists tell us that life will be back to normal by this time next year. In the meantime, as much as possible, have a happy, peaceful and safe Christmas, everyone.
NOVEMBER 2020
You could take a very gloomy view of this month as the American poet, Thomas Hood did 200 years ago: No sun, No moon, No morn, No noon, No dawn, No dusk, No proper time of day. . . November.
But, in spite of gloomy forecasts of one sort and another, there will be things going on. We start with November 1st, All Saints Day, the day after All Hallows Eve or Halloween. followed by All Souls Day when we remember loved ones who have died. There will be services in Hockham Church for both. Then we shall all be aware of the American presidential election on the 3rd. And on that day also, the Mobile Library will resume its monthly visits to Hockham. The 5th marks the anniversary of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Every year for the past 50 or so years Hockham has celebrated with a big bonfire and fireworks, unfortunately due to Covid the difficult decision was made to cancel the event this year. On Sunday 8th November there will be no Remembrance Sunday Service at Hockham, but a service will be held at Caston at the war memorial on the village green and then in Caston church, and a wreath laying ceremony with the Royal British Legion will take place at Wretham Church, both at 10.50a.m.
There will be no door-to-door collection for the Poppy Appeal in Hockham.
Thursday, November 26th is Thanksgiving Day which some of us tend to celebrate with the US, just to cheer ourselves up, and that is followed by Black Friday when many of us will probably spend a lot of money on the internet. So, on the whole it is rather a gloomy month, as Thomas Hood said, but better is to come.
November 29th is Advent Sunday when we can all start properly looking forward to Christmas.
OCTOBER 2020
The Hockham Good Neighbour Scheme continues to operate, and, to help fund it, a few very keen cyclists pedalled the equivalent of Lands End to John O’Groats, a total of around 900 miles. All this on one of the hottest days of the year on Sunday 9th August. They averaged around 50 miles each, with a few doing 100 miles. They raised a grand total of over £1,350 for HGNS. A brilliant achievement.
The Hockham Good Neighbour Scheme is still actively dealing with shopping, dog walking, prescription collections and deliveries and just checking people are OK. The surgery in East Harling has decided that the HGNS prescription collection/delivery system can continue for the over 60s for the foreseeable future, and it is still running the Community Car Scheme for doctors, opticians and hospital appointments for those who don’t have their own transport. With the virus not yet eliminated it looks like they will remain quite busy. On Sunday 16th August the Fire Service was called out to several properties in Hockham to deal with flooding caused by the heaviest rainstorm in decades. Depending on where you lived in the village, and who had a rain gauge, there was between 150 and 200 millimetres, that is roughly six to eight inches. All this in about 6 hours. A good thing the cyclists had done their sponsored ride the week before!
SEPTEMBER 2020
Well, there is not much happening in Hockham in August and we have not yet heard of any happenings in September, except perhaps the schedule of church services.
It is encouraging to note that these services have had a good attendance in the circumstances and it is also good to know that the online Sunday services will continue for the time being.
So without having any other events to report at present, here is one that happened in Hockham 107 years ago as reported in the Eastern Daily Press of November 5th 1913.
“An event of very rare occurrence happened at Great Hockham in Friday evening. As Mr. F.Southgate was in his meadow adjoining his house, about 7.30 p.m. he heard a shouting noise above, and on looking up saw a man in a balloon at a height of about 50 or 60 feet. The balloon and its occupant descended to the meadow in safety.
The aeronaut, a young naval officer, belonged to the Royal Flying Corps, and was manoeuvring in one of the smallest balloons of the Corps. He had left Aldershot at a quarter to one that day, and as night was approaching, and knowing he must be nearing the sea, he deemed it prudent to descend where he saw lights, which proved to be the lights of Hockham. . .”
AUGUST 2020
Looking at last August’s In-Touch newsletter, there was so much happening in Hockham. In the village hall there was the Bowls Club, Yoga, Drawing classes, the Coffee Pot, Clodhopper practices and Gong-and-Sound bath sessions. The Gardening Club and the Parish Council reported their meetings, the Church advertised their services, people were invited to join guided walks, and the School reported on its exciting end of term activities as well as the traditional school leavers Final Assembly in Hockham church. Last August who could have foreseen the disastrous pandemic we have endured in the past 5 months?
As in wartime, so many people have suffered hardships and lost loved ones, but through it all there has been a spirit of good neighbourliness and praise for the heroes who have kept our communities going during the lock down. So what of August this year? Things are getting back to normal – albeit a new normal – with social distancing and face coverings and hand washing to the tune of ‘Happy Birthday’ twice, or even ‘God save the Queen’.
We normally herald the Hockham Flower Show in this month’s edition. Hopefully it will go ahead in some form this August, just to keep up the tradition. Otherwise, there is not much going on that we know of at the moment, but things will undoubtedly get better in September.
“We have just heard that the proposed Great Hockham Bypass is definitely going ahead following the Blue Route (see January Issue). The road is to be built with funds made available by the E.E.C. (Common Market) under article 27 (para. 4a )vi))of the European Convention. The grant is being made on condition that the road is used as part of a pilot scheme for the change over to driving on the right, bringing us in line with other E.E.C. countries. Since the grant covers the cost of warning signs and the appropriate bollards at either end of the bypass, it is considered to be a reasonable condition, but in the event of anyone wishing to complain, objections should be made in writing by TWELVE NOON on 1/4/80.”
A lot of people were fooled, and some were annoyed at being fooled, but most happily accepted it as an April fool joke. The building of the bypass had been eagerly awaited for many years, ever since the Army closed off other routes from Thetford to Watton in order to create the Stanford Battle Area. It is hard to imagine if all today’s traffic that tears along the bypass were to come through the village now.
