JANUARY 2020

So, we have just seen an end to 2020 and I’m sure virtually everybody has been very pleased to welcome to 2021. May the year ahead be good for you. I’m your new village correspondent for Stow Bedon, taking over from Gillian who is now enjoying her retirement as our village correspondent. I would like to thank Gillian, on behalf of us all, for her contribution to The Waylander, not just as correspondent, over the past few years.

A little about myself – Neil my husband and our three children moved to Stow Bedon in 2007. We previously lived around 5 miles away and what originally brought us to Stow Bedon was that we were looking to move into a house to improve for our young family, whilst at the same time we were also looking for a building plot for our business.

We found the ideal opportunity in the village, with a house in need of much TLC and extending, which had already had planning permission granted to build a cottage style house in the grounds. We enjoy living in Stow Bedon, so when a building plot became available on the same road, we then embarked on our own self build project, a few hundred yards away, where we have enjoy living for the last six years. I’ve been delivering the Waylander along Mere Road in more recent times and, for a 13small village, find it quite surprising that this amounts to around 50 copies. So, this has got me wondering...... There is such a diversity of people living here, and I know that several of the recipients have, or had, interesting jobs in the past. So, if you would like to share a little about your line of work or passion for your work which you would like to share, please jot me a few lines for inclusion in a future edition. Or perhaps how Covid has affected your work or education.

From the Residents’ Association:

You may all have noticed the defibrillator that is now ensconced in the village phone box on Mere Road for the use of the community, a tutorial video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ33U2GfEB0&t=1s (or via the Parish Council website) and it's well worth the time to watch now to familiarise yourself with the equipment. In an emergency it may mean that you may save vital minutes armed with some pre-knowledge.

Thanks to the Parish Council for organising this for the parish. Regretfully, the Residents Association were unable to organise Carol Singing in the village in December due to the pandemic, such a shame as it has become such a lovely addition to the run up to Christmas but we hope to entertain you all at the end of this year.

Depending on the pandemic, we are hoping to organise some kind of celebration for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in tandem with the Parish Council but these are very tentative at the moment, so watch this space. On behalf of the whole community we would like to thank Gillian for her hard work on the Waylander with informative and interesting articles each month for so many years, we are very grateful for her boundless time and energy.

Best wishes for a hopefully more 'normal' 2021. Keep safe and well!

Massive thanks to Gillian for all her hard work on the Waylander.

St. Botolph’s Christmas Hamper Raffle:

Thank you for all who purchased tickets. As this was drawn after going to print, the winners will be announced in the February Waylander.

Stow Bedon & Breckles fête

This month would usually see the start of preparations for the annual village fete in June with our first meeting in late January. Current Tier 2 restrictions mean that we can’t get together in person in January, and the general Covid 19 situation makes it very uncertain that we can hold the fete in 2021. If we are able to go ahead the fete will be on Saturday 19 June, so please pencil this date in your diary and we will keep you posted! Stow Bedon Heritage Group We managed only one meeting, in February last year, before Coronavirus halted proceedings. I hope that we can resume our research into Stow Bedon’s heritage later in the year.

DECEMBER 2020

St. Botolph’s

Happy Birthday! When we celebrate birthdays many of us receive presents. Christmas Day is Jesus’ birthday. How many of us arrange a gift for him? As we have not been able to hold any fundraising events this year for our church funds and are not able to have our usual, popular and well attended Carol Service on Christmas Eve would anyone like to give Jesus a birthday present by giving a donation to St. Botolph’s Church which would help with our expenses next year? If you would like to donate please contact our Treasurer, Gillian Machorton 483 446 or Churchwarden Beryl Warren 483 375. Just pop it in the envelope provided and if you wish we will collect it. Thanking you in anticipation

The Parochial Church Council at St. Botolph’s wishes everyone in the village a happy, healthy and Peaceful Christmas.

Beryl Warren

Christmas Raffle

First Prize Luxury Hamper

2nd Prize Bottle of Champagne

3rd Prize Grove Farm Oven-Ready Turkey

Plus many more gifts.

Tickets are £1 each

The draw will take place on the 19th December. All proceeds for St. Botolph’s Church

Tickets available at the Farm Shop.

Stow Bedon & Breckles Parish Council

Thanks to a grant from the Lottery Fund, the Council has obtained a CPAD (Community Portable Access Defibrillator) which has been installed in the Telephone Kiosk in Mere Road. This has now been fully commissioned and is ready for use. However, for safety reasons it is kept in a locked cabinet, and not freely available. In the unfortunate event of an emergency you should do exactly the same things you normally would, i.e. dial 999 and ask for "Ambulance". They will carry out an assessment, and (considering where the patient is, and how long it will take before the ambulance arrives) decide whether to ask somebody to fetch the defibrillator. If so, they will issue the code to provide access to the cabinet.

Obviously, the best outcome will be if nobody is ever called upon to fetch the device, but if it is necessary, it is obviously better if more people know what is involved. The Community Heartbeat Trust, who provided and installed the device, would normally offer a training session open to all, but in the time of Covid that is not possible*. There is a video available to view which gives a comprehensive guide for users.

The link for the video can be found at the parish council website, in the latest news section for Defibrillator. http://www.parishcouncil.com/StowBedon/

The defibrillator we have is the ZOLL AED 3, which is always the last (fourth) device demonstrated in the video. Apparently, if you suffer from a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting in this country your chances of survival are only 7%, which sounds appalling. This is because so few people know what to do or how to administrate CPR. We now have a tool in the parish which can help to improve this figure – please do make the time to view the video. *a training session will be organised for residents as soon as restrictions are lifted and it is safe to do so. (Please also be aware that the telephone box will be re-decorated as soon as possible; we’re waiting for the paint to be delivered).

Dawn Jessett – Parish Councillor

Lord Haig Poppy Appeal

The collection for the Poppy Appeal in Stow Bedon amounted to £111.82. Thank you to Mr. And Mrs. Warren for collecting once again and to everyone who contributed so generously. Hopefully house-to-house collections will return next year which will mark the British Legion’s centenary. Jane Horner Sadly we will not have our carol singing throughout the village this year and there will be no carol service on Christmas Eve.

Nevertheless with all good wishes for Christmas and a very happy and healthy 2021. I will now leave you in the very capable hands of Clare Rowling who will be Village Correspondent for the future.

Gillian

NOVEMBER 2020

St. Botolph’s

Thank you Beryl for keeping the church clean and for opening it on a Sunday for private prayer and reflection between 10.00a.m. and 4.00p.m. There will be a short communion service on Wednesday 25th November to which everyone is welcome. Remembrance Day This year on Remembrance Day, not only will we remember those from this village lost in conflict, but also the impact of enemy action on the religious and educational life of this community when, eighty years ago, on Friday 15th November 1940, St. Botolph’s church and the adjacent school were both severely damaged by a German landmine. The following day Rector Redgrave described the church as ‘riven from end to end’ with the interior ‘a grim scene of wholesale destruction of furniture and ornaments’. The landmine blew out all the windows and a large portion of the roof and wood ceiling over the nave and the vestry roof, and the walls were cracked.

The damage left the stone font and the oak pulpit open to the elements, together with the pews, desks, screen altar table and the tiled floor. The school log book records that ‘streams of people visited the school’, on Sunday 17th, ‘to see “the hole” and damage caused by the landmine’. Alternative arrangements had to be made quickly for both the local children and the evacuees from Orchard Road School, Hackney, who had arrived in September 1939. Some were sent to other local schools – 4 to Hockham, 6 to Rockland, 3 to Thompson, 14 to the school at Breckles Hall. The remaining 19 children had their lessons in the sitting room at Home Farm, Stow Bedon, until the school re-opened in March 1941, 4 months after the bombing.

Such a rapid restoration was sadly not the case for the church. Although a local builder, Peeke-Voutt & Son, was appointed to carry out temporary repair work, estimated at £100, this was continually delayed as they were engaged on urgent war work. The overall cost of repairs was £455. 13Not only were repairs to the building delayed, but the churchwardens and PCC committee were frustrated at Reverend Redgrave’s inaction to prevent further damage to furnishings and effects such as the hymn books, carpets, cassocks and the harmonium. By 1943, the committee were still asking about the removal of church goods from the ‘blitzed church’; the rector’s response – he was ‘not going to bother’.

The church remained a ‘roofless and windowless skeleton’ until November 1949 when, as the EDP reported, ‘after lying silent and desolate for 9 years, the bombed parish church of Stow Bedon is being rebuilt. Scaffolding is going up and tools are ringing on wood and stone. Before long the sound of song and prayer will show that church services have resumed their centuries-old place in the life of the village’. This renewal was presided over by Reverend Shead and the PCC. In June 1950 the rector estimated that £60 was needed for re-starting and equipping the church, with new hymn books and prayer books costing just over £14. Support also came from other local churches: Griston churchwardens offered their oil lamps, while Caston churchwardens loaned a church organ. This was followed in 1951 by an offer of a church organ for £10 by the rector of Little Cressingham, which was accepted. After 10 long years, services at St. Botolph’s returned and the church regained its role in village life.

Stow Bedon Heritage Group

Karen Fitch Prelude to Christmas!

Stir Up Sunday occurs on Sunday 28th November. It is an informal term in Anglican churches for the last Sunday before the season of Advent. It gets its name from the Collect in the book of Common Prayer.” Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, 14plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded”

The Victorians used this cry to the congregation to “Stir Up” to prepare for Christmas and make the Christmas puddings which need plenty of time to mature. They need plenty of stirring too and I remember after my mother mixing the ingredients my parents, brothers and I taking it in turns for a stir and making a wish! Not only that but also the mincemeat for mince pies and also THE CHRISTMAS CAKE. . . It was the start of the build-up to Christmas; making gifts and paper chains etc.

Paper chains then were strips of coloured paper made into circles, glued and threaded through to make the chain. Gifts were usually knitted or stitched and an exciting visit to Woolworth’s to buy little calendars to attach. And then there was Advent – the ‘coming’ – the message that Christmas is all about. The 4 Sundays and weeks in December before Christmas Day.

Village Correspondent

Thank you Claire Rowling for agreeing to be Village Correspondent for Stow Bedon from January. I will give you her contact details in the December Waylander. 

OCTOBER 2020

St. Botolph’s Church

Regrettably the church remains closed except for individual prayer and meditation every Sunday between 10.00a.m. and 4.00p.m. Many thanks to Beryl for keeping the church looking so clean and welcoming. I am afraid I received the notice of the Wednesday morning service too late to include in the September edition. This will be on the 30th September and thereafter the last Wednesday in the month. October service will be Wednesday 28th at 10a.m. and lasting about 45 minutes and everyone is welcome. The churchyard continues to be beautifully maintained and the path will be weeded this month.

Sponsored Cycle Ride, Saturday 12th September

This year it was great to have Beth Callow as our sponsored cyclist for St. Botolph’s. Together with her aunt, Corinne Koebernick, they cycled to 12 Churches. I think they had been practising during lock down!! A big thank you to them for doing so well and thank you to all their sponsors. It was a Lovely day for cycling. We had eleven sponsored cyclists visit and would you believe 13 visitors.

The church was manned throughout the day so our visitors were welcomed by Gillian Machorton, Graham Eustance, Karen Fitch, Louise Parker and Beryl Warren. A big thank you to them for giving up their time. The monies raised go to The Norfolk Churches Trust. St. Botolph’s church receives half back for our church funds.

Stella Leonard, PCC Secretary

Poppy Appeal

The Royal British Legion has decided regretfully that for health and safety reasons due to Covid-19, the annual house to house collection for the Earl Haig Poppy appeal will not take place this year. As we write, it is understood poppies will be distributed to supermarkets, so they will be available, just not delivered to your door.

2021 will be the centenary year for TRBL and we hope house to house collecting will return.

Jane Horner

Stow Bedon Heritage Group

The best laid plans . . . Last month we announced that we hoped to hold a Remembrance service at St. Botolph’s in November. In part to remember when the church and school were both damaged by a German landmine in November 1940 and the long route to restoration some 9 years later. Sadly the Covid situation and new restrictions mean that we must postpone the service for now. Hopefully, we will be able to re-schedule in 2021.

Karen Fitch Correspondent

After more years than I care to remember I have acted as Correspondent for Stow Bedon and looked after the advertising and accounts for The Waylander. The latter is now in the capable hands of Karen Fitch and I am very grateful to her for taking this on. My last contribution as Correspondent will be for the December edition so if you have a little time on your hands please do consider taking up the reins and contact me on 483 446. It does keep you in touch with your neighbourhood.

Gillian

We are all very grateful for the commitment Gillian has shown to the Waylander for many years, as  it's without doubt her contribution has played a significant part in it's success.  Thank you Gillian, all your hard work really has been appreciated.

SEPTEMBER 2020



St. Botolph’s



The church continues to be open on a Sunday between 10.00a.m. and 4p.m. for private prayer and meditation. The Rev. Adrian Bell conducted a brief service in the church on Tuesday 18th August at short notice.



It is hoped that there will be future such services in the future and that more notice will be given.



Sponsored Cycle Ride – Norfolk Churches Trust Saturday. 12th September.



The church will be manned as usual with required social distancing observed. We do hope that as many people as possible will be riding-walking-driving to help raise much needed funds for St. Botolph’s. Sponsorship forms can be obtained from Beryl at the Farm Shop.



Stow Bedon Heritage Group and the PCC are hoping to hold a Remembrance service on November 15th, not only to remember those lost in conflict, but, on this occasion to also remember when a German landmine fell one dark November night 80 years ago, leaving the ancient parish church of St. Botolph’s ‘a roofless and windowless skeleton’. It would be 10 long years before services would resume in 1950. The format of the service will be similar to that of the Remembrance Service held in 2018 (Covid restrictions permitting) and will include readings based on the Heritage Group’s research into the events of 1940 and the tortuous route to restoration and re-opening in 1950.



It would be good to think that we could offer refreshments after the service, together with Christmas gifts, cakes, preserves, etc for sale. Of course, this all depends on the Covid situation, and whether indeed St. Botolph’s will be open in November. But it is good to have a plan!



More details to follow.



Karen Fitch



MONTHLY QUIZ



Hello again, I hope you have had a go at last month’s geography based questions.



I realised that some could have a couple of different answers, so I have listed both (they both will count!). the answers are as follows:



1) Andes

2) Oslo

3) France

4) Algeria (by area), although Nigeria has the largest population

5) Tiber

6) Lake Michigan-Huron (by area) or Lake Baikal by volume and depth

7) Ecuador

8) Africa

9) 4

10) Jersey



I hope everyone has enjoyed having a go at some different quiz questions each month, however due to starting back at school in September, I will no longer be regularly continue doing them.



Therefore, there will not be any questions this month as I won’t be able to promise answers if I am busy with schoolwork! Hopefully as schools return in September, life will feel more back to normal for those of us who haven’t been to school for months. I am starting sixth form which I am looking forward to as a new fresh start after lockdown, and I know many others are looking forward to returning whether they are starting somewhere new or not. Of course it will be different to ‘normal’ for everyone however that is OK, as the current normal of having been at home for so long I’m sure most have had enough of.



In that sense we are lucky to be able to return if some people still remain mostly at home. I hope everyone has still managed to enjoy their summer, we have had lots of warmth.



Bye for now, Lucy.



Thank you Lucy for your contributions to The Waylander. They have been enjoyed by a great many people. I was delighted that the Hutchinson family won the quiz when we promised a ‘ goodie bag ‘ – and you were a Treasure to make a large tray-bake to accommodate them all!!!!



The Parochial Church Council and I am sure many others wish you well In the next exciting phase of your studies. Good luck, good health and God bless you!



Gillian Machorton

Stow Bedon Correspondent.

AUGUST 2020

St. Botolph’s

The church will be open on Sundays between 10a.m. and 4p.m. for private prayer and contemplation. The PCC would like to thank all those generous parishioners who gave donations towards the churchyard grass cutting. Thank you!

Lucy writes: Hello! How has everyone been getting on with last months brain teasers? Some of the questions were trickier than others, either harder, or more of trick question! Thank you to all that took part or got back to me, we did have a definite winner...Congratulations to the Hutchinson family who returned all correct answers, and speedily too!

For those of you who have racked your brains for answers, or are eager for them, here they are

 1) 70 (30 ÷ 0.5 = 60 60 + 10 = 70)

2) ‘incorrectly’

 3) An umbrella

4) Neither, peacocks don’t lay eggs, peahens do

5) This will never happen as the boat rises with the tide

6) 12

7) White (the house must be on the North pole, so a polar bear will be seen)

8) The match

9) *Your Name*

10) None, it was Noah who loaded the ark, not Moses!

I hope you all enjoyed these?! Now onto another topic, Mum said this morning that today is St. Swithin’s Day. I haven’t heard of this before, but I am told that whatever the weather does today will remain for the next 40 days. If today it rains it will also do so for 40 following days and the same for if it is fair. Well, I wonder if you can guess the weather today, that I am writing this, from what it is like today, as you are reading, as they should match!

My initial thoughts were ‘great’, as it looks a beautiful day today, it’s warm and sunny, a clear sky with only a few white clouds. It did of course cross my mind that no rain for 40 days wouldn’t be so good, but we will have to see how good a weather-predicting technique it is. Funnily 12enough, I also wondered how it would be if the morning was sunny, but it rained and was grotty in the afternoon; would this repeat for 40 days? This made me think to check today’s weather forecast. Currently it is showing an 80% chance of heavy rain for an hour at 5, and a few 50%s and 40%s before and after. There is of course the chance it won’t come, but if it does we will have to see if this repeats.

So today (for you reading), how has the weather been? (Is the 40 day rule right, or is it just an old wives tale!!).

To finish I will leave you with a few more questions as I know many people have been enjoying them! This month will be geography based questions. I will return next month with the answers. Here goes:

1) What is the world’s longest Mountain range?

2) What is the capital of Norway?

3) What country consumes the most wine per capita?

4) What’s the largest country in Africa?

5) What river flows through Rome?

6) What’s the largest fresh-water lake in the world?

7) What country is named after a line of latitude that runs through it?

8) What continent is home to the largest number of countries?

9) How many official languages does Switzerland recognize?

10) Which is the largest Channel Island? Good luck!

Family history

I enjoyed Bronwen’s article on her family history but I have been doing something similar for the last 20 years. It started with my mother’s history. It was ghost written by a lady who recorded interviews with my mother and turned them into a little booklet. I learnt that my grandfather had won a penny farthing bicycle race which seemed amazing as he was very Victorian and we were rather in awe of him.

After my mother died, one of my sisters presented me with a box of letters which were written when my parents started courting. They wrote every day; often the letters were posted in the morning and received the same evening. They just contained the results of tennis games; they were both keen players, or information about the last prayer meeting. They were both active members of Norbury Methodist Church.

As time went by the letters became more affectionate until they eventually got married. From time to time whenever they were apart even for a couple of days they would write. Not many people had phones then. When my father who had chronic bronchial asthma was told that he mustn’t spend another winter working in London, they relocated to Southampton and my father got a new job. There were many letters then discussing various aspects of their new build house while my father stayed in a local guest house. The cost of things like an extra radiator (7 shillings and 6 pence) had to be weighed against their budget.

I scanned the letters into my computer and also copied them out as some were difficult to read after all these years, printed them out and had them bound into 4 books, one for each of my two sisters and my brother. When he was 15 years old, my father started writing a school magazine called “The Weekly Waggery”. This was full of stories, jokes and quizzes and was loaned out to his friends for a halfpenny a night.

When the end of the war was declared in 1918, the boys rode their bicycles decorated with flags, up and down in great excitement. I was given a box of the 13 editions of this magazine which I scanned into my computer, and keeping the copies as authentic as possible bound them into 4 books. This I did myself using paperbacks as a guide. I also printed out our two favourite stories, “The Bootlace of Blood 13Thirsty Bill” and “The Clutching Claw”. Next I was given a collection of my father’s stories, articles and memories of holidays and visits.

Scanned and sometimes retyped if they were rather faint, they were bound into 4 hardbacks called “Scribblings of a Compulsive Writer” with the help of YouTube instructions. Many of the stories and articles had been published and there was a scrap book containing the press cuttings. I also made copies of these and put them into new scrapbooks leaving plenty of pages at the back for each of us to add out own bits of history. My latest endeavour was “Vanishing Memories”. This was a collation of childhood memories with our parents up to the age of 21. This of course included the war years as my older sister and I were born before the war and remember it well. I had photos of all the houses we had lived in and also how they look now thanks to Google.

There were also photos of us although not many taken during the war as film was difficult to get hold of. One of my cousins who is in her 90s asked for a copy so I made 5 this time. Next I shall be continuing my autobiography. All these publications have gone into my treasure box to be passed on down through the family. It also includes much of my own history which may interest them when I’ve gone.

Christine Brown

• Shopping
• Posting mail
• Collecting prescriptions
• Providing a friendly voice at the end of the phone