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April 2007
Yes, this is the first newsletter of 2007. You haven’t missed any it’s just that there wasn’t enough to report to make newsletters in Jan and Feb worthwhile. But now it’s the end of March and sufficient news has accumulated to warrant a newsletter.
At last the soil has been broken and the building has started on the new Starter Homes behind the Doctors Surgery. This is, in essence, stage 2 of a project to provide Feltwell people with affordable housing which was begun by the Parish Council some years ago on allotment land which people nowadays don’t want. There was a hiccup with the Housing Association not being able to get funding but this, thankfully, has now been resolved. The new houses on the British Legion car park are almost finished and I hate to think what price they will retail at. Also in the pipeline are new houses on the corner of Lodge Road and Oak Street, on Fox’s old garage site, behind the Old School, at Cock’s Farm in Bell Street (a big development this one!), and, possibly, at Walker’s Farm in Long Lane. The village continues to grow which is a good thing, I think. At the same time there are depressing rumours about the future of Post Offices in villages. It just doesn’t make sense to grow villages and cut local services. Unfortunately The Chequers is currently closed whilst waiting for a new publican to be appointed, as I understand the situation, but there is a new Fish and Chip shop on the way in High Street where the greengrocers used to be.
Its official, St Mary’s is falling down! Or at least the roof is falling down; I know I’ve seen the bucket full of bits of rotten wood. And at a cost of £190 000 to fix all the problems, when the congregation size is less than 20, the future for this magnificent building looks grim indeed. However, "The Friends of St Mary’s Church" has been established and, who knows, maybe they will be successful in winning grants and gaining public support. Good Luck to them!
About putting Feltwell on the web. The Frappr group has a magnificent 18 members: small but select! If you have applied and not heard it’s because you either didn’t give me your name or you provided insufficient information in the Description box. The information pin I posted on Google Earth concerning St Mary’s stained glass windows is now live. If any of you know how to spread the word further please point me in the right direction. Norfolk County Council’s Library Services Department has put an awful lot of material onto the web recently, some of it relating to Feltwell and they’ve kindly agreed for me to add some of their photographs to the Feltwell site. In the meantime visit http://www.noah.norfolk.gov.uk/default.aspx , click on Search and type in Feltwell. The next new site with Feltwell related material is a MUST VISIT. http://www.historic-maps.norfolk.gov.uk/Emap/EMapExplorer.asp?PID=0 This site allows you to view historic and current maps with overlays of the whole of Norfolk, side-by-side if required. It really is brilliant and well worth a visit. Membership applications have recently increased so I’ve got a lot of work to do in this department and the number of relatives making renewed, or just new, contact has also improved, which is always good news. Long-time members will know about the Black Hoods group that used to play in Feltwell. http://www.feltwell.org/feltwell2/times/black_hoods.htm Ken Hadley, the drummer, sent this, " Having recently 'gone broadband', and on the net I decided to research Feltwell. Seeing one or two names I remembered I dug further. I was stationed at RAF Feltwell in 1961/62 and made very good friends with Glyn, Angela, and Sandra Waldon visiting their home often. Indeed Sandra's close friend Jane Weight was my girlfriend at the time. I also have to admit to being the drummer Ken Hadley in the Black Hoods group and I still have TWO photographs, one of which you show in the history section. I'm sure you will appreciate the surprise I got when that popped up! Naturally I would be delighted if you could assist me in contacting any of the Walden family or any other friends who may remember me." After many years Ken is now back in touch with the Walden family; another success for the website. Even American schoolchildren from many years ago are renewing childhood friendships through the website, witness this, "I am the former Mandy Friesen...the cute chubby girl standing in front of our teacher...Mr. Caylor, I believe. If I'm not mistaken, Brenda (Carroll) is sitting in front of me with glasses. Also of note.....Beth Conant is the small dark haired girl in the very center of the image.....her sister Sue is a member of your group. I hope to contact her as well." Fantastic! Not quite as successful as Friends Reunited but not bad! The point of all of this is that there is a backlog of updating to do and with Easter approaching a perfect opportunity to catch up, only, I wont be here because Sue and I are going to the States for two weeks to travel and stay with friends. We fly to New York and then take the train down the east coast to Florida. From there we drive to Atlanta and fly to Washington from where we fly home. See you soon Bob, Kathy, John and Geraldine.
