Post date: Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 15:56

The January picture (below) in the Reepham Life 2024 Calendar shows a view of Norwich Road. The building on the left displays the name of George Storey who was a painter and decorator.

The late local historian Wesley Piercy tells us that George used the upper part of the building as storage for his decorating supplies and that in the 1920s the ground floor was a butcher’s shop run by W E Spriggs.

The Storey family lived in the house known as The Bays. George played the cello and was the conductor of the Reepham Orchestral Band (below, seated right) as well as being part of the Reepham Black Diamonds.

George Storey was born in 1883 and grew up in Norwich working as a bootmaker in Pitt Street where his father Edmund had a boot manufacturing business.

George must have made a decision to seek work elsewhere since in 1907 he married Lilian Agnes Wright in Hackford Parish Church (presumably St Michael’s Whitwell). Lilian was the daughter of John Wright, plumber and glazier.

In the 1881 Census, John Wright, age 26, had his own business on Norwich Road. The image below, probably from the 1920s, shows John Wright’s painted advertisement, which was visible for many years on the gable wall of The Bays/Bay House. This is the house that faces Norwich Road, attached to Swiss Cottage. Before it was painted over the text read: “John Wright Registered Sanitary Plumber/Drains Tested/Decorator”.

John Wright died in March 1911 just before the Census of that year, and George Storey was registered as a painter and decorator at the Norwich Road address, presumably having taken over his father-in-law’s business.

By 1922 George and Lilian had six children and eventually moved to Acton in Middlesex (now a suburb of West London).

The house known as The Bays was taken by the Allen family who had a coach business, running services to Norwich.

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham.

Post date: Thursday, December 14, 2023 - 20:26

John Plane Walker (below) was born in 1881 in Norwich. At the age of 14 he was employed by the Wallace King furniture store, and when it opened a shop in Reepham he became the manager, making deliveries by horse and cart.

The December photograph (below) in the Reepham Life 2023 Calendar shows the buildings the company also used, part of which is now the takeaway and The Granary on Back Street. John Walker is standing on the far left.

In 1919 Wallace King decided to move its business back to Norwich and John took over the shop, moving the premises to the Old Maltings on the corner of School Road and Back Street. The picture below shows his advertising board with Sun Barn Pit in the foreground.

John was a staunch Methodist and became a well-respected local preacher. He founded and ran a branch of the Band of Hope in Reepham.

When larger premises were needed to accommodate a growing membership John and his friend Jesse Bircham purchased land from Harry Hawes and the Methodist Hall was built.

It later became the home of Reepham’s band and was known as the Band Hall until it was demolished and replaced by flats.

In 1927 John and his wife Laura wrote a seven-verse song for the Reepham Band of Hope entitled The Hope of Reepham, to be sung to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.

It begins:

Oh listen, dear friends to my story,

A wonderful tale I will tell,

How the Temperance cause here in Reepham,

Has gripped many people so well.

Chorus:

Reepham’s hope, Band of Hope,

I’ll ever be loyal and true to thee,

My beloved Band of Hope.

I’ll always be faithful to thee.

John died suddenly of a heart attack on 5 November 1938 while sitting at his desk in the shop. A fireworks party at the Rectory planned for that night was cancelled as a mark of respect.

There was a huge crowd at his funeral at the Methodist Church, with the church hall being used for overspill and still more people standing outside.

Information sourced from Let’s Talk, 6 February 2013

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham.

Post date: Wednesday, September 20, 2023 - 17:23

The Crown public house stands at the junction of Ollands Road, New Road and Cawston Road, Reepham.

This junction was once known as Six Crossways since there were six ways one could go from that point: to Salle and Cawston via Cawston Road, to Townsend Corner down Station Road, to Kerdiston along Stony Lane, to Reepham Market Place via Ollands Road, to Reepham Moor down New Road and to Reepham station yard.

In the 19th century The Crown was a beer house and Edward Page was the landlord there from about 1867.

Edward was also a carpenter and ran a coal merchant’s business. His wife Pamela was the daughter of Richard Amiss, a master tailor who also ran a grocery and drapery shop in Reepham.

In 1882 the Great Eastern Railway station at Reepham had recently been erected and The Crown was in a prime position.

It was already a popular hostelry for farmers returning home from a busy day at Reepham’s cattle market to Kerdiston, Wood Dalling, Heydon, Salle and Cawston.

In his application for a spirit licence that year, Edward said: “A great many people travel by this line having driven to the station but finding there is no stable accommodation they have left and gone elsewhere in the town.”

Edward’s landlord Steward & Patteson offered to build stabling for 10 horses and traps, and plans had been prepared.

Opposition to Edward’s application came from the landlord of the King’s Arms, who said there were already 10 licensed houses in Reepham and that this application would injure their trade.

The Bench granted the application but it was later refused by the County Licensing Committee.

The licence was eventually granted in 1884, in spite of continued opposition from the King’s Arms landlord.

The newly built stabling and cart sheds provided stabling for 14 horses and traps.

Above: Ground plan of The Crown inn and outbuildings, 1889. Below: The Crown, pictured in 1966. Photo: Reepham Archive. Images: Reepham Archive

Edward died in 1911 and Pamela continued running The Crown until 1913. She eventually went to live with her eldest daughter Bessie at Gate House Farm in Salle where Bessie’s husband James Parker was the farmer.

Pamela died in 1923 and is buried in Salle churchyard with Edward.

Information from: Norfolk Public Houses website; ancestry.co.uk; undated Ordnance Survey maps; findmypast.co.uk

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham.

For more information about opening times and current services, contact the Archive by email.

The Reepham Archive also welcomes new volunteers to support its work. If you are interested, please email.

Post date: Thursday, July 13, 2023 - 19:54

Previously, the Reepham Archive had no records of any of the soldiers who came to Reepham to recover from their wounds during the First World War. There are several photographs that record 30 or more faces, but no names.

In 2022 we were intrigued and pleased to receive an enquiry: “Did we have any records about Frank Leiper and Ethel Keeley who met in Reepham during World War I?” This was soon followed with further details and photographs.


Frank and Ethel Leiper, pictured around 1918.

We learnt that Ethel died young, only 36, but her daughter, now 98, wanted to learn more about her parents. This set the Archive volunteers on a flurry of research to find out more.

We found that Ethel Keeley was listed in a photograph of all the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) hospital staff taken in the gardens of Hackford House (the present-day Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham).

Sadly, she is named as the night sister and must have been off-duty when the photograph was taken as none of the nurses look like her.

Red Cross records confirm that Ethel was indeed engaged as a night sister from October 1916 until June 1918 in Reepham VAD Hospital.

Frank’s army records show he was enlisted with the Glasgow Pals Battalion in January 1915 and sent overseas. He was wounded twice, in 1916 and 1917, and it is not known after which incident he came to Reepham.

Frank was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1917, and demobilised and transferred to the Army Reserve in 1919.

We could not find a face to match Frank in any of our photographs but we did discover that they married in Edinburgh in 1918 and that Ethel gave her occupation as certificated nurse at the Red Cross Hospital, Reepham, Norfolk.

Frank’s occupation is shown as a farmer but he is still recorded as a company sergeant major of the Highland Light Infantry.

Their grandson, who sent the initial enquiry, visited Reepham this summer and spent time walking around the town, visiting Hackford House, the gardens, the Market Place, the town hall and the churches that his grandparents would have known more than 100 years ago.

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. For more information about opening times and current services, contact the Archive by email.

The Reepham Archive also welcomes new volunteers to support its work. If you are interested, please email.

Post date: Friday, May 26, 2023 - 09:52

Celebrations of spring have been held for centuries related to both pagan and religious beliefs, and the ritual crowning of a May Queen has been said to go back to the Middle Ages.

May Queen celebrations were revived in Victorian times and poets like Tennyson, who published a long poem called The May Queen, did much to popularise the return of the tradition.

In the 20th century it became fashionable for children, rather than adults, to perform a crowning ceremony and the Reepham Life 2023 Calendar picture from the 1950s (pictured above) shows Enid Pask as a teenage May Queen surrounded by her attendants.

Older residents, when they were at school, may remember learning Now is the Month of Maying, a song from Tudor times, and Sumer is icumen in, a song in the form of a round for four voices accompanied by two lower voices, probably written in the 13th century.

The opening line is shown here with the red cross indicating where the second voice is to enter. The manuscript is now kept in the British Library and includes instructions for its performance in Latin. It is traditionally sung from the tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, every May Day.

The song also made an appearance in an episode of the children’s TV programme Bagpuss and was used as part of the opening ceremony at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

Information from Wikipedia and the British Library

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. For more information about opening times and current services, contact the Archive by email.

Post date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 - 09:54

The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many rifle, artillery and engineer volunteer units, which comprised part-time soldiers eager to supplement the regular British Army in times of need.

A general meeting was called in Reepham in June 1859 with the intention of raising subscriptions towards the expenses of a volunteer rifle corps for the Eynsford area, and local gentry were called upon to support their local troops.

Prominent Reepham residents were listed with their contributions: Rev. Edward Holley, Robert Leamon of Whitwell Hall and the brewers Bircham & Sons all donated £10, the equivalent of £1,000 in today’s money.

Pictured above in the Reepham Life 2023 Calendar for April, Harry Hawes is a familiar figure with his recollections of life in the town in the late 19th century.

Excerpts from his memoires – Harry Hawes’ Walk – can be found on the Reepham Archive website.

The drummer is John Flatman (born Arthur John Flatman) who, when he enlisted in the regular army in March 1894, gave his address as Beck Cottage, Reepham.

Military records show Arthur as completing 18 years’ service – in India for eight years and also in South Africa for a further two years – before being discharged in 1912.

A ball, organised by the Reepham Volunteers, was held on 4 January 1894 in Hackford and Whitwell old school room (the present town hall).

The ball commenced at 8.30 pm and “dancing was kept up with unabated vigour” until five the next morning. A quadrille band provided the music and 27 quadrilles were danced.

More than a hundred people attended even though the weather was severe, and Dr Charles Perry, father of Dr Edward Verdon Perry, sent his carriage to take home many of the women, presumably exhausted.

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. For more information about opening times and current services, contact the Archive by email.

Post date: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 - 17:38

By Janet Archer

When William Alfred Pask and his younger brother Charles, age nine and eight respectively, first came to Reepham they lived on Back Street, with their maternal grandparents, James and Charlotte Loads.

James was a blacksmith and by 1871 they had moved into Staples Yard, now known as Bircham’s Yard, off Norwich Road.

The name “Staples” came from the chemist and druggist Thomas Staples, who ran a business in Victoria House, which stands at the entrance to Bircham’s Yard.

In the 1871 Census, Charles Pask was listed as an apprentice blacksmith and William Pask was already a journeyman tailor, meaning that he had served and completed an apprenticeship and was ready to set up his own business.

In 1881, he had four apprentices and was living and working in a house called Churchgate, now named St Michael’s House, in Market Place, Reepham. He had been married for 10 years and had five children.

Tragedy struck in 1888 when his wife Elizabeth died just a few days after their youngest child’s death. More sadness followed when Clara, his second wife, died in November 1891.

Not only were there family worries but in 1890 there was an examination for bankruptcy during which William stated that he had “been in business since 1875, starting with a capital of £20”. He professed that he “had kept no general cash book and for 12 or 13 years had not taken stock”.

In spite of all these difficulties, William’s tailoring business prospered and he became well known for making hunting outfits, liveries and military uniforms, as well as civilian clothing, with testimonials.

William married again in January 1893 and at some point before 1911 he and his third wife Annie moved to Nelson House in Back Street.

Annie and William had seven children together and in 1943 they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

William, then age 91, was still a working tailor with branches of his business in Aylsham, Melton Constable and Lowestoft, all run by members of his family.

The occasion was well reported and articles appeared in the national newspapers; pictured below is the brief report from the Daily Mirror.

Information from Reepham Society Magazine, Spring 1990; ancestry.co.uk; Daily Mirror.

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. For more information about opening times and current services, contact the Archive by email.

Post date: Tuesday, January 17, 2023 - 16:17

This photograph of the Pyke family of Castle Farm (Swanton Morley?) was found in the Reepham Archive’s image collection (it was actually glued to the Archive’s door in the Bircham Centre).

Who are the people in the photo? When was the photo taken? Is there any connection with the Reepham district?

If you have any idea or information, please contact the Archive by email.

Post date: Monday, November 28, 2022 - 17:19

This photograph of small boy holding a cornet has turned up in the Reepham Archive’s image collection.

Who is the boy? Does he have any connection with the Reepham district?

If you have any idea or information, please contact the Archive by email.

 

 

 

 

 

Post date: Thursday, November 17, 2022 - 09:21

November’s illustration in the 2022 Reepham Life Calendar shows a copy of a 19th century lithograph published by Stone & Hodgson in “The Picturesque Views of all the Bridges belonging to the County of Norfolk”, based on detailed accurate drawings made by Francis Stone (1765-1835).

A previous item on the Reepham Life website (December 2013) stated that the bridge over the Eyn Brook was erected in 1820 and that David Williams, riding back from dinner with his brother-in-law Peter Elwin at Booton Hall, fell from his horse and broke his neck crossing the ford over the Eyn Brook at Booton.

Part of this information originally came from a photocopy of a handwritten item in our files. An excerpt is shown, signed HEH, which stands for Henry Edward Hawes (1863-1957).

Researching the Williams family it transpires that David Williams died in 1811, with no mention of an accident in his death announcement and no reports of an inquest into his death (Norfolk Chronicle, 28 December 1811).

Harry Hawes wrote down his recollections when he was in his 80s, so he will have first heard versions of this tale in the 1870s when he was a child.

David Williams’ son Peter Elwin Williams (1789-1826) was a surgeon living in Reepham. His death was recorded in the local papers (Norwich Mercury & Bury and Norwich Post, March 1826).

Below is a photograph of the plaque on the bridge as it is today (Courtesy of M. Rogers).

There was a discussion at a Booton parish meeting in the summer about restoring the memorial stone on the bridge, but, as the inscription is barely visible, this is probably not possible.

Janet Archer

The Reepham Archive is open to the public on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 10 am – 12 noon (or by appointment), upstairs in the Bircham Centre, Market Place, Reepham. For more information about opening times and current services, contact the Archive by email.

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