JANUARY 15TH - STOP PRESS  POSTS

CORONAVIRUS

A MESSAGE FROM THOMPSON PARISH COUNCIL

As we have now entered into the third Covid-19 lockdown we are providing a reminder of the local village support available in Thompson

This flyer gives details of what to do if you:

·      need help

·      would like to volunteer to help and support others

If you feel that you need LOCAL VILLAGE SUPPORT then register with the Parish Clerk[1] – details below.

If, as a Thompson resident, you CAN VOLUNTEER TO HELP other residents, please confirm that you can continue as a volunteer or register as a new volunteer with the Parish Clerk – details below.

Following a request for help a volunteer supporter will contact you. Among other things they may help with the following:

• Picking up urgent supplies/prescriptions
• Picking up urgent shopping
• A friendly phone call
• Posting mail

Kim Austin, Thompson Parish Clerk

Tel: 07811 287071

Email: parishclerk@thompsonvillage.org.uk

Thank you

  [1] The Parish Council takes very seriously the security of your contact details. Once the crisis is over your details will be deleted.

THOMPSON PARISH COUNCIL

SURFACE WATER IN THOMPSON - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

As those living in Thompson are well aware, surface water management in parts of the village is an ongoing problem. This problem is more severe after exceptional rainfall, such as the 186mm that we experienced on 16 August 2020, and which is likely to become more frequent in the future.

Thompson Parish Council has started a project to get a full understanding of which areas suffer problems with surface water, what road drainage has been provided in those areas and the ditch network in and around the village now and in the past. Once we have collated this information we will be in a better position to contact the Norfolk County Council’s Environment and Highways departments.

We would appreciate it if you could contribute to the information gathering first stage of this project. Please send an email to the Parish Clerk (parishclerk@thompsonvillage.org.uk), or if you would prefer to do this anonymously then post an envelope in the post box outside Redbrick Farmhouse, Tottington Road.

What we would like to know is:

In which part of Thomson do you live (you do not need to give the precise address)?

Do you experience problems with poor surface water drainage?

Is there a ditch nearby into which your property drains, or was there one in the past?

Is there a road drain nearby, and do you know to where it drains?

Have any houses or outbuildings in your locality experienced flooding either recently or in the past?

JANUARY 2021

January News

Firstly, a Happy New Year to everyone. Here is hoping for a much better 2021. With the optimism surrounding the vaccine we wish everyone a much healthier and safer year ahead. 

If you need help of any sort Winter can bring its own problems and the virus will still be an issue for a while to come yet.

The Parish Council continues to offer to co-ordinate any support you might need during the pandemic. At the time of going to print Christmas remains a very uncertain time. If you find yourself in need of help over the Christmas period please do get in touch. Contact details are on the leaflet delivered to every household at the start of lockdown but if you have lost it, contact details can also be found at the front of the magazine or on the website.

Church

The PCC of St. Martin’s send their best wishes to everyone for 2021 and hope you all have a happy & healthy new year.

Please check on our websites for updates in the case of any change in government advice & restrictions. Useful Contacts www.dioceseofnorwich.org www.stmartinsthompson.co.uk www.facebook.com/stmartinsthompson www.facebook.com/waylandchurches https://www.waylandermagazine.org/wayland-benefice-church-page

The vicar & churchwarden of this church can be contacted in an emergency as follows; Rev Adrian Bell (parish priest) 01760.627.039 adrian.bell@uwclub.net Katharine Wolstenholme (churchwarden) 01953.483.318 info@collegefarmnorfolk.co.uk

W.I.

We had a Christmas Zoom meeting and we all made a bit of an effort by wearing a Christmas jumper, hat or jewellery. We each had a Christmas drink too and rank a toast to wish each other a Happy Christmas. It is hard to think that it was only a year ago that we were eating together in a beautifully decorated Community Hall, sharing dishes we had all brought along. It seems like another era altogether.

Our speaker this month was Simon White from Peter Beales Roses who gave us an insight into what it is like to exhibit at Chelsea and Hampton Court. He showed a series of slides of behind the scenes setting up and also of some of the more memorable gardens exhibited over the years. It was really interesting to learn about what happens to make these wonderful shows happen. I don’t think any of us realised how expensive it can be to take part. Simon also makes Christmas wreaths to order each year and several of our members will be displaying them on their doors shortly.

In January we will be having a making session and a social evening. No doubt we will be sharing our experiences of a very different Christmas. Why not join is in 2021? Contact Kate on 483476 for details.

Millennium Green Results for the lottery in November are as follows:

7th No. 44 Pam Spacey 14th No.

13 Trish Hayward

21st No. 47 Kate Winslow

28th No. 32 Mary & David Pearson

New Community Hall Car Park

Unfortunately, the school staff felt unable to take up the offer of the use of the car park during the pandemic at the moment. However, they will be looking at this again if the restrictions are still in place as spring approaches.

2021

We hope you enjoyed the tree being lit in the foyer, though the timer was a bit erratic! The same goes for the notice board on the roadside, With no power there, we relied on solar lights but the days were sometimes so dark they didn’t charge properly. We tried and we hope it gave a bit of Christmas cheer! A big thank you to the Millennium Green, Parish Council and church for their trees, and to all those in the village who went the extra mile to add a festive air to the village We wish everyone a Healthy and Happy 2021 and hope to welcome you back to the Hall.

With so much uncertainty still over tiers and what we can and can’t do, we cannot make any firm plans. The vaccine is a ray of hope but how long it will be before it is effective enough to allow us to risk holding events remains to be seen. We will keep everyone informed and will do our best to advertise any changes as widely as we can.

Thankyou from Brenda

I would like to say a big thank you to everybody for all they have done for me since Roy died. What a lovely, kind village we live in. The thoughts and kindnesses are really appreciated. Thank you. Brenda

Winter Memories

The recent prediction by scientists that snow in most parts of Britain may become a thing of the past, prompted some thoughts about winters in years gone by. We do not have a lot of written evidence of winter in long ago Thompson, other than an entry in the parish registers, until the late

19th century.

The parish register for 1776 shows that the weather was really cold with a lot of snow from January at least. On January 19th young Thomas Jonas aged only 12, was sent by his master to help drive cattle from Themelthorpe towards London via Thompson. Thomas was badly clothed and not equipped for such weather. As the weather worsened some five miles from Thetford Thomas was instructed to turn back and head for the Bull in Watton. Due to his inadequate clothing and the sharp temperatures Thomas froze to dearth on the old Thompson Common near Cherry Row. This was the side of the common nearer to Pockthorpe and Peddars Way. The snow covered his body so that he was not found until February 6th. The verdict was that he had perished due to the carelessness of his master’s brother, who had been with him driving the cattle, for not ensuring he was decently clothed and cared for. Even after he was found there was no one to bury the poor little lad for ten days.

The school logs show that winter in Thompson could be a miserable time. Children often did not get to school because it was too wet or snowy. Children in the late 1800s and early 1900s often did not have suitable footwear and certainly not waterproof coats. Some of the children came a long way on foot from outlying cottages on muddy tracks. The incidence of absence through heavy colds and other winter illnesses was high. The school room must have been a very unpleasant place in winter. There was a coal fired stove in the schoolroom but the head often complained about lack of fuel for it.

There are also mentions of poor ventilation in the school so one can imagine the atmosphere of damp and body odour. People didn’t have daily baths and the children were probably often fairly unwashed, while keeping their clothes clean would have been quite a task. There are lots of stories of children being sewn into their under clothes for the winter, sometimes with layers of paper and even goose fat to ward off the cold. No wonder the head often records head lice and other conditions, or says she has sent children home to wash. In 1947 we had one of the coldest winters on record.

The worst of the weather began on January 23rd and lasted through until March. Roads and railways were blocked and domestic electricity had to be reduced to 19 hours a day because coal couldn’t be transported to power stations. Domestic coal was also hard to come by. Even when the ice and snow did start to melt, the thaw was fairly rapid and resulted in widespread flooding. We have a series of letters from this time from two elderly ladies, the Baldwin sisters, living in Meadow Cottages off Pockthorpe Lane. They describe spending much of the day in bed to conserve their coal and to keep warm. They also express a lot of gratitude to neighbours for warm food. In 1963 we had another harsh winter with a lot of snow blocking main roads.

The big freeze began in December 1962 and most of Britain was covered in snow and ice which lasted until early March. It is the coldest recorded winter in England since at least 1895 and in central England the only colder winters were 1683–84 and 1739–40. Santon Downham recorded –19 on January 3rd 1963. I wasn’t living in Norfolk but I remember being allowed to wear ordinary jumpers and warm clothing to school instead of our uniform. The school was a six mile bus ride away and there were many days when the buses couldn’t run and we all tramped home again. It was a tradition to pair those of us who lived in the outlying villages with girls living in town.

Normally this was for the big annual carol concert which took place over three nights. To avoid us travelling back and forth we went to our partner’s home for tea and to change from our day clothes. During the freeze there were contingency plans with our partners should we be unable to get home at the end of the school day, but these were never necessary. My husband recalls that he had just started working at Heathrow. His transport was a motorbike which he rode to work all through that winter. He can’t remember falling off but only how cold his hands were by the time he got there, and defrosting them on the large heaters in the hangar.

In the winter of 1981 –82 the snow and low temperatures began in early December and lasted to mid January. It was recorded as one of the coldest Decembers on record in the UK. After our move to Thompson, we have had a few occasions when snow made life a little difficult but the winter of 1987 was the most severe. We were cut off for a few days, though some villagers managed to collect milk supplies for us all from an arranged point. We had a village shop then so food supplies were not a problem. With an enforced holiday, a lot of people also gathered at the pub. The children, of course, thought it was great. The snow had drifted in the lane in ridges and was deep enough for them to carve out little snow dwellings.

The temperatures dropped low enough for them to experiment with cutting blocks too and they made quite a good construction of an igloo in the garden. The house seemed to be permanently filled with drying gloves and coats. To bring us up to date, we then had the Beast from the East. I was at Barnham Broom leading a churches tour holiday break and got stuck there for five days so missed the effects on Thompson. We were in self-catering apartments so food started to get low.

We had booked lunches out at all the places on the tour so no one had catered for being cut off. The hotel on the site was on a skeleton staff and when the snow was at its worst they did a 24 hour shift. Needless to say, no churches were visited, until the last day but one, when the coach company phoned to say they were finally able to get out of the depot and could take us somewhere provided it was on a main road. We had abandoned all hope of the programme by now so elected to go to Norwich where they could visit the cathedral and where they could at least get a warm drink somewhere.

A lot of shops and attractions remained closed because of lack of staff but we managed quite a good day. The next day they took us to Hingham but the guide we had booked went down with flu. We headed to the church where one of the clergy gave us a very good impromptu tour. This was meant to be followed by a guided tour of the historical aspects of the village. I had only had the previous evening to bone up on it on the computer but managed to remember enough to get by. Due to the cold the café had more appeal anyway, and we were very well looked after there, with a good choice of hot food. It wasn’t a total disaster but I have not been in any hurry to repeat it. Meanwhile, at home, the village was cut off and the pipes just outside the house had frozen.

Dave had to resort to using the water from our well, which is always amazingly clear. He had some bottled water but when that ran out he risked boiling and filtering the well water and suffered no ill effects. Not sure he was too impressed with me being in a cosy apartment while he suffered! Let’s hope that, as I write, what remains of 2020 doesn’t have any weather surprises and that 2021 starts well.  Though it is the unusual which makes history!

Wayland News

The editor of the Wayland News, Julian Horn, is very grateful for the very positive feedback he received on the Christmas edition. If you do not have one delivered there are copies in the Community Hall porch and the January one will be available there.

Condolences

We have all been very saddened to learn of the death of Roy Mills. He and Brenda have been in Thompson for many years and played an active part in village life. He will be very much missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with Brenda and her family at this sad time. One of my happy memories of Roy are from when he worked for the electricity board. Our old cottage was very much in need of updating at that time and the electric panel and meter were ancient and hung drunkenly on the wall of one of the children’s bedrooms. He had to log the location in his report and got a lot of ribbing at work for his visits to a customer’s bedroom, which he found highly amusing.

Happy New Year

A very Happy and Healthy 2021 to all our readers. We do hope that the optimism brought about by the promise of a vaccine will see life much improved for everyone in the year to come. Do send in any articles, recipes, verse you have written, family notices or anything else you feel is suitable or interesting for others to enjoy.

Why not share how Christmas turned out for you? Meanwhile stay safe and look after each other.

DECEMBER 2020

STOP PRESS - SADLY THE MIDNIGHT MASS ON CHRISTMAS EVE AT THOMPSON CHURCH HAS BEEN CANCELLED. 

A big contrast this year to the usual list of What’s On events over the Christmas period. We do hope that you will all have the best Christmas possible under the circumstances, and wish everyone in Thompson a Merry Christmas.

If you need help of any sort

The Parish Council continues to offer to coordinate any support you might need during the pandemic. At the time of going to print Christmas remains a very uncertain time. If you find yourself in need of help over the Christmas period please do get in touch. Contact details are on the leaflet delivered to every household at the start of lockdown but if you have lost it, contact details can also be found at the front of the magazine or on the website.

Can you help make someone feel a little less lonely this Christmas?

Despite the promise of a vaccine, this Christmas will be very different from any other for all of us and a lonely one for many. We usually think that it is people living on their own who are lonely, but even couples or young families living a distance from their wider families may feel lonely this year as they face the prospect of being unable to gather together, Individuals and communities can help in small ways, There will be people in your neighbourhood who have been finding this a tough year.

Why not do something in your community or as an individual to make someone feel they are not forgotten? It can be as simple as a card, a phone call or skype on Christmas Day.  If you are having an online Christmas quiz or game can others be included? A small gift (perhaps something home-made) might be appreciated. if you make door wreaths why not make a second to give away.

Have you made jam or chutney this year, or pickled onions ready for Christmas? All of these are personalised and can make someone feel thought about. A Christmas cracker with a personal gift added could be home-made or a bought one with an extra gift popped inside. A package of home-made treats like biscuits, or a bought pack nicely wrapped might make someone feel cared for. If you are giving items to someone make sure you allow for the recipient to be able to take measures such as cleansing the item or leaving it untouched the required amount of time to avoid passing on the virus.

Some people may feel that cooking a full Christmas dinner isn’t worth the effort or perhaps can’t afford it, so is there a way your community is able to safely help with that? Lots of our villages have community charities so if you know of someone finding it hard, perhaps they can be approached to discreetly help. The ideas are probably endless.

With no events to advertise in them, villages could decorate their notice boards and add a Christmas message to the village. Can you arrange a time for your neighbourhood to raise a Christmas glass on their doorsteps together in a distanced Christmas drink? A lot of us go for a walk on Christmas Day or Boxing Day to work of some of the excesses. Even if we can’t mix together in the usual sense, and, unless we are locked down again, it may be possible to ask someone to join you on a safely distanced walk and feel they have had some company and conversation. A lot of what happens at Christmas will depend on government guidelines of course, and some of the above suggestions may not be feasible at the time, so do check before undertaking any of them. Make sure that you are acting safely and within the rules to protect your friends and neighbours.

Church

The PCC of St. Martin’s send their best wishes to everyone for Christmas and hope you all have a happy & healthy new year. Please check on our websites for updates in the case of any change in government advice & restrictions.

Useful Contacts

www.dioceseofnorwich.org www.stmartinsthompson.co.uk www.facebook.com/stmartinsthompson www.facebook.com/waylandchurches https://www.waylandermagazine.org/wayla nd-benefice-church-page The vicar & churchwarden of this church can be contacted in an emergency as follow Rev Adrian Bell (parish priest) 01760.627.039 adrian.bell@uwclub.net Katharine Wolstenholme (churchwarden) 01953.483.318 info@collegefarmnorfolk.co.uk

Parish Council

Thompson Autumn Litter Pick

Thank you to all who joined the Thompson autumn litter pick on October 30th. As we have had a warm and wet autumn, the vegetation was still growing and the litter was not so easy to see. Our collection of bottles, cans and packaging was less than usual which means that there will be a bumper crop waiting for us at next spring’s pick. Notable in this year’s haul was the number of Blossom Hill wine miniatures picked up along the Thompson–Merton road!

W.I.

We had good attendance at our Zoom AGM in November. The business was completed quite quickly despite a few hiccups with the connection for a couple of us. Kate had organised a Christmas make for us. She had put together a pack for everyone and even got the materials to our more distant participants. So, a big thank you to her for doing this. We all made a Christmas bauble – one or two a bit more successfully than others. Not because of lack of skill but because the glue spots didn’t work! It was fun and we had a good catch up too. In December we have Simon White talking about Highlights of Chelsea and Hampton Court.

Millennium Green

Update on Hedgelaying along Hallfield Road As mentioned previously in the Waylander and due to a grant from the Rural Payments Agency under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, hedge laying along the southern edge of the Millennium Green on Hallfield Road is progressing well. The over grown hedge line has been stripped back and the debris has now been shredded. The hedge will now be laid, staked and binded and a countryside mix of whips planted. A good few yards of the Green have been recovered as a result.

Over the next 6 months further work will be done to ensure the recovered area reverts to grass and is cut as part of the overall grass cutting contract. It is important to realise that the mounds of shredded material need to remain in place for 6 months or so to ensure all fungal matter has degraded properly. The material will then be raked/shovelled into the newly laid hedge line as mulch. In addition, the Millennium Green Committee will commit to further work to secure the boundaries of the Green by putting in place a series of posts around the old village hall car park to prevent unintentional ingress on to the Green.

Also, a 5 bar gate will be placed across the large gap in the hedge line on Hallfield Road to keep those using the Green safe and secure from traffic . The gate will of course be opened when required for authorised vehicle access (annual Thompson Run, Booksales etc).

Lottery Results October

MG Lottery results are as follows:

3rd No. 2 John Whitlam

10th No. 2 John Whitlam

17th No. 46 Bronwen Tyler

24th No. 44 Pam Spacey

31st No. 35 Betty Norris

New Community Hall

Just when we thought we could begin to move forward we locked down again. We will now focus on 2021 with some of the optimism brought about by the recent scientific developments

Christmas Trees

Despite not being able to hold a proper carol singing and tree lighting event, we will be lighting the hall Christmas tree to add a bit of cheer to the festive season. We shall really miss the children and their help with decorating the tree, which was becoming a new tradition for the village. The trees will also be lit at Well Corner and the crossroads in an effort o make the village shine out a little Christmas spirit.

Car Park

We have made the hall car park available to the staff of the school as a temporary solution while the pandemic continues. This is to ease the congestion on the main road through the village at drop off and pick up times, during which times the parents are having to follow a strict procedure. This procedure involves cars queueing along the road as some parents arrive early and have to wait until their children leave the classroom. This agreement is for staff only and will cease once we need to make the car park available for hall users once more.

Avian Influenza

As of 11 November, an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) has been declared across the whole of England to mitigate the risk of the disease spreading. This means it is a legal requirement for ALL bird keepers to follow strict biosecurity measures. Keepers with more than 500 birds will need to restrict access for non-essential people on their sites, workers will need to change clothing and footwear before entering bird enclosures and site vehicles will need to be cleaned and disinfected regularly.

Backyard owners with smaller numbers of poultry including chickens, ducks and geese are also legally required to meet enhanced biosecurity requirements.

• Ensure the areas where birds are kept are unattractive to wild birds, for example by netting ponds, and by removing wild bird food sources.

• Feed and water your birds in enclosed areas to discourage wild birds.

• Minimise movement in and out of bird enclosures;

• Clean and disinfect footwear and keep areas where birds live clean and tidy.

• Reduce any existing contamination by cleansing and disinfecting concrete areas, and fencing off wet or boggy areas.

The prevention zone will be in place until further notice and will be kept under regular review as part of our work to monitor the threat of bird flu.

Christmas Past in Thompson

What was Christmas like in Thompson years ago and what traditions were followed here? Thompson was an agricultural village with not a great deal of money to spend on luxuries so Christmas would have been a simple affair.

Our first written information is from the school log books, which date from 1874, although the school was closed again in September 1875 due to lack of a headmistress, and did not reopen until January 1876. In that year they had a very short school holiday; the school closed on December 22nd and opened again on December 28th. Unsurprisingly, there were only a few pupils present!

The first mention of any school events is practice for a Christmas concert in preparation for a party in 1881. In 1882 they had a service, possibly in the church, and before they broke up each child received an orange and a Christmas card. The children who attended the church Sunday School were also given a present. The giving of a card and an orange became a tradition and were usually donated by the curate, Rev Smyth Thorpe. In 1885 he also paid for all 69 pupils to attend an entertainment held at the school. He continued with the gifts each Christmas until 1906. We think of school closure for epidemics as something new and rare but it was a much more frequent, though localised, event in the past.

In 1886 the school closed early for Christmas due to sickness in the village and there is no mention of any events. It was common for the school to close for epidemics of diseases which we now see as mild or which are prevented by vaccination, but would then have been lifethreatening. Measles, Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough and more. Even as recently as the 1940s, the Christmas period often seems to be when there are a lot of children off sick and the holidays extended. On more than one occasion this was for most of December so perhaps Christmas was often not much fun for many families as nostalgia leads us to believe. In 1892 they had the double treat of a Magic Lantern show followed a week later by a concert. Otherwise the end of term seems to have been a period of prize-givings but no special events.

From the mid-1920s an At Home became a regular event attended by the school managers and mothers of the children. The pupils performed recitations, songs and little plays. The first mention of a Christmas Fair is in 1944. The children also gave a short display of dancing and singing. The funds raised went towards a Christmas Party and the Fair or Market became a regular feature, with a party at the end of term. Presents began to be a more regular feature both at the parties and brought in by local residents on the last days of term, and we can see the wealth of people improving. The heads often commented on the weather, mainly because it could prevent children from walking to school, and it is noticeable how often there was snow before Christmas. Moving forward to more recent times, the Midnight Service at our church was begun by the then Rector, Paul Alton, about 40 years ago. There were no other Christmas services held in the group then so the church was packed to standing room only. The joke was that once the pub closed for the evening, everyone headed to the church. Numbers decreased once the Christmas morning services were held in neighbouring churches but the Midnight Service remained a popular traditional feature of a Thompson Christmas. Often, extra chairs had to be brought out. Sadly, along with other church attendance, the congregation has reduced in more recent years but it has remained a key part of our village Christmas.

Carol singing was a long tradition in Thompson, interrupted only by the war years of WW2 until its demise in recent years. It isn’t known when it began but possibly over 80 years ago. Mrs Kerridge of Red Brick Farm was one of those who used to organise it. The village was divided into three areas so that singing took place over three nights. A good crowd would turn out but, if they were unable to join in, villagers would ask which night was to be their part of the village so that they could be sure to be at home and have some pennies ready. It was something the village looked forward to. In the early 1950s the collection went towards a new village hall fund but later a different children’s charity was chosen each year.

The first time I took part was in 1983 in the run up to our first Christmas in Thompson. My mother was staying with us and saw it in the Waylander. We arrived at the village hall to be told we needed a car for the outlying properties. We caught up with them at the church, but getting four children, mother and ourselves in and out of the car soon saw us left behind again. We were told the next stop was ButtersHall. We had only been here a few weeks so we didn’t know it well and not in the dark! We arrived to find not a soul about and no sound of singing. We ended up in the green lane part of the road and were about to give up and go home when the rescue party in the shape of Mike Forster and his Landrover arrived. They forgot to mention going to Top Farm first. We sang our carols and were warmed up at College Farm by Lavender and her famous hot punch (not alcoholic because the heating had burned off the alcohol – well that’s what she claimed) and hot sausage rolls in front of her roaring fire.

A few years before this incident the weather had been poor so Mike Forster used a tractor and trailer as transport to save cars getting stuck. He tried to back it out of Top Farm and almost tipped everyone into the ditch in the dark. For many years the group was led by Betty with her beautiful singing voice. It is a sad feature of modern times that less and less people came out to sing and the efforts of those who did were unappreciated by some. It became common to see lights switched off and doors unanswered as the group approached.

After so many years of never once failing to meet, in rain, wind, snow and ice, the few had to accept defeat and carol singing ceased. It had begun a small revival in the last two years when we began the idea of lighting village trees and singing at each one.

Then 2020, Covid and all the distancing problems surfaced. So, this year, although there will be trees lit, there will be no carols. For a few years Santa did his rounds on the back of a truck. Alan Blake of the stonemason’s in Watton, carved out two reindeer to decorate the truck and dressed up as Father Christmas. Parents bought a gift and gave it to Santa’s helpers in advance. On Christmas morning Santa was driven round the village personally delivering the presents. The service extended to Griston and Caston before ‘the rules’ put a stop to riding in the back of an open truck. Village events were many.

There was an old folks Christmas party in the old village hall every year. When the 3 in 1 Club for old folk was formed between Thompson, Caston and Griston the people of Thompson got together and cooked the members a Christmas dinner which was served in the village hall. Crackers, party hats, games and gifts were a feature of course as well as a sing song. The children were also catered for. Two parties were held each Christmas.in the village hall put on by the committee and volunteers. One was for the smaller ones with games and a tea. The older children had a slightly more sophisticated version and began to include a disco. A decline in the numbers of children living in the village saw an end to these.

Christmas Bingo began in the 1950s as a fundraiser for the village hall and was enormously popular for many years. The prizes were all donated so you could receive anything from a bar od chocolate or a box of eggs to a large chicken and a final cash prize. Participants took it seriously, arriving with marker pens and buying whole books of tickets. Once over I have never seen a hall empty so fast!

Sometimes, looking back can seem a bit of a gloomy exercise as we realise all the events we have lost as a community. However, times change, we move on and new traditions begin. It has been a real pleasure to have the children who come along to ice cream Thursdays enjoy making Christmas decorations in the new hall and then decorate the tree. They have so enjoyed it and we look forward to returning to that in the years to come. The tree lighting is another new venture which was beginning to take off as other people lit their trees on the same evening and more people were joining in with the walk round the village.

While it was not physically possible to walk to each one and sing during the evening, especially in the rain, it was great to know it was happening around us. The trees at the Church, Community Hall, Well Corner, and the crossroads will still be lit thanks to the PCC, the committees of the Community Hall and Millennium Green and to the Parish Council.

There is still time to add your tree to make Thompson sparkle this Christmas. Last year, we had the idea of adding in a Christmas film following the refreshments in the Hall, and saw a good audience enjoying a really nostalgic evening with It’s A Wonderful Life. We hope we can soon plan such events once more. We look forward to the community being able to take part again.

Happy Christmas!

Wayland News A bumper edition of the Wayland News has been produced for Christmas with lots of articles such as a look back at childhood Christmases, puzzles and quizzes to see you over the break. The paper is free and copies can be obtained from the box in the porch at the Community Hall. Happy Christmas A Happy and Healthy Christmas to everyone. Stay safe.

NOVEMBER 2020

November News

Just when we thought we could do a bit more the virus has spread again and the future remains uncertain. So unfortunately, still no What’s On.

A reminder that the magazine is live online at www.waylandermagazine.org .

 If you need help of any sort The Parish Council continues to offer to co-ordinate any support you might need during the pandemic. Contact details are on the leaflet delivered to every household at the start of lockdown but if you have lost it, contact details can also be found at the front of the magazine or on the website.

Church

Next services at Thompson:

Wednesday 4 November 10.00a.m.

Sunday 15 November 10.30a.m.

Thursday 24th December midnight mass 11.30p.m.

The next All Churchwardens meeting will be held on 24th October when the schedule of services for the rest of the year will be arranged. Please see the December issue of the Waylander for information about Christmas services. The church continues to be open most days for private prayer between approximately 10.00a.m. – 4.00p.m. Please use the hand sanitiser as you enter the church. Please check on our websites for updates in the case of any change in government advice & restrictions. Katharine,

Richard and Bronwen met an author, James Stourton, and his co-worker at the church at the beginning of October. They are conducting research on community support for heritage and were directed to Thompson by a member of the Norfolk Churches Trust as an example of a wonderful church and good community heritage work. It was a fascinating visit and they were so enthusiastic about the building, the background heritage and the wider community work, which not only led to the restoration of the nave but was also part of the various local heritage projects. They fired questions at us about it all but we also learned a little more about the fabric of the building from their expertise. They went away armed with a Wayland Churches book and a copy of the new guide to St. Martins. It will be interesting to see what the finished book contains.

Useful Contacts

www.dioceseofnorwich.org

 www.stmartinsthompson.co.uk

www.facebook.com/stmartinsthompson

www.facebook.com/waylandchurches

https://www.waylandermagazine.org/wayland-benefice-church-page

The vicar & churchwarden of this church can be contacted in an emergency as follows: Rev Adrian Bell (parish priest) 01760.627.039 adrian.bell@uwclub.net Katharine Wolstenholme (churchwarden) 01953.483.318 info@collegefarmnorfolk.co.uk

W.I.

We had hoped to be able to meet for our Birthday month meeting in October and share a fish and chip take away supper, but Covid put paid to that with the restrictions on meetings of more than six. Instead we had another of our Zoom meetings. It was a really interesting talk by Sian, who had had a career in home economics. She trained at the same establishment as Mary Berry, though not at the same time, being a lot younger. She then worked in Trading Standards before becoming a food demonstrator and speaker with Sainsbury’s. As part of a Sainsbury team she worked alongside Jamie Oliver in his campaign to improve children’s diets and school meals, as well as becoming a demonstrator at county shows and other similar events. She also did some work with the Calendar Girls. Her talk was full of anecdotes and amusing incidents. She gave us a food-related mini quiz at the end. All very enjoyable. We are getting very slick at the use of zoom and agreed that there will be a place for it as part of our W.I. even after restrictions are lifted. One advantage is the breadth of choice of speakers of course. For some it will be that, if they cannot get out or don’t want to in poor weather, then they can still join in. We hope the use of new technology and a wider choice of speakers might attract new members. This month we have our AGM and a surprise activity, possibly a make of some sort.

Millennium Green Lottery Results

The winning numbers for September were as follows

September5th No. 32 Mary & David Pearson

12th No. 14 Sue Baldock

19th No. 56 John Reeves

26th No. 45 Millennium Green

New Community Hall

Although we remain closed for regular and large events due to the numbers involved, we welcome enquiries for those activities which fall within current (and ever-changing) government guidelines. Also, we are very happy to discuss any plans and bookings for 2021 on the understanding that things may change at short notice. We have already had a couple of enquiries. We would love to be able to return to opening more often once more. We still meet each month via zoom for our committee meetings. We have conducted the risk assessment and purchased items to enable the building to be more covid-safe. We are writing an appendix to our normal hiring terms and conditions to take account of the measures needed to cope with the virus, as well as adding new equipment, signage and so on.

Meanwhile the petanque terrain has been put right by being resurfaced and has been passed by an expert as a huge improvement from before, and ready for play. The surface is still a little soft due to the heavy rain recently but will settle and firm. Clearly, quite strict rules apply as to how to conduct a game without touching a jack other than your own; not touching other players’ boules; and keeping socially distanced. The weather is probably not ideal now, and through winter, for play on many days but if you have boules, the weather is good enough, and you wish to use it please do. Otherwise we look forward to next season.

Our gate is padlocked at the moment in support of the Millennium Green committee’s measures to protect the Green from unwanted intruders in vehicles. As previously announced, they will be installing a gate on Hallfield Road and putting posts around the small car park to stop vehicles driving onto the Green. When we are open to more activity and increased use once more, we will review the locking and unlocking of the gate of course. Our website is: https://thompsoncommunityhall.co.uk/

History Begins at Home Project

One of the most recent suggestions by the History Begins at Home project was what did we do on nights in?

Most people I knew rarely went out in the evening. We children might play in the street in summer or early evenings but we didn’t belong to any clubs and I am fairly sure there were few if any available to us children. No Brownies, Guides or Scouts and certainly none of the gym clubs and other activities children are ferried to today. The town did have a football club and some of my friends went to dance classes. My home area had working men’s clubs and similar institutions where some families went at weekends but my parents didn’t belong to any, so most of it was nights in. We listened to the radio a lot as a family in the evenings.

My father refused to allow a TV on the grounds they destroyed family life. There is something very companionable about listening to a favourite programme by firelight on a winter evening, while we cooked toast over the fire, or crumpets. Programmes I recall are: Take It From Here; Educating Archie; Round the Horn and Beyond Our Ken; Brains Trust and Does the Team Think?; plays and serialised stories or detective mysteries like Dick Barton; the Goon Show; The Archers of course; Life With the Lyons; Meet the Huggetts; light entertainment like the Billy Cotton Band Show or Friday Night is Music Night; and who didn’t listen to Hancock’s Half Hour? Lots more of course.

Dad, as a keen gardener, had to listen to Gardener’s Question Time. He could barely contain himself when they came to my home town to record one of the programmes and he actually got to meet Bill Sowerbutts and Freddie Grisewood. We played a lot of board games and simple card games. Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, draughts were most common. Card games were Sevens, Happy Families, Old Maid etc. There was often a jigsaw puzzle on the go on a table. We still enjoy a board game together and it became a Christmas tradition to buy a new family game.

We always liked paper puzzles and quizzes as a family and would do some of these together, my parents often buying little booklets of mixed puzzles for us. My parents liked crosswords, and my mother especially liked cryptic ones. We all read a lot and devoured books. I still recall the pleasure of a new set of books from the local library when that opened. Before it existed, we had to rely on family borrowing. My grandad had an unused front room with bookshelves full of matched sets of classics in red binding with gold decoration. They were not there for show though, and he had read them all. His favourite subject, though, was not these but Westerns, which we found quite an amusing choice. I was allowed to borrow from the contents of the front room library, provided they were returned to the set, so I ploughed my way through Dickens and other classic authors in the absence of any other choice.

From our home bookshelf, Gulliver’s Travels and War and Peace stand out. My father and uncle swapped a very eclectic mix as Christmas gifts so we never knew what would appear on the bookshelf. Anything from the Kon Tiki Expedition to the Seven Pillars of Wisdom or some odd thing found in an old book shop such as a vet’s diary. I still have my own lovely illustrated copy of Through the Looking Glass and (possibly my all-time favourite from my early childhood), a dog-eared AA Milne’s When We Were Very Young. Another favourite I still have, though I had preferred the radio serialisation, was Eagle of the Ninth about a lost Roman Legion.

We belonged to a Sunday School and they had an annual prize-giving day when we always got a book. I rarely read these as they really were poor, badly written, cheap children’s novels on rough paper. I still remember my mother’s horror at a conversation she had just had with a friend about books and the friend said she had one somewhere but her children never read! No wonder they were always up to mischief – probably bored. I was in my teens by the time we got a TV and Dad was right, it did change the way we spent our evenings together; but who was the biggest addict? Dad of course. The first thing he did on entering the sitting room was turn the TV on!

By the time I was in my teens my ancient Grandad had come to live with us. He preferred to spend his evenings in the dining room which also had a radio for him to listen to. Unfortunately for him this was also when I discovered pop music and the Hit Parade. An unholy row as far as my father was concerned and not allowed on the radio in the sitting room with the rest of the family. So, my early Sunday evening listening was imposed on Grandad. He was 90 by this time. He actually quite enjoyed it as I danced round the room to some favourite or sang along, and he became an expert at who was where in the charts, who was likely to go up or down.

My friends thought it hilarious and quite cool that he knew so much about modern music and groups. The advent of youth clubs and teenage years meant my sister and I were going out more in the evenings and, with the goggle box now firmly established in the corner, our nights in inevitably changed. Once we no longer needed babysitters our parents could also go out a bit more, Mum to Townswomen’s Guild meetings and Dad to Allotment Society meetings or Welsh Society meetings. However, until we all finally left home, when we were not out with friends, our evenings in were still spent watching TV together, playing board games, reading or doing puzzles, or perhaps a craft like knitting. I do remember us sitting at opposite ends of a rugmaking kit all pegging away at it! Our bedrooms were too cold for us to disappear to them as youngsters do today so we had to spend time together, but I don’t remember that being a problem, except when I took up making my own clothes and got banished to the kitchen table because they couldn’t stand the noise of the sewing machine. It interfered with the TV. . .

Bronwen Tyler Bem

All parishioners of Thompson and the wider Wayland Partnership community congratulate Bronwen on her very well-deserved honour in the recently announced (delayed due to Covid) Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020. Some but not all of her areas of interest are below. Bronwen moved to Thompson in 1983.

Her family had instilled in her the importance of appreciating heritage. This coupled with an innate drive to piece together threads of information, explain matters better and create and nurture meaningful social and community relationships made her a natural volunteer. She has dedicated the last three and a half decades to deliver a real difference to the lives of those around her. Her impact on village life and particularly social cohesion was and remains positive, sustained and emphatically beneficial to all. She has changed things for the better especially through practical, engaged and hands on activities.

She began volunteering with the Friends of Thompson School Committee and was a school Governor for several years. Even now she continues volunteering for school history projects and takes classes on ‘change over time’ walks around the village. She is a staunch believer in changing things for the better through education from the earliest age. Her innovation, enthusiasm and knowledge had a direct impact on those she has taught. She embedded in many of these children an enduring understanding of the need for social cohesion and all to be involved in local initiatives to deliver a stable, caring community.

Bronwen has been a dedicated trustee of The Wayland Partnership Development Trust since its inception. Her direct involvement and enthusiasm from the outset has enhanced the strong relationships between the Thompson Parish Council, Breckland District Council and the Wayland Partnership for the benefit of all. For nearly 20 years Bronwen has led the Partnership Heritage Group. The group has published 3 times: Churches of Wayland; Histories of the Wayland Villages and Watton; Impact of World War One on Wayland – and has won local and regional awards as well as being runners-up at national level. In Thompson itself, Bronwen has been a Parish Councillor as well as its Chair for several years and has helped run a successful youth club. She organises the Stitchers’ sewing group (and has done so for 22 years) which has members from the village and other local villages.

Bronwen is a Trustee of the Thompson Poor Charity disbursing funds from the charity to the needy of the village. Such work has ensured that those in true need are properly identified, looked after and not forgotten. Recently, she has become Chair of the Thompson Community Hall trustees who co-ordinated the building of the new village hall and also a co-opted member of the team revitalising St. Martin’s church in Thompson, using Heritage Lottery Funding. Since the 1990s she has researched the history of Thompson including, at anyone’s request, the ancestry of people with roots in the village. This often requires significant correspondence both at home and overseas.

By default she has become the village historian and the village’s history has become part and parcel of residents’ daily lives. Whilst not content with all these major projects she continues to be involved in other areas to ensure all who want help, advice, guidance or just a friend to talk to find it readily available. Bronwen is a long-term member of the Women’s Institute. She was a member of the Twinning Association overseeing the friendship arrangement between the local town of Watton and Weeze in Germany.

She is a member of ‘Wayland Quilters’ who make Linus Quilts for terminally and chronically ill children, bereaved children, neonatal units and individual sick children in Norfolk. Her dynamic and involved leadership in this initiative not only benefits the children but also enhances, educates and acquires skills for all those involved, across all ages and abilities within the community. All the above illustrates her dedication to Thompson over the last (nearly) 35 years. Her husband, Dave, has continuously supported her in all of her efforts. From all of us, congratulations and we are very proud of you Bronwen!

Angus Welch