So I did a little research and found out that the name comes from an old French word for a fencing master. So more research needed on this particular family.
One of the other graves was to Logie Bruce-Lockhart who was headmaster of Gresham's School when I worked in the area back in the 1970s. Logie Bruce Lockhart was a Scottish rugby international who was born in 1921 and so would now be 100. He lived until September 2020 when he died aged 98. I believe he was the longest serving headmaster of Gresham's.
He came from a distinguished family with traditions in teaching and playing rugby union. His family also included explorers, international fencers, international squash players, adventurers, actors, directors and authors. In other words real achievers.
I was always aware of this gentleman but sadly never met him. It was good to be able to pay my respects by a visit to the churchyard.
Later in the day we visited Cromer and our friends bought some souvenirs in a fish and chip shop (sorry a souvenir shop). Every time a person paid over the money the owner said "you're hot to trot." After a few had been served it became rather tiresome. I bet by the end of the day the other sales people in the shop would have been at screaming point.
Our American friends' stay with us is rapidly coming to a close so yesterday we did a whistle stop tour of North Norfolk for them. We fitted in as much as we could in the little time we had available. We began at the Cley Nature Reserve.
Grumpy old man alert number one - Parking at the nature reserve visitors' centre used to be free. Now it's £3 for half a day which is ok but we only wanted about half an hour there whilst our friends bought some binoculars. So why would we have to pay £3 to spend a lot of money? OK it's fair enough if we wanted to stay half a day but we didn't. So why isn't there a fee of say £1 for an hour? We got the same thing when we later went down to Cley Beach. That too was £3 for half a day but all we wanted was a half hour sit by the sea. So why not £1 for an hour? The obvious answer is of course that they would make plenty of money from people paying £3 for an hour so why lower the charges?
Cley main street is horrendous. Parked cars make it very difficult to negotiate and the Coasthopper bus can have a terrible time trying to get through. But just at the back of the High Street is the village hall which has a large car park and its free. We parked there and that gave us the chance to see some lovely alleys we had always missed. Then we had a look at Cley Mill which today is a bed and breakfast. It was once owned by the parents of singer James Blunt but despite this has survived.
Grumpy old man alert number two - Went into a pottery shop in Cley. It had a sign, something along the lines of "lockdown may be over but we still ask you to wear a mask if you can." Fair enough. It did feel a tad strange going back to the old mask wearing. But my grump was with the staff. One was hanging pictures and another was painting. Neither spoke or acknowledged our presence. No "good morning," not even a quick "hello." Its' not a shop I would therefore buy anything from.
We drove onto Morston Quay and then walked to Blakeney for lunch opposite the quay. Then the walk back to Morston after my camera battery had run out. Quick visit to Cley beach - looked like the ideal place for a picnic (in the future). I called in at the village stores at Salthouse (home of many of my ancestors) and was lucky enough to get the last copy of The Story of Salthouse" book which I will be reading avidly to see if there is any reference to my Dew family.
And talking of Ancestors. I was very impressed by the idea of one family in Blakeney. I was attracted by the name on the bench "The Bishops' Seat." I assumed this was a church reference. But then I saw several small plaques on it and it was a bench to the memory of a family by the name of Bishop - what a good idea to record your genealogy on a public bench.
On my speedy walk back from Blakeney to Morston, a dear lady remarked on the pace I was setting. "You're walking at a good pace," she said. "I used to walk that fast," she added as I smiled.
Grumpy old man alert number three - In the evening we went to the Wiveton Bell and were disappointed by the food. We had eaten there at lunchtime a few weeks ago and enjoyed the food. On this occasion the batter on the fish and chips was hard and crunchy, the salmon starter was miniscule and the chips tasted as if they had been re-heated. Rants over.
Hope you enjoy the photographs I took before the battery ran out.