Writing is my passion. I do it daily and some might say it is an obsession (well so be it). Words can paint pictures in readers' minds. Words can genuinely change things if backed up with actions.
As you will be aware I contribute articles on Hethersett to the Eastern Daily Press and the Norwich Evening News. Sometimes they are easy to write with the words flowing, sometimes they need a considerable amount of thought and re-writing and sometimes they are just plain difficult to write.
There are two sides to every story of course and the problem comes when I am writing something where I can see both sides of the story. Where, if you like, I support both sides or groups. That happened last week with a piece on the proposed sale of the Church Hall in Henstead Road and its possible change into two three bedroom houses.
Living in the local community I am writing about makes this kind of story tough as any report needs to be balanced and not biased, but there still has to be a theme to it.
With this story there are three themes of equal importance. Firstly I have written much in the past about the state of finances at the parish church. Not to put too fine a point on it, they need money to fund the upkeep of the parish church. Those who point to the Church of England as being awash with money are completely missing the point. Each church has to pay for its own existence and it costs £1,500 each week to keep St Remigius on an even keel and keep it open. So selling the church hall would help balance the books. Is it not right therefore to sell something that is a drain on resources in order to keep something else afloat?
Just looking at the hall, it is easy to see how this building could be a severe strain on funds. The external brickwork is crumbling and a load of cash needs to be spent on repairs. This would be dead money with more and more needed over years to come.
The second part of this story is whether turning the building into homes is a good thing. It is an historic building going back to the middle of the 19th century when it was one of two schools in the village. The British School is closely linked with village educationalist and benefactor Caroline Lindley. In 1907 the school was named after Miss Lindley. Then in the 1950s it was amalgamated with the National School in Queen's Road and the building was bought by the church. So there is a significant amount of village history there.
The third point, and an equally strong one, is that the Stella School of Dance has been holding classes there for decades and could be homeless if the building is sold off. It was previously known as the Yvonne School of Dance. So far attempts to find alternative halls have proved fruitless. The main problem is the dance school holds classes from 4 pm until 10 pm five days a week and so would practically need exclusive use of a venue afternoons and evenings on every weekday. So finding somewhere won't be easy and may mean the school moving out of the village which would be a terrible shame.
Put all these facts together and it made it a tough story to write. It ended as an amalgam story written by three of us with each taking a different aspect and trying to tie it together into a whole. Whether we did it justice, I will leave it for you to decide.
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We were sorting through a few things in my study yesterday (it really is quite a mess and needs a good week spending on it, but that's time I don't really have at the moment - but something I will have to do in the not too distant future). Anyway came across a couple of postcards that brought back memories of a lovely family holiday in Canada.
Both were from Vancouver. I took the boys on an adventure one day. Firstly we went to the top of Grouse Mountain by cable car. Unfortunately it was very misty at the top so we couldn't see much. I do remember our guide mentioning the fact that legendary blues singer Long John Baldry had made his home in Vancouver and had written a song about the city. It had something to do with Eagles but I have never been able to find it despite numerous attempts to track it down on the internet and on Spotify. Not having the title didn't help. Baldry was brought up as a blues singer but had a mainstream number one with the ballad "Let the Heartaches Begin." I believe he felt that he had sold out by recording that but it did make him shedloads of money and it certainly wasn't a bad song.
After coming back to earth from Grouse Mountain we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge which was quite frightening. A narrow suspension bridge it is 230 feet above the Capilano River and is a major tourist attraction.
I seem to remember the boys made no bones about it and almost ran across. I went across very gingerly and was so pleased to get to the other side only to find that the only way back to the car park was to cross the bridge again. It's not an experience I would like to repeat although we did go across that rickety bridge in Northern Ireland which is across a ravine.
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I am getting my second Covid jab on Friday - seems strange to look forward to something of that kind but it will be a big relief with lockdown restrictions being further eased on 17th.
The previous day I'm doing a poll clerk's job in Hethersett Village Hall for the Norfolk County Council and Police Commissioner elections. It's going to be tough working from 6 a.m until around 10.30 pm and especially tough having to wear a mask all that time.
Talking of local councils, Hethersett Parish Council will be holding its annual parish meeting via zoom on Wednesday. This is the opportunity for local residents to bring up matters of concern and make comments about the village. I will be there on behalf of Hethersett Herald. It would be good to see as many people attending as possible and you can get on by going to zoom and putting in 844 2107 6774 as the meeting address and 864229 as the password.
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Finally today just a handful of photographs of a shortish walk around the village yesterday.