They were selling off the piece of land at the corner of Priory Road and at the side of the King's Head Public House.
At the time of writing the auction still had a few hours to go but the reserve has been met and so the land will be sold. The bidding opened at £8,000 and has now reached £16,000. The estimate set down was between £10,000 and £20,000 and so the reserve price is likely to have been around £10,000 or possibly a little more.
The piece of land in question has been the subject of a number of planning applications in the past but, to date, they have all been turned down. At the moment the area is unkempt and overgrown. It will be interesting to see how much it does sell for, who it sells to and what happens to the land. I know the local residents would like to keep it as a piece of community space and it certainly would go hand in hand with the rejuvenated garden at the King's Head when the pub re-opens (hopefully early November).
A number of trees on the land had tree preservation orders on them but these have been largely ignored and many of the trees have been cut down. That always strikes me as a strange aspect of a TPO. What happens if somebody just comes along with a chain saw and cuts a tree down? They can't be ordered to stick it back together again.
Anyway I will be watching the future of that piece of land with keen interest.
Hopefully today the weather will be good enough for me to have a wander round the village and take some photographs to finish off the October edition of Hethersett Herald which will be online tomorrow. I have a few subjects in mind.
* * *
It is always sad to watch the demise of a top class sportsman and particularly sad when that person is British.
Andy Murray bowed out of the French Open Tennis Championships with nothing more than a whimper and it is becoming increasingly obvious that he will never again be the force that he once was.
Murray has done so well to even get back to playing tournament tennis after the injury that could and perhaps should have ended his career.
I'm a firm believer in quitting when you are on top and Murray should have retired when he originally planned to rather than prolong his and our agony.
Sir Andy has nothing to prove to anyone (other than himself I guess). He is undoubtedly the greatest male tennis player this country has ever produced. He has won Wimbledon twice, won Olympic gold, won numerous other tournaments and, for a while, was ranked world number one. And he did all that in an age that has seen four of the greatest tennis players the world has ever known all coming to prominence at the same time - that's Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Raphael Nadal and Murray himself.
I would prefer to remember Murray as a great champion than a semi-washed up hasbeen who is just clinging to the vague hope that he can regain former glories. Murray could still be an outstanding doubles player where the wear and tear and pressure is nowhere near as great. He could certainly win more titles if he partnered his brother Jamie.
A few years ago we were in Scotland and staying close to Dunblane which we decided to visit. It turned out to be one of those wonderful communities where you immediately feel at home.
No sooner had we walked into the town centre than two dear ladies, seeing that I had a camera round my neck and assuming we were tourists, began talking to us and telling us about the town and the places to visit.
On their advice we started at the Cathedral and then walked by the river, had a picnic lunch and then went to the town museum which was free.
A lady on the entrance desk informed us that "the Andy Murray display is upstairs on the second floor." On occasions like this I like to play ignorant as a joke. "Sorry but who is Andy Murray?" I replied. She gave me one of those what I call John McEnroe stares. You know the "you cannot be serious" kind of look. I didn't keep the pretence up for too long though.
Dunblane of course still has an air of sadness about it due to the school massacre of 1996 when a gunman killed 16 children and a teacher. Those children would all be grown up now and would probably have had families of their own. One of the youngsters who survived was Andy Murray. The trauma of living through something like that must have been horrendous. I have never met the guy but i bet there's a little bit in him that believes that all he has achieved is a tribute to the memory of those that didn't survive that massacre. Just another reason that he doesn't have anything to prove.
Tomorrow I will tell you a little more about my own tennis journey and what the sport has meant to me for over 60 years.