So today it was down Ketteringham Lane, across the fields and back through the churchyard. So apologies if many of the pictures are familiar to you from previous walks. I have tried to take some new ones and others from different angles.
Came across the sheep/lambs just as they were being herded into a new field. The proximity of humans led to much bleating and general noise. Get close enough to a flock of sheep and you realise they don't just go baa in a nice orderly sort of way. Some of them have a deeply intoned almost throaty noise. Presumably they are the bass singers in the sheep choir.
Most of them gambolled along quite happily but two poor lambs were stuck in the original field. They didn't seem very stressed by thei fact and just carried on eating but were eventually rounded up and carried into their new home.
Walking through the graveyard as usual brought back many memories of people from the village we knew well. That's always very sad. There are many people buried there who gave unstinting service to the village. I wonder what they would have made of the current situation?
In my photos today I have taken shots of two gravestones. One is to Frank and Vi Ong. I believe they used to live next to what is now Kett's Kabin on Queen's Road. I remember Frank as a Norfolk tennis coach in the days when I trained with the county squad. I can't remember receiving any coaching from Frank but do remember his tennis coach partner very well - Brian Blincoe who used to coach at the Norwich School as well. I checked the Internet a few says ago and almost certainly found out that Brian died from that most awful illness Motor Neuron Disease.
Quite close to the Ongs' grave is that of father and son Arnold and Simon Sandys Winsch. Just before we went into lockdown I gave a couple of talks to village orgnisations entitled "Heroes and Heroines of Hethersett and a Horse." Two of the people I featured were Arnold and Simon. Some older residents still remember "The Captain" as Arnold was generally known. They remember him as a friendly and kind man who lived in Station Lane. Arnold has a massive claim to fame in Norfolk as the designer of a number of Norwich Parks including Earlham, Eaton and Waterloo. He also designed the Norwich Ring Road and is also remembered for his support of Hethersett Horticutural Society and for being an authority on daffodils which seems very appropriate as we approach Easter.
Arnold's life was blighted by tragedy, however, as his son Simon, who was in the Army, was killed on the Isle of Man whilst taking part in the TT Races on a very wet circuit on 18th June, 1954. Arnold lived for another 10 years after the death of his son. They are buried together in St Remigius Churchyard. So that's my sad story of the day.
One thing this imposed lockdown has done is given us the chance to catch up on a number of television programmes we have been saving up for a rainy day - perhaps that will now become saving up for a virus day. One of these is a series of programmes on interesting seaside towns in the UK. One episode featured Walberswick in Suffolk. We like nothing more than driving to Southwold, having lunch at the harbour and then walking across the river (over a bridge of course) to Walberswick where they have some nice coffee and gift shops. Oh to be able to do that now.
Walberswick is quite an upmarket place now - haunt of artists, writers and celebrities (not that we've ever seen any). But it has a very hidden past as the programme explained. In my next blog I will give a little of the flavour of that past.