These involve talks, walks, presentations and historic buildings being opened. So today we started with a talk entitled "Through The Past Darkly."
It started outside one of the gates to Norwich Cathedral where we assembled and quickly realised that we knew our guide despite his attempts to hide under a floppy hat. It turned out to be John Humphries (no not that one) who taught our sons languages at Hethersett High School. The fact that neither of them can speak any language other than English was definitely not his fault. He saw our names on his list and worked out who we were.
The tour took in some memorable places in both my past and present. The Lions outside the Samson and Hercules still stand resplendent despite the fact it is now an insurance office. I wonder if the people working there realise that not only was the Samson and Hercules a famous Norwich nightclub before they were called nightclubs but it had (and presumably still does have) a swimming pool under its floor. It is also supposed to be haunted.
John then talked about the building of Norwich Cathedral and pointed to what is the chapel of Norwich School. He asked about what the building was used for over the centuries. I remember it primarily for sixth form Saturday social evenings when I was at school there.
Now Norwich Cathedral Close is a place of peace and quiet. Can you imagine what it was like back in the heady days of the late 1960s when the very loud strains of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull issued forth on a Saturday night? I bet that doesn't figure in any of the Heritage tours!
We worked our way round to the side of the Cathedral where John talked about the memorial to Edith Cavell who was shot by the Germans in the First World War for aiding the escape of Allied troops. He then mentioned the new memorial close by which recognised the deaths of 97 soldiers at Le Paradis in Northern France in 1940. I didn't get the opportunity to tell John that I am a trustee of that memorial. It did strike me, however, that having put together, with the help of others, a website for the massacre which is the largest and most authoritative resource on the massacre that I might just be a world authority on the subject.
I hope you enjoy some of the photos I took around Norwich trying to get some different angles and finding at least one unusual blue plaque which was on the front of the historic Maids Head Hotel. As you will see in the photos it states: "Matthew Shardlake" stayed here in 1549 as featured in Tombland by C. J. Sansom. That's very interesting because Matthew Shardlake wasn't a real person but a character in the historical novels of C. J. Sansom. The only similar plaque I can think of is in East Dean in Sussex. This one (and I have taken photographs of it on many occasions) is on a cottage around The Green and reads: "Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and Bee Keeper Retired Here 1903-1917." Of course we all know that Holmes was a figment of the imagination too, although many visitors to these shores believe that he was a real detective.
I also managed to capture a rainbow in Norwich after a violent downpour. Got the snap just as I was getting on the bus to come home.
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Facebook often sends me a number of memories from the past and I couldn't help having a quiet laugh at the following from three years ago:
"Just had a call from a scammer who told me that my computer was working slow because he had a number of errors coming up. I engaged him in conversation and told him that he was a criminal who should be locked up. He told me I was a mental patient and he knew this because my wife had told him so. She of course denies this. He also said I need psychiatric help (which of course might be true). Interesting exchange of views before I told him to do one.