Great Yarmouth Library Community Garden

It was good to bump into Mark Leech resting on a bench in the Great Yarmouth Library Community Garden this morning and to have a chance to look through his latest sketchbook that he happened to have with him. 

Mark helps out as a volunteer in the Growing Together Community Garden where an amazing crop of vegetables has already been harvested this year – onions, garlic, herbs, mange tout, radishes, courgettes, French beans, broad beans, lettuces!   There are fruit trees in the garden and lavender, attracting butterflies and bees.  Caroline Fernandez is keen to welcome new -volunteers who would like to help in the garden and share in the harvest on Tuesday mornings, 10.00-12.00 hrs.  She can be contacted on 01493 855441 or 07825281846 or by email at caroline.fernandez@norfolk.gov.uk.  

Workshops to be held in the garden over the summer include fish painting, children’s summer gardening workshops, bite sized bats, bugs and birds workshops with Norfolk Wildlife Trust, autumn wildlife and gardening workshops, herbal first aid and sustainable gardening workshops.  Contact Caroline for more details or keep an eye out for posters in the library.

As well as a keen gardener, Mark is very productive artist.  He attends the Priory Gallery workshops run by the National Gallery and the Priory Art Group.  He also participated in the Transitions project: to see the work he contributed to this project, click here.

Great Yarmouth Museums Summer Events

MEDIEVAL MONDAYS at the Tolhouse Museum, 25th July – 29th August, 11.00-16.00 hrs.

Fun days for the family through the summr season at the Tolhouse Museum, including meeting the gaoler and hearing from a 12th century prisoner of the cells with grm and grisly tales of the plaque.  Creative activities as well.

TUDOR TALES on Thursdays at the Elizabethan House Museum, 28th July – 1st September, 12.00-1600 hrs.

Learn about and try the costumes at the Elizabethan House Museum; learn to write with quill pens and also abut some of the grizzlier aspects of life in Tudor times.

All events at the Tolhouse and Elizabethan House Museums are included in admission ticket price: adults £3.70, concession £3.10, young person (4-16)  £2, children under 4 free.

Summer Holiday Events at the Time and Tide Museum

Cartoon Workshops, every Monday from 25th July – 29th August, 12.00-16.00 hrs. Learn skills of the cartoonist, suitable for all ages.

Science at the Seaside, Monday 8th August, 12.00-16.00 hrs. Great interactive fun in association with ‘Inspire’: experiments and demonstrations that will engage and amaze children of all ages.

Hello Campers! Saturday 20th August, 11.00-16.o0 hrs. Discover how holiday makers of the past had fun on a budget.  Enjoy a day of activities, performance, talks, and good old-fashioned seaside fun.    Meet the swing-dancing group and see them performing at the museum, doing demonstrations and workshops.

All events at the Time and Tide Museum are included in admission ticket price: adults £4.80, concession £4.10, adult in a family group £4,  young person (4-16)  £3.50, children under 4 free.

For more information go to www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk and www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

, Thursdays

Art exhibition and workshops

An exhibition of artworks by Elizabeth Kozmian and friends at Wickampton Farm Barn, Low Road, Wickhampton, Norfolk.  Open Fridays and Sundays, August to mid-September, 11.00 am to 7.00 pm.  

Also workshops and events:

Old Traditions in East Anglia on Saturday 30th July and repeated on Sunday 28th August, both at 3pm.   “George Ewart Evans, Writers and Places” video which Elisabeth edited for BBC with this amazing local historian, about working horses and a short film looking at traditional ploughing techniques using Suffolk Punches made by Mathew Robinson for the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts as part of a rural cultures project. Free admission, kind donations welcome for Sea Conservation.

American Indians Day.  Saturday, 20th August 10.30am to 2.30pm. We will be looking at some of the stories and myths, and sharing our own views on their way of life. There will be a period of reflection to the sound of a drum beat, and then we will work making collage with painting. If you have some Native American objects/images please bring them to add to visual stimulation. Please bring vegetarian lunch to share. Day led by Lesley Rastall and Elisabeth Kozmian. For FAMILIES, and adults welcome too, no experience necessary. Fee £ 5 includes art materials, group of 3 people £12

Mask Painting and Collage. Saturday, 10th September 10.30am to 3pm. Workshop with Elisabeth Kozmian, inspired by New Zealand Maori traditions and stories about lost lands! For FAMILIES,and adults welcome too. Fee £5, group of 3 people £12; please bring packed lunches.

 Wickampton Farm Barn, Low Road, Wickhampton, Norfolk.  Tel: 01493 700008, email:  tree_402@fsmail.net

Gorleston Community Cinema

True Grit (cert 15)

Thursday 11th August, 7.30pm, Gorleston Library, Lowestoft Road, Gorleston, NR31 6SG

£3.00 (concessions £2.50)

Tickets available from Gorleston Library

Promoted by: Gorleston Community Cinema

For more information on Village Screen Listings go to www.creativeartseast.co.uk/villagescreen or contact the Village Screen Development Officer, Alice Morelli, on 01953 713390 or alice@creativeartseast.co.uk

Village Screen is supported and funded by:

Norfolk County Council, Breckland District Council, Broadland Distict Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, North Norfolk District Council and South Norfolk Distict Council

NAA award for new Southtown Housing Development

This Orbit East Housing Development in Southtown Road, Great Yarmouth, was nominated for the Norfolk Association of Architects Awards by ISG  Jackson, building contractor.  The building incorporates sixteen flats and was completed in December 2010. It deservedly won a Highly Commended Award in the Residential, New Development Category.  It was constructed on the site of a fine building last used as a restaurant which was destroyed in a fire and demolished several years earlier.

The site is opposite St. Mary’s Church and there was a good view of the church before  new construction commenced.

St. Mary’s celebrated its 18oth anniversary in June this year.   The foundation stone was laid in September 1839 on land donated by Lord Anson and the building was completed by the following summer for a total cost of £3,000.   St. Mary’s is a distinctive church which sits nicely in its always beautifully maintained grounds.  The architect Joseph Scoles was a Southtown man who also designed St. Mary’s, the Roman Catholic Church on Regent Road and St. Spyridon’s, the Greek Orthodox Church on St. Peter’s Road. 

There was an earlier 13th century church dedicated to St. Mary in what was then Little Yarmouth in the County of Suffolk, now Southtown, but it fell into ruin after the parishes of Gorleston and Southtown were united 1511.  The building materials were used in the seventh attempt to create a haven entrance which began in 1560.  Stone from St. Mary’s and from the ruins of the Bachelor’s Aisle in the Parish Church was used to build breastworks to confine the channel.  This final harbour entrance which  has survived to this day was constructed under the supervision of a Dutchman, Joas Johnson.  (See Yarmouth is an Ancient Town by Michael Boon and Frank Meeres, revised 1973, ISBN 0-9541163-1-7  or A History of Great Yarmouth by Frank Meers, 2007, ISBN 978-1-86077-457-7, for more information on the building of the havens or about the early settlement of Little Yarmouth.)

It is a great pleasure and good for morale to see that considerable care was taken to build a handsome block of apartments at the top of Southtown Road.  The view through the gates of St. Mary’s Church shows attention to proportion and architectural detail that is much appreciated.

Folk Music at Raveningham

SUMMER FOLK & TRADITIONAL MUSIC NIGHT at THE RAVENINGHAM CENTRE

Saturday 16th July, 7.30pm – 10.30pm. Admission Free

Since it’s launch in January this year, the new folk night at The Raveningham Centre has grown into an exciting a varied event.

Over recent months it has welcomed musicians from all corners of Norfolk, Suffolk and further afield including fiddlers, whistlers, flautists, box players, singers, guitarists, banjoists, clog dancers and stepdancers.

You never know what you will find when you arrive at the Ravenous Café, but you can be sure that with the variety of musicians, singers and dancers, there will be something for everyone.

The next night is July 16th (no event in August) and we will resume again on September 17th followed by October 15th, November 19th.

There is a licensed bar serving local beer and cider, homemade savoury and sweet snacks. We are always pleased to welcome new players and singers and listeners. If you play an instrument or sing please come and join us for our summer session. It is free to attend and runs from 7.30pm – 10.30pm

For further information contact: mal@norfolkrugs.co.uk or Tel.01508 548406 The Raveningham Centre, Beccles Road, Raveningham, NR14 6NU.

www.ravenouscafe.co.uk

Lunchtime Recitals

Admission to the Wednesday lunchtime recitals at St. Nicholas Parish Church is free, though after each recital a retiring collection will be taken in aid of the organ fund for those who wish to make a donation.  Light refreshments are available at the Visitors’ Centre but visitors are encouraged to bring their lunch to eat whilst enjoying the music.   The recitals are given between 12.30 pm to 1.15 pm on the following Wednesdays:

6th July, John Stephens, organ

13th July, Briony Roper and Terri-Ann Rutter, piano

27th July, Jon Farmer, organ and piano

3rd August Matthew Bond, organ

10th August, Adrian Richards, organ

17th August, Mike Webb, organ

31st August, David Ballard, organ

7th September, John Stephens, organ

A craft fayre will be held in the church on the 20th July and 24th August.

Big Winners

New volunteer run organisation, “Waveney & Blyth Arts”, has been awarded a £9,349 grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme.

The grant will mean that the organisation will be able to get posters and booklets designed and printed to publicise 16 short “creative” walks along the Waveney and Blyth valleys that will take place between Saturday 3rd and Sunday 18th September this year.

It will also mean that Waveney & Blyth Arts will be able to pay sessional fees to creative professionals to provide free creative activities on the walk routes.

As well as the walks the grant money will pay for a new, multimedia, web site, a camera and computer for shared use, and training for volunteers to learn how to make multimedia features for a new online monthly Waveney & Blyth multimedia arts magazine.

“We are thrilled with the grant” said Waveney & Blyth Arts secretary Jan Dungey. “Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS are helping us organise the free walks – that will be strolls rather than hikes! – so that children and adults of all ages and abilities get the chance to enjoy the wonderful Waveney and beautiful Blyth – and be creative en route!”

The grant will also benefit the 200 or so creative community organisations in and around Diss, Harleston, Bungay, Beccles, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth in the Waveney valley and Halesworth and Southwold in the Blyth valley who will be able to get free multimedia features made about their work and published online in the new Waveney and Blyth monthly multimedia magazine.

Jan added: “The Waveney and Blyth valleys are crammed with creative

talent, from the visual artists who take part in the Harleston & Waveney Art Trail, to the people who perform in Diss Corn Hall, the Fisher Theatre in

Bungay, The Cut in Halesworth, the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft and venues galore in Great Yarmouth, to the singers in choral societies and bands, to poets, novelists and other creative writers, to circus performers, storytellers and puppeteers!

We hope the grant will help promote all these and put the Waveney and Blyth valleys firmly on the creative map”.

Out There

The 2011 Out There Festival will take place in St. George’s Park on September 17th and 18th.  Acts already confirmed include an evening spectacular called Fest Noz (night feast in Breton language) which will take place on the promenade.  The headline show called Barricade will be presented by a UK contemporary circus company called No Fit State Circus.  SeaChange is looking for young people aged 13-25  to work with No Fit State Circus to create a circus-inspired performance as part of the festival.  The young people will receive training from No Fit State to create the show.  For more information contact SeaChange on 01493 846167.  See also free Events Management Course.