Best of Brass at the Hippodrome

The Salvation Army Brass Band event is being held at the Hippodrome Circus  on the  28th October, 2011, starting at 7.30 pm.  It is a popular event and this is its  third year running.  This year’s programme will feature popular marches and works, including Karl Jenkins’ powerful Benedictus from his Mass of Peace.  Funds are being raised for Herbie’s Drop in Centre at the Great Yarmouth Citadel and the Palliative Care East appeal.  To book tickets, telephone 01493 844172 or book online at http://www.hippodromecircus.co.uk/.

Heritage Club at the Priory Centre

Join the Priory Heritage Club to enjoy looking at fascinating aspects of Great Yarmouth’s past, such as

* Everyday life during the 2nd World War
* The rail link to Great Yarmouth and the bucket and spade trade
* The growth of Yarmouth’s fishing industry

Tuesdays, 9.30-11.30am, The Priory Centre,  Priory Plain, Great Yarmouth

Contact: Priory Learning Team T: 01493 743023 E: learning@gyctrust.co.uk

http://www.priorycentre.co.uk/news.html

Norfolk Community Foundation

On 4th November 2011 Norfolk Community Foundation is making a presentation on grants available to local groups and projects, who is eligible and how does the application process work.  This will be given at the Great Yarmouth Charity Event to be held at the Priory Centre, Priory plain, Great Yarmouth, NR30 1NW.  After the summit schedule  which concludes at midday, The Norfolk Community Foundation will be availabe in the White Monks Room at the Priory from 12.15 pm to or to answer additional questions or discuss proposals.

The Big Lottery Fund will also be given a presentation at the Summit  on how charities can find and apply for funding from them.

The day will start at 9.15 am with a talk by Paul Cheeseman and Rob Gregory from the Great Yarmouth Borough Council communities and neighbourhoods team.

Application forms for the event are available from Brandon Lewis MP, 010493 334 004, Fastolff House, 30 Regent Street or call in at the Neighbourhood Centre, 143 Kings Street .

Tree/Crib Festival – Christmas 2011

OPENING EVENT: wednesday 7th December 2011 at 10.00 am

St. Nicholas Church Preservation Trust and the Parish of St. Nicholas have invited entries for the Tree/Crib Festival, which is hoped will be innovative, with both traditional trees and cribs and also those that are out of the ordinary. Imagination and lateral thinking were encouraged with the aim of creating a festival that will stand out from the other festivals in the area.  79 entries have been submitted.

As this is a fund-raising event for the fabric and organ of St. Nicholas Church a charge of £10 was asked for each exhibit (£5 for schools and colleges).

A charge of £2/adult will be made for those coming to see the festival (accompanied children under 16 years of age are free). Free entrance for exhibitors. There will be an opening ceremony on Wednesday 7th December at 10am. A trophy will be presented for the best tree or crib voted for by the public. They will be presented at the Mayor’s Carol Service on Friday 9th December in the evening.

A “Hunt the Snowman” competition will be organised for children.

The event will take place from Wednesday 7th to Saturday 10th December 2011 from 10.00am-4.00pm with a late opening until 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th December.

More information on the website: www.sncpt.co.uk

Blessing the Nets

St. Nicholas Church Preservation Trust is again hosting the Blessing of the Nets Service and Herring Snack on Sunday 2nd October 2011 at 6.30pm in the church. The service features sea songs by the Masquers and a talk on the fishing and its connection with the church by Margaret Gooch the Secretary of Great Yarmouth Archaeological Society.

The herring snack includes cooked, rollmop and marinated herrings, potato salad and bread rolls. Wine and Beer will be available. Tickets are £5 from Paul Davies, 01493 843647, or Brahams in Market Row.

‘Facing Hard Times’ – An International Open Exhibition

Don’t miss out on your chance to be part of an International Open Exhibition for contemporary art: ‘Facing Hard Times’.  An email version of the entry form is downloadable from http://www.barringtonarts.com/Events.html.  Deadline for submission is Thursday 8th Sept 2011.

Curated by Out-of-the-Box Independent Curators, this exciting international open art exhibition is to be held at Greyfriars Art Space in Kings Lynn, Norfolk for  two weeks from Saturday 1  to Sat 15 October 2011.

Led by curator Joa Manninen and artist Phil Barrington, OOTB Curators are looking for recent 2D works by artists in any medium, who particularly engage with social or economic issues; the broad concept of the exhibition is the impact of recent global economic crises on all our lives.

The resulting exhibition will also include the juried Best of Show Prize of £200 plus international publicity, a Best Emerging Artist Prize and all successful entrants have NO COMMISSION on any sales made of their work.

A very memorable Opening Event is also planned for the exhibition!

Click here for further information and entry form, or go to http://www.facebook.com/OOTB.Curators, or email to  joamanni@ulapland.fi

Alienation in the City 2, watercolour, 2011

26.009.11: In fact I decided to submit to this and had the above piece accepted.  The exhibition will run from 2nd – 15th October, 2011. Bridget Heriz

Green Pebble

Green Pebble,  the regional arts magazine, has a new website up and running, with a lively calendar of events and exhibitions to tempt you!

Just click here to go to the website and enjoy our region’s wonderful offerings.

Celebrate the Waveney and Blyth

Waveney and Blyth Arts are celebrating this September with sixteen short walks to encourage people to explore the Waveney and Blyth area and appreciate how much it has to offer.  The schedule of walks runs daily from 3rd September to 18th September and include enjoyable creative activities.  Locally, there is a circular walk at Burgh Castle (1.5 miles) with artist Katarzyna Coleman on the 15th September and another at Breydon Water (2.5 miles) with poet and bird-lover Matt Howard.  The walks are free but you need to register in advance either on line at www.waveneyandblytharts.com or with local walk co-ordinator Steve Drummond on 07403 199369 or mailto:// jankied-workshops@hotmail.co.uk.

All the walks are very tempting, such as the walk from Beccles to Geldeston on 11th September, which includes musician John Ward who will be performing on the village green.  A great walker who has the time might want to do them all!  Brochures providing information about all the walks can be picked up from libraries and Tourist Information Centres or downloaded from the website, or you can phone on 0845 299 6456.  The brochure gives the contact details of the local co-ordinator for each walk and provides information about length, with grading as to how easy or otherwise the walk is (Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS has teamed up with Waveney and Blyth Arts to support the walks with trained staff).

Waveney and Blyth Arts are also holding a Two Valley Poetry Competition to run from 1st September – 31st October, inviting local poets to submit  work that illustrates the life, landscape or history of the Blyth and Waveney River Valleys.   Participants can submit up to five poems with the chance of winning first prize of £100.  Entry details are on the website or can be picked up at the launch of the Walk the Waveney and Blyth Programme at the Seagull Theatre, Morton Road, Pakefield, NR33 0JH on 2nd September 2011, starting at 7.30 pm, tickets £6 booked  at the Seagull Theatre online by clicking here or tel. 01502 589726.

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.

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.