Local history lectures

Great Yarmouth and District Local History and Archaeological Society
2013 LECTURE PROGRAMME

Lectures are held in the Northgate Room at the Central Library, Great Yarmouth at 7.30pm

January 18th
A Mixed Bag – Four 15 minute talks by Society Members.

February 15th
Aviation Archaeology in East Anglia. (Missing aircraft and ‘Fallen Eagles’) – Robert Collis (Aviation Writer & Historian)

March 15th
Fragments of History. Recent archaeological finds by metal detectors. Adrian Marsden ( County Archaeological Numismatist)

April 19th
Approaches to Local History in the Digital Age. New opportunities brought about by electronic access to documents.
Peter Stibbons, Writer, Historian, and Cromer based Publisher

May 17th (AGM) \
Followed by ‘The History of Great Yarmouth for Tourists.’
Margaret Gooch and Andrew Fakes

September 20th
The Archaeology of Venta Icenorium at Caistor St. Edmunds. Dr.William Bowden

October 18th
There Is No Such Thing As a Good Tax. Government Revenue Earning Schemes through the Centuries.
Sarah Doig Historian and Musician

November 15th
Sedgeford: a Celtic Tribal Centre, a Roman Estate and an Anglo Saxon Village – Neil Falkner (Project Archaeologist)

December 20th
Short Lecture followed by buffet and social evening

Art + Play at the Time and Tide Museum

Art + Play, showing until Sun 24 Feb

A fun exhibition created with pre-school children in mind. Without a ‘do not touch’ sign in sight, you can climb into the Crown of Plenty, bang on Bangs and handle an array of colourful, artwork made from hot water bottles, elastic bands and sponges.

Wriggly Worms and Colourful Creatures,
Sundays 6 Jan – 24 Feb, 12 noon – 4pm
Snake your way around our Art and Play exhibition and make a playful pal to take home!

To find out what else is on in museums in Norfolk, click here

Friday Talks, 11.30am – 12.30pm, £2.50 or free with admission
11 Jan – Wings Over Norfolk, Find out about pioneering air photographers with Derek A. Edwards.
18 Jan – Come Up and See My Etchings! Artist, Nick Ward takes you on a journey of unlikely local landmarks illustrated in pencil and print.
25 Jan – Gulls and Water Birds of Great Yarmouth, Learn about the town’s extraordinary ornithological wildlife with Peter Walton.

Wild Norfolk – Wildlife Talks

From Midnight Sun to Norfolk Winter
Wednesday 19th December, 2-3.30pm
Which birds travel all the way to the Arctic to breed and then come all the way to Norfolk to spend the winter?  Why do they travel such distances and how do we know about their journeys?
Location: Great Yarmouth Library, Tolhouse Street, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2SH
Details: Free. No need to book, just turn-up and join in.

Norfolk Wildlife T.ust has a wonderful programme of talks and walks at different sites across the county during December and through to April 2013, many of them free events.  There are too many to list here but to find out more click here.

Autumn Talks at the Time and Tide

Fridays 11:30 – talks admission £2.50
Time and Tide Museum, Blackfriars Rd. Great Yarmouth

05.10.2012
Len Pole – Independent Museum ethnographer
World Cultures in Partnership: An Effective Collections project in East Anglia

12.10.2012
David McDermott – Historian
The Shows of Great Yarmouth in the 1950’s & 1960’s

19.10.2012
Rob Bull – Leila Sailing Trust
Leila 1892, part of our sailing maritime heritage

26.10.2012
Les Cole
Nelson: Life, Love & Victory!

02.11.2012
Richard Hoggett – Community Archaeologist, NAU
Wartime Norfolk from the Air

09.11.2012
Francesca Vanke – NMAS, Keeper of Art & Curator of Decorative Arts
International influences on decorative arts

16.11.2012
Adrian Marsden – Numismatist, NMAS
The End of Empire – life in Late Roman Norfolk

23.11.2012
Paul Davies
History of the Royal Naval Hospital

30.11.2012
Philip Miles, Museum Manager, The Mo, Sheringham
The Mo

Living Landscapes

Norfolk Wildlife Trust is running the following free wildlife talk this Wednesday at Great Yarmouth Library:

Living Landscapes

Wednesday 19 September, 2-3.30pm
Great Yarmouth Library, Tolhouse Street, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2SH

This talk by Nick Acheson will introduce you to the importance of the Wildlife Trusts’ Living Landscape vision and explain what you can do to be part of it.

The talk is free. No need to book.

Great Yarmouth Arts Festival

The Great Yarmouth Arts Festival will run from 1st to 22nd September 2012.

The SPAN visual arts exhibition will be showing in St. Nicholas Minster from the 1st September featuring work by local and regional artists selected by Jonathan P Watts, Ivy Smith and Lee Grandjean.  The exhibition has been curated by Rebecca Weaver.  Also to be viewed is the installation “Constellation” made specially for the occasion by Liz McGowan.  Admission is free.

Concerts include an opening performance on Saturday 1st September by the wonderful Great Yarmouth Brass at St. Nicholas, tickets £5, starts at 7.30pm. James Galway will be performing with the Orchestra of St. John’s on 6th September, tickets £16, starts 7.30 pm.  The Cavick String Quartet will perform on 12th September, tickets £5, starts 7.30 pm.  Translated by Reeds, the newly commissioned work of contemporary and traditional songs and words about the land and people who live on the banks of the rivers Waveney and Blyth, commissioned by Waveney and Blyth Arts will be performed on September 22nd, starting 7.30 pm, tickets £10/£8.

Scratch Handel’s Messiah will be performed on September 15th at 7.30 pm.  All singers welcome, rehearsal is at 2.00 pm and refreshments will be available at tea break but please bring your own food.  John Stephens will be conducting and vocal scores will be available on the day!  £5 to sing or £5 for tickets to enjoy the performance!

Free organ recitals can be enjoyed on Wednesdays  12th September and  19th September at 12.30pm with a recital by David Dunnett, Norwich Cathedral organist, on Wednesday 5th September, 7.30 pm, tickets £5.

On Thursday 20th September, 7.00 pm in St. Nicholas, there will be a talk by Rev. James Stewart on “The community which does not sing is not the community”, with wine and singing by Cantus Orientissimus.

Other events include a Flower Show at the Minster, poetry and literature on Friday 14th September at Somerleyton Hall, a Preservation Road Show at St. Nicholas on 17th September, 10.00-16.30 hrs where advice is available on the care of treasured family heirlooms, whether they are paper, photographs, film, textiles, militaria, ceramics, leather and so on.

There will be forty herrings displayed around the town, created by students at Great Yarmouth College and an arched installation in front of the church created by young people attending workshops over the Summer led by Matthew Harrison.

To see the full list of events, including an illustrated talk by James Steward at the Time and Tide Museum on “Bridges and Images”  on 11th September, 6.30 pm and heritage talks and trails, please go to the website www.greatyarmouthartsfestival.co.uk or pick up a flyer or programme at St. Nicholas and other venues around town.

Tickets for events can be purchased in advance at the Tourist Information Office, Maritime House, Marine Parade, or St. George’s Theatre Box Office, Drill House, York Road, or from the Minster Church of St. Nicholas, or telephone 01493 843816.

Artists are also being asked to open their studios, details will be provided at www.greatyarmouthartsfestival.co.uk, and if you are interested in opening your studio for the Arts Festival, even if just for one day, email to info@greatyarmouthartsfestival.co.uk.

The major sponsor of this event is Gardline, but funding has also been provided by Great Yarmouth Arts Grant, NCC Arts Grant, and sponsorship from H2Creative, SPP Digital, Great Yarmouth College, Shell Energy and many others.  Hugh Sturzaker has co-ordinated the event, supported by St. Nicholas Church Preservation Trust, the staff of St. Nicholas and the many artists, musicians, poets, participants and volunteers who have contributed to making this first Great Yarmouth Arts Festival possible!

More volunteers are always welcome!  Information is provided on the website about volunteering opportunities at the Festival.

An introduction to Great Yarmouth Collections

A lunch time talk on the 2nd December at the Time and Tide Museum by curator Jo O’Donaghue
Times: 11:30 – 12:30
Price: £2.40 for talk only (includes entrance to current temporary exhibition on day of attendance) Talks are included in museum admission price: Adult £4.80, Conc. £4.10, Young Person (4-16) £3.50  Click here for more information or call on 01493 743930

Further talks in this season are:
9th December, a talk on Ingham Priory by Tim Pestell, Curator of Archaeology, NMAS
16th December, a talk on The Jetty with the Norwich School of Artists, by Janice Bell, Great Yarmouth Museums

Norfolk Wildlife Trust events in Great Yarmouth

100 million years in Norfolk - a Norfolk Wildlife Trust talk at Great Yarmouth Library on Wednesday 23 November (Northgate Room, 2-3.30pm), looking at the prehistory  of the region now called Norfolk and how through examining fossil and archaeological records we can discover what our landscape looked like and what wildlife inhabited the county, also about where fossil evidence has been found in Norfolk and how humans eventually came to live here.  The talk is free, no need to book. 

Further events this Autumn Season are:
Wednesday 7th December, 10.00-14.00 hrs – a minibus trip in search of grey seals, involving a bracing walk along sand dunes in search of these charismatic animals.  Location, Great Yarmouth Library, free event but booking essential, tel 01603 598333
Friday 16th December, 10.00-16.00 hrs – Beginner’s Guide to Wildlife Photography.  Location, The Priory Centre, free event but booking essential, tel 01493 743023.

A new season of events for 2012 will be advertised in the New Year.  Norfolk Wildlife Trust is running this project in Great Yarmouth (also similar in Norwich, Thetford and Kings Lynn) to encourage people living in an urban environment to get involved with wildlife.  To find out more click here.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust runs a free information service.  If you have any wildlife queries, tel 01603 598 333 or email mailto:wild@norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

A talk on nuclear testing

St. Nicholas Church Preservation Trust will be presenting a talk on nuclear testing in the 1950′s, delivered by somebody who was there – Revd. John  Walden, a re tired  Church of England minister, who was serving in the  British Combined Forces in 1957 when he was sent to a remote part of Australia to participate in a series of nuclear tests.  He received an overdoes of radiation at the time and later became a founding member of the East of England British Nuclear Tests Veteran Association. 

Revd. John Walden will be giving his talk at 7.30 pm on Friday 11th November 2011 at the Furzedown Hotel, North Drive, Yarmouth.  Tickets are £10 (includes sausages and mash) and can be bought in advance from Brahams, Market Row or by phoning Paul Davies on 01493 343647.

50th anniversary festival

On the night of the 24th June 1942, St. Nicholas Church was destroyed by German incendiary bombs, leaving only its walls and towers standing. It was left derelict until 1957 when re-construction began.  This was completed in 1961.  The church was re-consecrated on 8th May 1961, being the Eve of the Feast of the Translation of St. Nicholas.  From 8th May to 16th May 2011 there will be an exhibition in the church of its destruction and reconstruction, presented by Great Yarmouth College of Further Education. 

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the re-construction of St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, the St.Nicholas Church Preservation Trust  will be holding a festival from 6th-16th May, presenting the following events at the church:

Friday, 6th May, 19.30 hrs. 1940s Music Night with Annie Slater, Roger Cooke and friends . Tickets £10, bar and raffle

Sunday 6th May, Civic Service at 11.00 a.m. followed by buffet lunch at 12.30 p.m. (pre-ordered ticket event £10, under sixteen £5) and a Musical Entertainment with the Dragon’s Stage School at 2.00 p.m.  Festal Choral Evensong will be at 3.00 p.m.

Tuesday, 10th May, 6.30 p.m. Yarmouth Quizz and answers to Treasure Hunt.  Bar and raffle. Tickets £10 includes buffet, under sixteens £5. The treasure hunt around the historic centre of Yarmouth to be done in previous week in own time, question papers available from church from 3rd May 10.00-12.00 hrs and Brahams in Market Row or tel. 01493 843647.

Thursday 12th May, 7.30 p.m. Reminiscences of the Herring Fishery and musical interludes with Ernie Childs . Bar and raffle.  Tickets £10 includes fish and chips.

Friday 13th May, 7.30 p.m. Traditional Jazz with Redbeans ‘n’ Rice. Bar and raffle. Tickets £10.

Saturday 14th May, 11.00 a.m. Tour and illustrated talk on the history of St. Nicholas Church with Paul Davies.  Tickets £3, under sixteens £1, includes coffee and cake.

Sunday 15th May, 6.30 p.m. Choral Evensong

Monday 16th May, 7.30 p.m. Concert in conjunction with Norfolk and Norwich Festival: Harry Winstanley, flute, Jonathan Wiseman, guitar, from the Royal Academy of Music.  Programme includes CPE Bach, Takemitsu, Dodgson and Bartok.  Tickets £7

Tickets for all events are available from Brahams, Market Row or tel. 01493 843647