Ah, now I’ve got you lost too.
And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There’ll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.
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Cinema Ghosts – The Odeon
Assembled for "Norfolk at the pictures" The Odeon stood on Botolph Street, long before it became the Odeon that glowered down in a 1970s way over Magdalen Street, which is now the Hollywood. This particular incarnation dates to 1938, a rather lovely Art Nouveau...
Coasting: Winterton
Yet more lumps of concrete, I doubt a the vast majority of people even give them a thought apart from trying not to scratch the car. Bit strange though, 13 ton blocks of concrete in a car park, and on the beach in one of those lovely little Norfolk corners. Winterton,...
Blitz Ghost: Alexandra Road and Helena Road
Alexandra Road, another Norwich Blitz Ghost. A 250kg bomb took out about 4 properties, quite a precise slice, which is still very evident if you look at the row today the missing block was replaced with a more modern variant of the generic terrace, a pattern you can...
Blitz Ghosts: St Benedicts Gate
On the 28th April 1942 this was the result of a 1000kg Hermann that burst on what is now the traffic lights at the bottom of Grapes Hill. The men aren't short, they standing in the edge of a hole that was rather wide and very deep caused by the blast a Herman was...
Blitz Ghost: St Bartholomew
One of the few real reminders of the blitz on Norwich that is easy to visit is the church of St Bartholomew, Heigham, Norwich, it's quite easy to find sitting just of Heigham Street and Waterworks Road. On the night of the 27th of April 1942 when the first of the big...
Blitz Ghosts – Rampant Horse Street, Norwich
Rampant Horse Street, Norwich, Seventy years on, plus a bit. The result of the second night of the main two raids 29th/30th April 1942, The fires are out, must be the modern rain. This is the scene that did for the Caleys factory the previous night, less so than...
Blitz Ghost – St Andrews
This is Harmer's Factory on St Andrews Broad Street in Norwich on the 18th March 1943 and the 2nd March 2012, almost seventy years., it's also a weird bit of land with not much on it, sort of an entrance to a car park of sorts. Harmer's was hit several times, firstly...
Tom Brittan’s Blitz
In 2012, I received a few emails from a chap called Tom Brittan who now lives in France. I''ll let him recount his story pretty much unedited; he lived just off the Unthank road and vividly remembers the bombs falling and the aftermath. My most vivid recollection of...
Lost in a landscape: East Somerton
Norfolk is full of holes, little dells and corners, drives and pathways that sort of amble off in all directions vanishing over a rise or fading into a dark arch of trees. East Somerton is just one of those many little nooks that almost don't exist, the past clinging...
Lost in a Landscape: Shipden
We are spoilt for lost villages in Norfolk and due to the nature of the coast have a huge number that weren't down to the usual suspects, so not things like plague, pestilence or bad land for farming or landlords enclosing land or commons; moving sheep in to replace...
WW2 RAF and USAAF airfields in Norfolk mapped
Several years ago, I did this entirely to satisfy my own wanderings around WW2 RAF and USAAF airfields in Norfolk. It's publicly visible on Google already, but it made sense to post it on the website to so it's more findable. It is worth noting that a lot of these...
Ghosting: Norwich’s first computer
The Treasurer's Department takes delivery of its Norwich's first computer at City Hall, in February 1957... and in 2013. I'm curious as to whether Westwood of Beccles is any relation to Tim... 'Drop da bomb' etc. Original photo courtesy Norfolk Record Office. Love...