Looking Back Issue 3

8/12/2019 Looking Back Issue 3

1/12

Page

1.00O n l y a v a i l a b l e

f r o m

EdwardsH i g h S t r e e t

W a t t o n

At the History of Watton and Wayland

ISSUE 3! . . . AT LASTYes I know it has been a long time, but I learned something with the last

issue, there is little interest during the summer for this sort of thing. Saleswere sluggish at best and since I have to recoup the costs of printing one

paper before embarking on the next, this one has been a little while coming.

To help avoid this in future, I am having less printed than before which willhelp keep costs down but does mean youll need to be sure to get your copy

before it runs out.

IN THIS ISSUE

The Story of the Queens Hall (Part 1) ...........................Page 2

Looking Back as Shools in Saham Toney ......................Page 4The Great Fire(?) of Watton ..........................................Page 6

From the Waters Family Album ..................................Page 9Another Dip Into Dads School Pictures........................Page 10Feedback Roundup ..........................................................Page 12

ISSUE

THREE

MISCELLANEOUS PICTURES AROUND WATTONAn assorted selection of

pictures on the front page thismonth, different times and

different places.Right is a lovely picture of

Watton railway station, which

was where the Norwich RoadIndustrial Estate is now.Probably taken in the mid-

1950s the platform furthest

away was for Swaffham andwhere the photographer is

standing was for Thetford.

Many young people used thetrain daily to travel to

Hammonds Grammar School(boys) or to Thetford

Grammar (girls). The station

was of course lost in theBeeching axe of the early

1960sBelow is a better picture of

Ernie Faggs famous example

of the art of topiary!Below left from a postcardsent in December 19th, 1912

which shows the top end of the

High Street.

Bottom left is Roy Eyres shop

next to Clarence House whereGrandmas Patch is now.Bottom right is a nice picture

of Butchers FurnishingRooms.


2/12

Page 2

Words by Janet Lundie with pictures as attributedfrom the collection of the Queens Hall

My own involvement with the Queens Hall is very recent; I

moved into Watton 9 years ago, and due to my connection

with the Wayland Players (one of the halls supporting

organisations), volunteered to become secretary when the

position became vacant. My involvement with the history of

the hall is even more recent: 2006 was our Golden Jubilee

year, and it we decided to mount an Exhibition telling the

story of the hall as part of the celebrations. Fortunately we

had at our disposal an invaluable source of both information

and photographs in the person of Bob Nunn, one of the

original team of builders and still a member of the QueensHall Committee. Bob had written a history of the hall some

years ago, and much of the following story will be in Bobs

own words. During the course of the Exhibition last year a

number of other people were able to augment the story with

their own memories, and additional photos were discovered.

To put the story of the building of the Queens Hall into

perspective, it is important to remember the social conditions

at the time . Only 6 years after the war had ended there was

still an atmosphere of 'austerity'; some food was still rationed

(meat & bacon were finally freed from rationing in 1954) and

the extensive post-war rebuilding programme had caused

shortages of building materials. However the beneficial effect

of these shortages was that people had been encouraged to

'make do and mend', and to use what was available to its best

effect . Recycling isn't a new idea! The other beneficial effect

of the war was the influence it had had on the population;

many men in their thirties and forties would have been

actively involved in the services, and were used to teamworkand discipline. A project with a positive outcome which would

benefit the town was welcomed by a number of men who

already had valuable skills and a willingness to work

together, and perhaps re-live some of their wartime

camaraderie. RAF Watton was still an important element in

the town, and co-operation during the building of the hall

benefited from both the expertise of RAF personnel and loan

of specialised equipment. Also on the positive side was the

general optimism generated by the accession of a new young

Queen, and the description new Elizabethans brought back

patriotic feelings about Raleigh, Drake and Merrie

England.

Bobs Story - 1Mabel and I sat in front of a roaring coal fire, the windhowled around the bungalow and the rain rattled on theFrench doors. This was the evening chosen by the Council of

Watton to decide what form the celebrations for the

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was to take. We didn't

attend, but those who did decided that included in theCoronation Celebrations should be the construction of aPublic Hall.

Not everyone was in favour - many wished to continue with

the Memorial Playing Field which was being developed atthis time.

The first meeting took place on October 22nd l952. JeffreyKittell was Chairman, G. Shepherd-Page was co-opted as

Treasurer and the Committee consisted of Messrs. V.

Alderton, J. Fairhead, R. Durrant, F. Fitt, W. Horn, L.Saward, L. Watling, Mrs. Sarah Farrell, Mrs J. Fairhead and

Mrs Alice Page.

The Committee had a threefold task:-

1. To raise funds for the Coronation Celebration Week.2. To generate public interest in the project

3. To find a site and buy it, and raise funds to buy the

material to build the Hall.

A Government Grant was available but only if the Hall wasbuilt by voluntary labour.The site in the Norwich Road was chosen, an option to

purchase for 250 obtained, and then the committee

concentrated on the forthcoming Coronation Celebrations andraising money for the purchase of the land.

By the end of 1953 the land and a hangar at Griston RAF sitehad been purchased. During the first weeks of January 1954 it

was dismantled and removed to Watton.

The wife came home from shopping and informed me that"The grocer is building a hall. He needs some help and I told

him you would give him a hand."

Dick (Richard Durrant) introduced me to a large pile of rustywindows to clean, treat with 'Jenolite' and then paint with RedOxide. While I was renovating these window frames which

had been removed from the Hangar, a small group were

dismantling it ready for transport. This was a specialist and

dangerous job and only a few persons were involved.

I went to see this jumble of rusty girders, suitably numbered,when they were transported to Watton. We hoped to

reassemble them as the new Public Hall.

After all, we told ourselves, It is just like Meccano. LargeMeccano maybe but only Meccano!

As Bob has mentioned, the committee were kept very busy

during 1953 with both the organisation of Coronation Week

celebrations, and with a series of Fund Raising events; the

East Coast floods of February 1953 had, understandably,

THE STORY OF THE QUEENS HALL (PART 1)

Above: Work starts on clearing the site just off Norwich Road. From Bob NunnBelow middle: Members of the Committee outside the site; They are back row: Richard Durrant (Durrants nowSpoilt for Choice in the High Street), Jeffrey Kittell (Motor Cycle shop where Lings now stands), Lewis Watling(Teacher), Les Saward (Art Teacher at the school). Front row: Wing Commander Heather RAF Watton, Mr J.B.Fairhead Headmaster Watton School, Mrs Fairhead, G Shepherd-Page Manager Barclays Bank (where StephenSmiths Butchers now is). Picture from Susan Shepherd-Page.

Bottom picture shows part way through the dismantling process of the old Hangar at Griston. From Bob Nunn


3/12

Page 3

made an urgent call on peoples generosity, and the gradual

increase of the Hall fund reflected an enormous amount of

hard work by the Committee and their supporters. There will

be more about these events in a future article.

Bobs Story - 2At last I was on the building site and introduced to other

workers. The names of Jeff Kittell, Fred Fitt, Bill Newby and

Dick Durrant come immediately to mind as they were theremost of the time.It must be emphasised that a large number of people worked

to create the Coronation Hall and many of them never met or

knew of their fellow helpers. Not all the work was done onsite and there was much fund raising and what is now known

as "Public Relations" to carry out as well.

Although not so apparent now, the Norwich Road is somethree feet below the level of the land on each side. The wall

that we were to breach had an iron fence and a solid hedge ontop and behind this a bank reaching back some thirty feet

containing several full grown trees. This was all removedmanually. Bardwells, the timber merchants, provided a lifting

crane for the tree stumps Lorries were made available for free

and the site was cleared.A bulldozer and driver arrived and the site was levelled.

The pegs were put in to identify the position of the steel

uprights of the main steel structure. For each of these asquare hole, some three feet square, was dug down to solidground and filled with concrete. In those days Dick, as a

shopkeeper, had Thursday afternoons off .I took them as

holidays. We had done the West side, but the pegs on the

East side were missing. Eventually they were discoveredreplaced in a neat curve. Enquiries confirmed these wereconnected with the new road (Cadman Way planned

before the war but not completed until 1990! and affectedthe siting of the Exit Doors. These had to open outwardsby Iaw, but not to be outside the building. The Planning

Authority revised the plans, adding two pairs of brick piers

the width of the doors, the doors to be hung on the inneredges and so, when open, technically they would still be

inside the building, as they are today.The holes were dug in their correct places, filled with

concrete and the steel structure erected. It took several

days to clean and treat the steel sections, and when a batchwas ready the RA.F. at Watton provided a Coles Crane anddriver, all free of charge, to lift them into position. The

two roof trusses at the balcony end had to be rebuilt and

here the expertise of Jeffrey Kittell and Dick Durrant came

to the fore. They were able to calculate and make thealterations necessary to counteract the extra tension andcompression in the reshaped trusses. It seems they must

have got it right!

With the main steel work erected, work started on thefootings between the steel uprights and also the front of the

building which was outside the main structure. This was more

orthodox building. Ron Jackson looked after the amateurs,bricking up the corners while we ran the bricks in between,

which he then quietly straightened up behind us. Bert Watts,Stan Cator and Ron Roberts are also names I remember.

Above damp-course we changed to claypots which nobody

knew much about. These hollow pots, double for the outerand single for the inner courses, were supposed to beextremely good insulators. They also had razor like edges and

needed very careful handling.

With lights hung in the roof trusses, we were able to work

through the winter evenings. It was very difficult to pull abarrow of concrete through the mud, but with two pulling therope and one on the shafts we concreted the two cross drains

from one side to the other as required.

The least said about the winter of 1954/1955 the better butwhen spring came we had a very pleasant surprise, which

would greatly speed up the next stage.

You will have to wait for a future episode of the story to

hear more about Bobs pleasant surprise.

Above: Les Saward was the Art Teacher at the School, I remember him as a really quite gentle, softly spokenperson who I dont think I ever saw ruffled (though as a teacher I am sure he was at times!). He was, as can beseen above, a talented cartoonist and documented the building process in this way for use in what the publicrelations side of the Queens Hall. Like many of the teachers at this time he lived on the New Council Estate ofNorth, South, East and West Roads with George Trollope Road.The two pictures below show the construction of the framework of the old Hangar.


4/12

Page 4

Words and pictures by Brian Mitchell(Saham Heritage)

Saham Toney seems to have been a fortunate village inhaving a number of benefactors interested in providingeducational opportunities for local young people. Several

educational establishments were funded in this way. This

short history covers only a small part of information held bySaham Heritage, Sahams local history group. We believe

that the following is a true summary if not please tell us.

Goffes Boys SchoolThis school no longer exists but was originally sited a little

distance from the east part of the Church Yard. The buildingis now a private house. In his will, dated 18 Feb. 1611,Edward Goffe of Threxton settled a house and land to the

value of 10 on the master. He gave the School House inSaham Toney, with instructions for the running of the school,

to the care of Reverend Richard Terry of Saham Toney, plus

the vicars of Caston and Watton. The school should take onescholar from Threxton, six from Watton plus all such scholarswhose parents dwell in Saham Toney, at a charge of 1d per

week. It was then known as Goffes and Terrys Endowed

School In a reference in the Church Register of 1784, John

Buttolph is appointed master, so long as he conforms to thedirections of the founder, the doctrines of the Church of

England and attends worship of the same.The school building was reconstructed in the 1830s and 40s

using endowments from the Rev W.H. Parker, a wealthyincumbent of the Parish Church. Not only was he much

involved in setting up Almshouses for the elderly, but he and

his wife also invested much into village education. Associatedwith this school was Kirtlings a farm attached to the school

(and so sometimes known as School Farm) to contribute to itsrunning costs. In 1883, William Rowe was appointed

headmaster. By the 20th Century, it was known as The

Boys School which was closed in the early 1930s althougha number of photos of the masters and pupils exist [Seepicture 1928-Boys-School].

Church of England Girls SchoolBuilding started in 1848 with funding from Mrs. Parker, wife

of the Rev Parker; this was the girls equivalent of Goffes.Little recorded history has come to light before the start of the

school log in 1904. It could accommodate 100 pupils in the

main school and a further 30 in infants so catering for pupilsbetween the ages of 4 and 14. In 1904, there were 88 girls and

a further 21 infants. The first recorded head was Miss AgnesBriggs who continued in office well into the 1920s. [See

picture 1 of the Girls School in 1906]. In 1904, there were

additionally a Miss Simpson (Supplementary teacher) andthe Misses Alice A Tennant and M Smith as PTs" (pupil

teachers). A Miss Beatrice B Lester was Monitress. Thiswould seem to be a well-resourced school for the time. In

1927 Elizabeth Newton became headmistress; at this time Mr.A H Newton was headmaster of the Boys School, a relation?

The Girls School took older pupils from Saham Hills Infants

School.In 1931, the Girls School became the Saham Toney Junior

Mixed School when it was integrated with the Boys Schooland both buildings continued to be used for a time. From that

time on, pupils over the age of 11 moved to Watton Senior

School.With WWII came evacuees mainly from the Blitz in London

John Major, later Prime Minister, was one of these. Duringthis time, there were some 44 local pupils and 13 evacuees.

Pupils stayed until they were 14. A Miss Bevan, who camewith the evacuees, was an LCC (London County Council)

teacher who became headmistress in 1945 until her retirementin 1954 at which time there were 59 pupils. In 1952, Saham

Hills Infants School was closed and the majority of its pupilswere moved to Saham. Miss Bevan was succeeded by Mr.Beckford by which time the role had increased to 59. Mr.

Harris was head until 1966, with 64 pupils. He was followed

by Mr. Kenneth Jelly who played a major role in village aswell as School affairs.

In 1970, the school was renamed as the Saham ToneyVoluntary Aided Primary School still in the old Girls

School buildings. In 1973 it was given its current name of the

Parkers Voluntary Aided Church of England PrimarySchool at that time with 87 pupils. The log of this school still

exists and shows a wealth of interesting detail:

The school building was originally only 780 square feet

and was authorized to take 80 pupils, that is less than 10

square feet per pupil somewhat crowded I would think.

The school was regularly visited by the attendance officer

and attendance records form a large part of the log.Interestingly, regular attendance could earn pupils a halfday holiday. A similar half-day holiday was given to visit

the Wayland Show. On one occasion a police inspectorvisited to deal with stealing.

Health was a major issue: there are several records of

children dying from diphtheria and on one occasion the

school was closed for 20 days because of infection.Cases of whooping cough and mumps were from time totime described as rampant. In 1918 the school closed for 4

Looking back at Schools in Saham Toney . . .

1928. Saham Boys' School with the Headmaster Mr Arthur H Newton andAssistant Teacher Mr B R Sturman. As a 2nd Lieut. in the Machine Gun Corps,

Arthur Newton is thought to be the only serviceman from Saham to be commissioned in the Great War.

1906 - Saham CofE Girls' School with their Headmistress Miss Agnes Briggs.They are posed in front of the building which now houses Parkers School.

1950 The building in Saham which originally housed the Saham Agricultural and Commercial School.Interestingly, the census returns show very few local boys attending


5/12

Page 5

weeks because of the severe outbreak of influenza at the end

of WWI. References are made to a school nurse and dentist.On one occasion, the school appears to have been closed

from 27th November to 6th January because of measles.

Pupil teachers were a key teaching resource: they taught for

20 hours a week Monday to Thursday. They were givenprivate study time while studying to become PTs.

Heating was a regular headache, especially as a number of

winters at the start of the 1900s were hard. One note for 5th

November (how appropriate) refers to the stove smokingand this led to school closure for the day. Delivery of coal

was also a regular and dusty? - occurrence.

In 1908 the school premises were severely criticized by the

Inspector. A medical officer also was in periodic attendance.In 1930 the premises were also damaged by a lightningstrike.

There are occasional references to girls winning scholarships

to e.g. Thetford Grammar School.

Parkers VC Primary SchoolThe voluntary controlled school continues to teach some 100

boys and girls, aged 4 11, to the present day. Mr. Jelly retiredin 1980 after 15 years service and he was succeeded by Mr. John

Burnell until his sudden death in 1990. In 1991, an enlargement

and remodeling programme was begun to cater for the increasingnumbers. In 1991 Mrs. Kathryn Batcock became headmistress,

until she was succeeded by Mrs. Angela Phillips who is currently

in charge. [See picture 1976 Parkers-Sports-Day]

Saham Hills Infants SchoolThis was also established with donations from Mrs. Parker in

1875 and was always a mixed school. From the school register itappears that the first admission was in 1890. [See picture 1952]From then on every pupils entry is recorded with their

parentage, address and date and reason for leaving which areinformative:

In spite of the prevalence of serious diseases (Diphtheria and

TB for example) very few pupils departure was classified as

deceased

Some departures are classed as Delicacy Any ideas on

what this means?

Some are simply over age or leave by order of the

committee

Most move on to The Boys School (Goffes) or The

Saham Girls School However from November 1931 all goto Saham Toney Junior which had been the Girls School

and later became Parkers.

The final entry reads: School closed and children transferred toother schools. July 31st 1952 which records its amalgamationwith Parkers. The buildings were converted to a community hall

where social and religious events were hosted for a time but

finally the premises were sold as a private dwelling. The register

is held by Saham Heritage.

Saham Agricultural and Commercial SchoolIn 1852 Reverend Parker founded this School in purpose-built

premises in Richmond Road, situated opposite Broom Hall. Itseems to have been originally owned by Mr. William BishopCulpepper-Clayton, a local barrister. The purpose of this

establishment was to offer training for older boys, and not

necessarily just from this village. It had places for up to 40pupils and could offer boarding facilities, but its success

varied over the next seventy or so years and the school finally

closed. It was also known as The Commercial andBoarding, Saham Middle Class School, (a telling name)

and simply as The Colledge (sic!)By 1861 there were 28 13 and 14 year olds, under the

headship of Mr. Williams and two assistant masters. By 1875,

although it was being advertised as being able to cater for 30-40 boarders it actually only had 13 enrolled pupils. Mr. Myerswas head at this time. By 1883, it had presently closed.

In 1986, it had become the Saham Middle Class School underthe Rev Thomas Bedwell. It closed again temporarily in 1914 but

had re-opened under Mr. Percy Hough-Love as was then knownas Clayton House. By 1919 it had closed and the buildingdivided. [See picture 1950-Saham-College] However this was

not the final chapter: the three Noble sisters, Ida, Ella and Teresa,

ran a small independent school, for children between the ages of4 and 12, from part of the northern part of the original premises.

Called The Little College, it was formally recognised by the

Ministry of Education, but was finally closed in 1978, with thesale to Mr. Dudley Bowes. Teresa Noble is recorded as saying it

was the smallest school in Norfolk.Broom Hall. Broom Hall stands in about 17 acres on the west

side of Richmond Road and was built in the first half of the 19th

Century by a Mr. E H Grigson. It was owned by 1933 by Mr.Horace Neville Wells-Cole. This property was converted for ashort period in the 1960s to a fee-paying school run by Mr. &

Mrs. Hurry-Palmer.

The experiences of Margaret Cox in school during the war:Margaret, an evacuee from E London, came to Saham aged 7 inOctober 1940 with her family excepting her father who remainedin London. Mr. Wells-Cole took them in and gave them part of

Broom Hall to live in. When they arrived from Swaffham

railway station by coach they disembarked at Goffes School.She describes school (she is 7): there are three classes of mixed

ages up to 14 which was then the leaving age. Soon after they

arrived, (probably because of the increase in numbers) the over-11s were sent to Watton school.

1952 Saham Hills Infants School, typical of its time, immediately before its move to Saham to beamalgamated with Parkers School.

1976 Parkers School Sports fancy dress event.

Ed: This picture is from Freddie Brock and shows an idyllic view of Saham around 1910 - 1915. It is anenlargement taken from a postcard and Fred has made notes which read Note the pub sign on the cornerThe Bull Inn Bertie Amus of Saham was the last person to live there prior to it being renamed Oak House


6/12

Page 6

The Population Of WattonBy Baptism & Burial

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

1540 1550 1560 1570 1580 1590 1600 1610 1620 1630 1640 1650 1660 1670

Baptisms Burials

In the last issue I tried to present what I knew, and what I thought, of the story of the Clock

Tower in Watton High Street, in particular its date of construction and Heys relationshipwith it and the town. I received from Andy Reid some more fascinating material relating to

Christopher Hey which he has kindly given me permission to reproduce and which I have,

in Feedback Roundup on the back page. In this article my aim is to give you an insight intomy thinking about the evidence of the devastating fire that took place on the 25th April

1674. I hope that you will be able to put the pieces together and reach the same conclusions

I have but I am by no means certain (see later). You may, or may not, agree with myinterpretation of the evidence, you may think some things are obvious or that others arestretching belief!

But, before we begin, lets take a look at these events as commonly written today.

As I pointed out last issue, most work seems to based on the paragraph written by Francis

Blomefield in his work entitled An essay towards a topographical history of the county ofNorfolk, which was published in 11 volumes in 1811. He writes:In 1673, on Saturday the 25th April, there happened a most dreadful fire in this town,

which burnt down above 60 houses, besides barns, stables, and outhouses, the butchers

shambles, &c. to the value of 7450l and goods to the value of 2660l, for which there was a

brief granted to gather all England over till the 20th of Sep, 1675.

For evidence of how often this work is quoted, see the last issue of Looking Back and the

story regarding the Clock Tower.We will ignore the date being wrong, and take the notes at face value and consider what

damage the fire did. More than 60 houses burned down as well as barns and stables, nevermind the butchers shambles(1) etc. must have meant a fair proportion of Watton was

burned to the ground. Imagine 60 houses burned down in the High Street today and it easy

to see that the losses would have been huge. So which houses and homes were destroyed inthe fire and how did the populous cope? Can we discover whereabouts in the High Street

the fire started and which bits were unaffected. Before we can even attempt to do this, weneed to try and discover how big Watton was at the time and how was the town laid out.

Unfortunately for us, there are no maps or other documents - at least none that I have been

able to find - that give us a nice layout of the town or a clue as to population size in the

period of interest. One ofthe earliest maps and the

most detailed I have had

access to is the enclosure

map of 1803 a private copyof which I was allowed

access to (the town area isextracted right). That shows

a town layout that is stillfamiliar today though

evidently very much

smaller. So what is theearliest reasonably accurate

figure we can put on thepopulation of the town? Whites Directory Of Norfolk 1845(2) gives the parish population

in 1801 as 693. It is reasonable to infer therefore the number of houses shown on the map is

that required to house such a population. I should state here that the rest of the map doesnot show many other buildings or farms within the parish therefore we could perhaps

assume the towns population is fairly close to 693. Obviously it is very difficult to gleanthe number of properties (not households) from the map but a count of drawings on the map

suggests there could perhaps be up to a hundred properties including barns etc. there. The

exact number isnt critical, the point is that a fire on the scale of that described above, had itoccurred in 1801, would have had a devastating effect on the town, destroying perhaps 70%

- 90% of the town. A most dreadful fire indeed!An slightly earlier map

is Fadens Map ofNorfolk, first printed in

1797 and I have

reproduced an extract(2)

right, which shows lessdetail than the enclosuremap but is in broad

agreement as to areas of

occupation.What then was the sizeof the town in 1674?

That is very difficult to

answer. There was no census as such to draw on (although as you will read later Andy Reid

has some good information), but there is one useful source of information and that is theknown as Hearth Tax Returns. The Hearth Tax was introduced in England and Wales by

the government of Charles II in 1662 when he badly needed money. (Nothing changes!!)Each liable householder was to pay one shilling for each hearth (fireplace) within their

property for each collection of the tax. Payments were due twice annually, at Michaelmas(29 September) and Lady Day (25 March), starting at Michaelmas 1662. No doubt some

degree of tax avoidance went on and people probably lied about the number of hearths their

home contained. But I think it unlikely that they would have denied the existence of their

entire home - at least not in too many cases! So what do we have for Watton?From 'The Norfolk Hearth Tax Assessment, Michaelmas 1664', published by the Norfolkand Norwich Genealogical Society in 1983, we glean that 60 households made a return

with just over a third (22) returning a single hearth, 16 returning 2 hearths, 8 returning 3, 3

returning 4, 3 returning 5, 3 returning 6, 1 returning 7, 3 returning 8 and one returning 9hearths.(As an aside here, I think we may assume that the number of hearths was an indication of

status and wealth, and it is interesting to note that Mr Christopher Hey returned 8 hearths

which we can reasonably take to mean he was one of the wealthiest four men in Watton at

this time.)But consider this, if 60 households made a tax return in 1664 and just 10 years later above

60 houses were burned down (if we are to believe Blomefield) then Watton was effectivelyrazed to the ground.

Can we derive any other evidence to estimate the size of the town at this time? The onlyother source from which I have been able to infer population is in the Parish Registers and

the records of baptism, marriage and burial. Many authors dismiss parish registers as being

too inaccurate to be worth using as a way of estimating population, but where the registers

are the only form of data available then we must make the best use of them we can while

remembering their deficiencies. Wattons burial and

baptismal registers from 1539 to 1597 are all in the samehand and so are obviously transcripts (this is the case for

many parishes). There are minor mistakes in the copying ~some dates are out of order for instance, but on the whole, the feeling one gets from them is that

they have been done with care. In contrast, the registers of marriage seem to be littered with

mistakes and omissions and corrections and they must be treated with scepticism. Beyond 1630

and into the Commonwealth period one becomes increasingly concerned about all three registersaccuracy since at times no two entries are in the same hand! (I used the microfiche at the NorfolkRecords Office to extract the data used below but it is now much easier to make reference to the

excellent transcripts made by Jean Loizou and published by the Mid Norfolk Family History

Society).I have attempted to extract from the baptismal and burial registers a guide to the population size

over the 16th and 17th centuries. The technique I used is similar to those described by Tate in TheParish Chest(3), that is to say to derive a 10 year rolling average and multiply burials by 31 and

baptisms by 30. Because of my mistrust of the marriage registers accuracy I have not attempted tocarry out Tates favoured method of multiplying the mean annual number of marriages by 125.The variance in the chart does illustrate the need to be wary of attaching too high a precision to

population figures derived by this method, but never the less, they are in broad agreement as to the

growth pattern of the towns population. It is interesting to speculate about the large deviationbetween the baptismal registers and the burial registers around the mid 1660s. In this periodburials increased considerably and baptisms decreased markedly. This was of course the period of

the plague just before the Great Fire of London (1666). Almost certainly the effects of the plague

being felt in Watton as badly as they were in London.

So, the picture we get of the town from the registers is as follows: Up to 1580 the size of the town

was reasonably constant at around 300. There was then a period of expansion, particularly rapidover the first 25 years, continuing thereafter at a slower rate, with a population of about 500 to 600

by 1670. If we extrapolate the growth at the same rate towards 1800, the figures suggest a

population of 850 - 900, perhaps up to 200 over the recorded population of 693, the chart thereforelooks to be reasonable, though perhaps overestimating the population size by 10 - 20%. If this

level of population is accurate, that gives us an occupancy rate of between 6 -10 people perhousehold. I dont think this is an unreasonable occupancy rate at this t ime.One final observation here is that the registers show no deviation from the norm during the fire

year, i.e. the fire, however big it was, does not seem to have caused any immediate loss of life inthe town, or in the months after. And more interestingly, there is no marked deviation in the

baptismal record either, which suggests that the people of the town were not too put out by it!

Is there any evidence of the fire today? This is where, I think, the story gets most interesting.Rather than evidence of a fire, there is evidence of lack of a fire. If we accept that a fair proportionof the town burned down, then one would not expect to see any evidence of buildings predating

the fire still standing today. But there is still plenty visible today, enough to make me think that if

the fire was in and amongst the shops and market place we think of today as Watton, it did not doso much damage as Blomefield suggests. Yet as we saw last issue, there is incontrovertible

evidence that the townspeople went begging to Norwich.In my early researches on this subject I could find no contemporary evidence of the fire and I had

begun to wonder whether in fact, it wasnt some kind of insurance scam. Especially as there was

the odd snippet of court evidence suggesting that Watton could be at times quite a bawdy place! Atthe time I was given this information by the County Archivist, the items had not been indexed, but

they do show that the town was, at times, a lively place as the records from the Quarter Sessions at

Kings Lynn on the 9th October 1655 show; James Francis of Watton for keeping a licensedAlehouse for suffering misdemeanour Batteries and Bloodcraft in the said house and he doth not

endeavour to prevent it, Richard Browne of Watton for a quareller and Breaker of ye peace andfor bloodcraft then evidence the market was not entirely honest Ye inhabitants of Watton for

keeping an unlawfull Bushell.

But now I am sure there was a fire but not where you might expect, but first lets look at theevidence of lack of fire. If you stand at the small gap between what was Harveys shop - nowWatton Furniture - and Johns look up at the end wall of Johns in the gap and you will see parts of a

massive timber frame in view and clear evidence of a brick frontage placed up against it. It

indicates that Johns shop is a much modified timber framed building whose timbers are of a

substantial size. One contribution to the process of dating a building is by the size of its timbersand when I showed this to an architectural officer some years ago, he had no hesitation in placingthe frame at pre 15th century placing it some time well before the fire date. They appear to be in

situ rather than recycled and thus almost certainly mean that the fire was not burning there.

Studying old pictures of that area show how it was joined to the George Commercial Hotel thatstood where Lloyds Bank now is, and lend weight to the argument that the fire did not do much

damage in this part of town.

Next take a visit to the Chinese restaurant above Trading Places, the Royal Garden Chinese

Restaurant, thanks to the tremendous effort (often unrecognised) that Dennis Brooks, puts into allhis building works, you can see an almost complete upstairs remains of a timber frame, completewith clearly visible carpenters marks showing how they cut and joined the fames on the floor and

then dismantled it to be reassembled again in position. The marks were used as a key to identify

which piece joined to which. Again the size of the timbers indicates a building that certainlypredates the fire. In Dens Caf closer to the town, timbers are preserved and clearly visible, againthanks to Dennis, that once more indicate a much older building still standing.

The last piece of evidence I shall present, which is by far the most interesting and telling, is the

building that is now Corals but was Adcocks original High Street shop. I had the great good

fortune to be around on a daily basis while the recent extensive rebuilding and alterations were

THE GREAT(?) FIRE OF WATTON


7/12

Page 7

taking place at Adcocks and some fascinating evidence was uncovered.

It was already known that the beams in the ceiling of the office above the old shop weredated to around the mid 16th century - say 1550. During the process of renovation and

alteration it became clear that within the building large sections of the building were intactand in place. The frontage has been removed and replaced by brick at some time and the

roof replaced, by the looks of it in the last 150 years, but the back wall and end wall to the

east are still in place. So it seems that the fire did not burn fiercely here either. Adcockswas joined to what was Butchers, where Rudlings now stands. Butchers was a very oldbuilding and though I can not show now that it predated the fire, the evidence of the gable

at Adcocks suggest the fire was not in any building next door either.

The relative positioning of these three buildings within the town leads me to think that a

large area to the south and west of the Market Place was not damaged by fire at all, whichdoes not fit the picture of devastation we derived earlier.

To add a bit more circumstantial evidence, walk around Watton looking at the roof lines.It is fairly easy to see which roofs hide the older buildings. Of course I cant say they

predate the fire, but to my eye there are plenty of buildings around that appear to be as oldas those which we do now know to predate it.

So where was the fire? I dont know. But I do have a theory!

The positioning of St Marys Church on its own almost so far to the east of the town has

been the subject of debate among the towns historians for many years. I have heard anumber of theories expounded as to why it is there but I think I can present a good casefor my contribution to the debate. You of course may have your own ideas and if you have

I shall be delighted to hear them.

Ancient villages mostly seem to follow the same basic rules. You have the church with anearby green and all the homes clustered around it - a nearby example might be Caston.There are many other examples in Norfolk and it is interesting to visit a place and try and

work out where the core of the old town or village was. I dont think Watton would have

been any different and if we look at the landscape, we have the church, near to Watton

Green almost a sub village today but what is missing are the homes clustered around it.I would like to suggest that perhaps the story of Watton goes along the lines of something

like this . . .In the 12th century Watton was just another typical hamlet like a thousand others in

Norfolk. But around 1200 or so one enterprising gentleman by the name of John de Vaux,

the Lord of Watton Hall, spotted an opportunity. A little to the west of the village was acrossroads where two roads met. One travelled from the south towards Dereham and the

North Norfolk coast. And the other ran East West from Norwich to Downham. This was

probably a major route. Even in 1738 Blomefield wrote; This is a small market townsituate just into the wood land, but near the edge of the filand or open part of the country;

it is a good thoroughfare, and its market is no despicable one, a great quantity of butter

being sent through this place to Downham-Bridge, from whence the factors return it to

London by water.

There was another Market in place already at this time at Saham Toney, which was a

Royal Town and a very prosperous one at that, if its St Georges is anything to go by.De Vaux obtained from the King, a charter for a market to be held on a Friday. This

market he set up at the crossroads. Very quickly, in 1204, the people of nearby Saham

Toney complained to the King that the market was harming their own held on the sameday. No doubt this was because of Wattons advantageous position after all who would

trudge all the way to Saham if you didnt have to ? (No offence intended there Saham!).Their complaints were upheld and the charter was withdrawn. John de Vaux then

conveyed the manor to his brother, Oliver, who was evidently on better terms with the

King since he immediately obtained a new charter for a Wednesday market and so it hasremained ever since.

Sahams market in due course withered and died, whereas Wattons prospered and, in

turn, so did the respective village communities. I do wonder if this is the root of theacrimony that has traditionally existed between Saham Toney and Watton during theintervening centuries.

At some point, probably

very early on, the roadlayout was altered from

the straight-forwardintersection to the layout

shown on the enlargement

from the enclosure map,and from this can be

clearly seen how the road(that now goes) from

Thetford to Dereham was

diverted forcing travellersfrom all directions to pass

alongside the market

place encouraging its useas both a place to rest andto trade. The construction

of Memorial Way in

recent years has probably

restored the original roadlayout though not perhapson the same lines.

A map of the area in say,

1670, might have shown two distinct areas of occupation and activity. The first is thevillage of Watton, a sizeable settlement based around the church of St Marys with some

very prosperous properties featuring in the layout, eleven of which had more than 5hearths. Then a little way away, a short walk to the west was the commercial centre. A

bustling market place with stalls surrounded by shops selling a wide range of goods and

provisions. (The evidence for this commercial activity in Watton will be the subject ofanother article at some point. In and around the early 1600s there was a staggering amount

of commercial activity going on here.)

Then on the morning of Saturday the 25th April 1674 fire broke out in the houses around

the church. It probably took hold as many of the men may have been at town conductingtheir business. The fire devastated the village and destroyed most if not all of the houses

leaving the inhabitants with a problem. What do they do for cover?, the weather was

probably still quite cold it was, after all, only springtime with plenty of night time frosts.

They were lucky that no one had been killed directly by the fire but unless a plan washatched very quickly it is likely that hardship and illness would strike very quickly atthose who were exposed to the elements. Perhaps the answer was obvious to them, move

the whole population to the commercial centre and carry on there. After all, trade must

continue in order to survive. Certainly they could, and did, appeal to the King for help butin reality, just as when a disaster strikes today, help and aid is a long time coming. The

simplest answer was to relocate and make the best of things.

Is there any evidence to support this? Well yes, I think there might be. During the alterations atAdcocks some clues came to light.To help us understand, I will first explain who I think owned this property. As we saw in the last

issue, Christopher Hey built the clock tower and sold it,and the land upon which it stood, to the

town in 1679, I also showed why I think the likely date for building was 1674. A study of the

construction of the clock tower shows clearly that it is built leaning against the western end wall ofthe building that wasAdcocks.

A map from the deeds to

this shop (right) appears toshow that the clock tower

(or Clock House as it is

referred to on the plan left)was, in effect, built in the

corner of the gardenattached to the building

marked Dwelling House

leaning against the house.The shop to the left of the

clock tower is of courseAdcocks new shop, or as

we might know it from

y e a r s g o n e b y ,Horsburghs Chemists.

The point is that, IF the garden belonged to Adcocks old shop and if Christopher Hey sold that

land to the town then it is reasonable to assume that Christopher Hey owned Adcocks original

shop.I think that Heys shop (as I shall now refer to it) was, prior to the fire, a standard timber framebuilding of the middle 16th century, that is to say it was quite small, being only a little deeper than

the clock house itself. What is certain is that it was not big enough to house the 8 hearths he had in1664. It was a shop not a home - after all he wouldnt need one if he owned one near to the church.

So what happened to it after the fire? I think there is evidence that suggests Christopher Hey moved

into the upstairs of his shop - a shop that had not previously been designed to be used as a home -and one of the first problems he ran into was one we all face from time to time - that of space. He

needed to expand his shop and pretty quickly too. In order to do this he started building backwardsfrom Watton Street towards Back Street but there was, as you would perhaps expect, an immediate

shortage of timber. There had just been a major fire and everybody was trying to recover from thedisaster so every available resource was pressed into use and it seems they started recycling some of

the burned timbers from the wreckage of the previous houses. He also needed to keep warm so at

some time in the year, perhaps later rather than earlier, a fireplace was inserted into the western endwall certainly upstairs. It may even be that at this time the end wall was changed from a timberframed one to a brick construction and the clock tower built leaning against it, though I think the

wall was brick sometime before the fire.

I can hear you asking how I have reached such detailed conclusions! During the modifications the

offices that were the upstairs of the shop were turned into a part of the flat and these pictures showsome of the clues uncovered.

This picture shows the rearof the clock tower as it leans

against what I believe to beChristopher Heys shop. We

can see by the roof line of the

gable how the angle changes

t o w a r d s t h e b o t t o mindicating extension. This Ithink was quite some time

ago because contained within

the room to which the onlyaccess was via the window

was the back wall of the 16thcentury building quite intact!

The room is very small and

difficult to photograph in buthere we see the back wall of

what I think is Heys shop.

Notice the plaster furthest away - that has been painted pink - and also the plaster closer to us thathas been decorated with an angular pattern. Also clearly visible is the roof plate or top beam of theframe. This is charred but not badly and I think is evidence of a thatch fire at some point in the

buildings history but as Andy suggests could be evidence of the fire itself. We may never know for

sure. /Continued on next page


8/12

Page 8

Looking to further to the right we can see the upright at one corner of the frame. The

bricks are to extend the width of the end to make the room we are in. There is quiteheavy charring of the frame here but not below the plaster further down. This indicates to

me that the fire was constrained to the roof area burning down and not from the groundupwards. I know of no way to date this burning but I think it can not be associated with

the 1674 fire as described by Blomefield

Although not so easily seen, this is the junction of what I think to be the extension added in 1674 or

perhaps 1675. These timbers are clearly recycled and do not fit well together. The join to the mainbuilding is very poorly made and looks as if it were done with a policy of that will do. Some of the

timbers exhibit very deep charring in places with the patterns showing that they were not in the sameorientation that they are now and would not normally be used for structural timbers unless there were

none better available. Evidence of the extension being constructed with beams salvaged after the fire?

During the conversion of the offices into flats this bricked up fireplace was discovered in the endwall of the house. The Chimney Breast that the fireplace uses is contained within the clock towerindicating it must be earlier or contemporary with the towers construction.

When finally opened up, you can see the size of the fireplace. I find it fascinating to

visualise Christopher Hey sitting here in the winter of 1674 and 1675 reflecting upon thetrial and tribulations of the past year, with no idea that further trouble lay just around thecorner - but then I am perhaps romanticising too much!

Hiding behind the bucket is hole to the flue of what would have been a fireplace on the ground floor

- is this evidence of a fireplace being inserted into an existing chimney breast - it can hardly have

been very useful as a flue was this fireplace was in position. The beam across the top of the hearthacting as a lintel holds a further dating clue, in the middle were incised

Witch Marks. Inverted Vs cut into the wood were intended to deterwitches entering the house via the chimney. They are entirely consistent

with a dating of the mid 17th century.

This is the last bit dating evidence from the fireplace. It is difficult tosee here but the chamfer cut across the front edge of the beam isstopped with a particular design of cut. These are diagnostic features

which in this case show not the date of the fireplace but if you study the

next picture . . .

This is a ceiling beam from the extension to Heys shop. This is the back wall of theextension nearest Harvey Street. There is no sign of these timbers being recycled - they areall towards the front of the extension i.e. the first bits to be done. But by comparing this

chamfer stop with the one on the fireplace we can see they are of exactly the same design

and size indicating that these beams and the fireplace lintel both date from the same time -maybe even the same workmen.Well, there we are thats all I have to say for now on this subject. As I said at the outset; you

may, or may not, agree with my interpretation of the evidence, you may think some things areobvious or that others are stretching belief! If you have any evidence or theories to add, please

do get in touch. I am not certain about many things in this story and I am sure that time willchange things as more and more information comes to light, but history is like that. That is

partly what makes it so fascinating!

Foot Notes:

(1) Shambles does not mean tumbled down or rough as we might think today, The name


9/12

Page 9

"Shambles" comes from the Saxon "Fleshammels", which means, "the

street of the butchers" and in many parts of the country, streets are calledThe Shambles and are associated with butchers shops or places of

slaughter.

(2) Taken from the Fadens Map of Norfolk, published by Larks Press,Guist Bottom, Dereham, Norfolk 1989 ISBN 0 948400 09 9 pp 20-21)

(3) Whites Directory Of Norfolk 1845 (Trowbridge: Reprint by David &

Charles Reprints, 1969) p.p. 369(4) WE Tate The Parish Chest (Chichester: Philimore & Co. Ltd, 1983)p.p. 80 - 82

I sent this article to Andy Reid as an early form of Peer Review. Andy

has conducted what is probably the most detailed research of the historyof Watton when he taught at Wayland High School. Andys knowledge

of the subject is far broader than mine though he has not been able tocontinue his researches first hand here since moving away some 20

years ago. He has also contributed some more information onChristopher Heys story which I have reproduced elsewhere in thisissue.

Andy wrote:

This is fascinating stuff. The photographic evidence from insideAdcocks is invaluable, the analysis of Wattons population in the period

1550-1670 is excellent, and you make your case well. Thank you verymuch for sending this material.

However, Im not sure that Im persuaded by your theory about the fire

taking place in the vicinity of the parish church.An alternative view would be:The crucial event in shaping Watton was the establishment of the

market around 1200, near the crossroads of the E-W Roman road and

the Thetford-Dereham road. I agree with all you say about the diversion

of Dereham Road etc, but would suggest that the market and thebuildings and residences associated with it developed in this area fromthe early 13th century onwards. It is clear from the enclosure map and

other sources that the market occupied the area between the north side of

Middle Street and the south side of High Street, and between Rudlingsand the east side of the old Dereham Road. Comparison with other

settlements in Norfolk might suggest that settlement around the church

was a scattered common edge settlement, although the site of themanor of Watton may have been in that area (Blomefield states that the

church was placed by the old manor house which is now quitedemolished; he was writing in 1738). There may be more

archaeological evidence available now than there was 20 years ago

when I was investigating the history of Watton more actively than hasbeen possible since, but Im not aware of any that would suggest thatthere was a significant concentration of houses around the church.

Moreover the pre-1674 manorial documentation suggests that the most

significant residences were in the market/High Street area.

The reference in Blomefield to the butchers shambles is to my mindparticularly significant. As you rightly say, this would be the street orarea where the butchers stalls and shops were, and it is hard to imagine

that it was anywhere other than in or immediately adjacent to the market

place in Watton. My theory (based on the known later location of somebutchers premises) was that it was the passage between Wayland Hall

and Rudlings. At least one of the stallholders referred to in the 1595rental was a butcher (Robert Brett). There is also a 1669 reference to ashop or butchers stall...in Watton Markett. The reference to the

butchers shambles would support the view that the fire affected the areaaround the market place.

Thomas Baskerville, who visited Watton in 1681, described it as a

small town, lately burnt, but now rebuilt. I would take this to imply thatit was rebuilt on the same site. Indeed, that would make sense becausethe people whose properties were destroyed or damaged in the fire

would still own the sites and, as today, this is where they would tend to

rebuild. We dont know anything about the nature of the fire, but it may

have largely affected the thatched roofs of the buildings, leaving majorstructural beams charred but intact, and available for re-use on the samesites.

Thomas Barton, writing in 1852, stated that traces of the fire may now

be seen when any of the old houses in the market place are undergoingrepair. Of course, he may have been misinterpreting evidence of

subsequent fires as evidence for the 1674 fire. On the other hand, it

seems to me that he may have been right, and that the evidence that youhave identified at Adcocks and elsewhere may actually be evidence of

the 1674 fire. Could the evidence of building work on the Adcocks sitebe evidence, not of expansion to make more room, but of rebuilding of

parts of the premises that were damaged particularly badly?

So, overall, I would argue that the fire took place in the market and HighStreet area. Of course, the great thing about history is that, as in this

case, it may never be possible to prove beyond doubt what actuallyhappened.

Some further evidence on the size of Wattons population in the 17th

century:The Compton Census of 1676 (which excluded people under the age of16, perhaps 40% of the population) recorded 275 people in Watton

The Hearth Tax returns of 1667 (which I transcribed at the Public

Record Office some years ago) give a total of 97 households: if you takeaverage household size to be 4.5, that would give a population of 437,

broadly consistent with the figure you have obtained from analysis of

the parish registers. This figure would also suggest that the fire

destroyed most but not all of Watton in 1674 (even allowing for the factthat some of the dwellings were outside the town itself).I hope the above is helpful, even if we are taking different views. Im

really enjoying this correspondence and look forward to more!

In the brief discussions between myself and Andy since the writing of allthe above we have skirted around the idea that perhaps the fire was not

quite so devastating in terms of buildings destroyed perhaps beingcontained to the roofs. This is, without a doubt, work in progress so

please read it as such. Do not take it as the whole story just one possible

theory.

FROM THE WATERS FAMILY ALBUMI was absolutely delighted when I was contacted by

Dr. Deric Dan Waters by email after the first issueof Looking Back was published. Dan wrote:

On Wednesday 23 May my sister, Olga Sinclair (nee

Waters), and I, Deric (sometimes known as Dan)

Waters, visited Watton. We chose market day on

purpose but of course it was nothing like the markets

that we remember in pre-World War Two days with

the large cattle markets. We enjoyed a pub lunch and

wandered about the town.

I was born in 1920 in Norwich at grannys place but

brought back to Watton when only a few days old.

Olga was born in 1923 at 40 Thetford Road Watton.We were both brought up at Watton. We are an old

Watton family going back several generations. Our

Mother, Bessie Waters, did an immense amount of

charity work, including penny trails, collecting for

the Watton Cottage Hospital and she also organized

Poppy Day collections for Watton and the

surrounding villages for many years.

We enjoyed our visit to Watton last month, including

sitting on the seat by the post office in High Street

and watching Watton go by. As we did so we made

comparisons with the Watton that we remember. I

suppose however it was not surprising that we met no

one who we knew as many of our old friends of pre

WW2 Watton have passed across.

Nevertheless we did meet Mr Edwards in the

newsagents shop. I remember his father, Ernie, very

well as he and I are the same generation and both of

us went away to the war as did my sister. MrEdwards junior was very kind and gave me a copy of

the memoirs of his father. He also gave us a copy of

Looking Back and in it I was pleased to see photos of

old Watton including past carnivals.

In fact we have a number of family photographs

including carnival photos and a photo of elephants

coming down Thetford Road after having walked

from Thetford which was then, along the old road, 12

miles away. These photos were taken in the mid

1920s.

May I repeat, we enjoyed our visit to Watton.

Over the intervening months we have exchanged

emails and Dan has been able to shed light on manyaspects of Wattons history. I was also able to go and

see Olga and she kindly allowed me to copy pictures

from their family records. Just a few I publish here.

Above: The allotments on Thetford Road - they were where the

empty field is now to the right of Tesco, The Waters family lived

opposite this field.

Above Two more elephants arriving in Watton! Coming up the

Thetford Road

Left the view from the family home looki ng up towards where Tesco

now stands. Bottom is the family home, office and yard in Thetford

Road. Waters were well known builders in Watton for several

generations.

The advert right is

from 1927. The

family is probably

best remembered

locally for the Barrel

Organ which was

always paraded

around town whilst

collecting money forthe Hospital.


10/12

Page 10

ANOTHER DIP INTO DADS SCHOOL PICTURES

Above are a selection of sporting pictures chosen at random from the box of school

pictures that Dad (Wilf Horn) saved. If you know someone on them I should be verypleased to hear from you. Similarly below are some pictures of Christmas Cakes

from 1953 and 1959 but do you know who they are??Lastly on the facing page a series taken a Christmas Dinner but when was it, who

are they and where are they all now.

What on earth had been said here to give Miss Offley and the girls a fit of the giggles?


11/12

Page 11


12/12

Page 12

THE HEY FAMILY AND

WATTON CLOCK TOWER

F R O M A N D Y R E I D

I read your article about the story of the clock tower, in thelast issue of Looking Back, with great interest and

enjoyment. As you know, I researched the history ofWatton on and off over 12 years or so while teaching at

Wayland High School and afterwards, and have continuedto take an interest since moving to Stafford in 1988,

although without the time or opportunity to do much more.You have found most of what I found, and some more

besides. However, I can offer a few bits of informationwhich may be of use to you in filling out the story of the

Hey family further.

As you say in your article, the clock tower was built by

Christopher Hey, mercer (1615 1682). You also mentionhis father, John Hey, who died in 1617, just three yearsafter his marriage to Ann Scott and just two after the birth

of Christopher.

John Hey was a brewer of beer. In his will (1), hedescribed himself as berebrewer, and refers to hisbrewhouse in the town. The will is dated 3 August 1617,

just eight days before John was buried ; he describes

himself as sick and weake of body and obviouslyrealised that he didnt have long to live. His own father,the elder Christopher Hey, was one of the witnesses. John

made his brother Charles Hey his sole executor, and lefthim all his real estate and personal property, with certain

exceptions, with permission to sell them. The exceptionswere certain items which he left to his young wife Ann:

all my beds, bedding, brasse, pewter, and lynnen and all

other my howshould stuffe whatsoever used in my

dwelling howse. Out of these, in turn, John earmarkedsome that were to be kept for the use of his sonChristopher: such implements as shall belong to the

brewhouse and the bedd in the parlour as it now standeth

furnished and two paier of sheets one boulster one pillowetwo pillowbeeres (pillow cases) two blankettes and one

covering now upon the saide bedd, And also the plate inthe said house used.

So John took considerable care to set Christopher up with

some of the things he would need in life; perhaps he wasalso making sure that certain particularly valued

possessions would remain in the family. Until his brotherCharles sold the rest of his property, Ann was to have the

benefit of it; when he did sell it, Ann was to have 8 ofevery 100 realised for and towards the maintenance of

herself and education of Christopher until Christopher

was 12; after that the remaining funds were to be invested

for Christophers benefit and paid to him at the age of 21.In due course, Charles sold the brewhouse to WilliamHeyhoo of Rockells Hall. Rockells Hall was, and is, a fine

house, and its contents are listed in fascinating detail in the

inventory of William Heyhoos possessions made after hisdeath in 1632 (2). This refers to the brewhouse at Watton

towne, which contained a horse mill, brewing stools, acopper and other brewing vessels, all of which were

HOW TO CONTACT LOOKING BACKYou can contact Julian by ringing 01953 881 885. You can write to him at32 High Street, Watton IP25 6AEOr email on [email protected] I would welcome contributions and memories to the above address

All views expressed in Looking Back are published in good faith and believed to be correct. BUT you should not rely on the

accuracy of any information for any reason without independently verifying it for yourself. While every care and effort is

made to ensure accuracy the publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions.

This issue of Looking Back was published by :

Julian Horn, 32 High Street, Watton IP25 6AE and printed by:Rollmark (Dieletlit) Ltd., Howlett Way, Fison Industrial Estate, Thetford, Norfolk. Telephone 01842 754984

FEEDBACK ROUNDUP

valued at 44 a lot of money at that time. I dont know

for sure where it was, but one possibility is that it was atthe Angell which John Heys father Christopher Hey ismentioned as holding in the rental of 1595 (3). The Angel

was where the Crown stands today, just opposite the clock

tower.The young Christopher, of course, did not become a

brewer: he became a mercer, and one of the mostprosperous and influential inhabitants of Watton. In the

hearth tax returns of 1664 and 1667 (4), he is listed as

having eight taxable hearths in his house, so on thismeasure his house was one of the four biggest in Watton.

It may have stood adjacent to where the clock tower was

built, but we cant be sure. You have covered ChristopherHeys contribution to the community as churchwarden and

overseer in your article, and I agree that he was probably apuritan and supporter of parliament in the Civil War. I

also agree with your analysis of the building and sale of

the clock tower, after the fire of 1674.Following the death of his wife Mary in 1673, ChristopherHey did, in fact, remarry. His second wife, Alice, was a

widow from the Ely area and quite wealthy, if the evidence

of her will, made the year before she died in 1681 (5), is

anything to go by. She owned land in Ely and the nearbyvillage of Witchford, and stallsin the market place inEly. Its interesting to speculate about how they might

have met. A century later, merchants from Watton played

an important part in the butter trade, taking quantities of itby land and water to Downham Market; if this was

happening in Christopher Heys time, perhaps it was

trading connections that brought his and Alices familiesinto contact. It is surely Alices initial that appears in the

panel, CHA (Christopher and Alice Hey) 1674 on therear gable behind the clock tower, which suggests that the

marriage had taken place within a year of Marys death.In her will, Alice described herself as the nowe wife ofChristopher Hey of Wattonwoollendraper and referredto Christopher as her loving husband. The bequests she

made to Christophers children give a clue to how many of

them survived in 1680. She refers to Jane, married to

Peter George (a member of another influential Wattonfamily) and Lucy (unmarried) as the two daughters of mysaid husband. Jane had a daughter, Anne, while there

were two other grandchildren whose mother had, perhaps,

already died. Alice does not refer to Christophers son,Thomas, who may have been the only surviving son by the

time of Christophers own death in 1682. Like his father

before him, when Christopher knew that he did not havelong to live, he wrote his will (6) on 28 June 1682 beinge

infirme of bodyconsideringe the certainty of death andthe uncertainty of the time thereof and was buried just a

week later.

What he had, he left to his son Thomas: there were noother bequests. It leaves me wondering just how much helost during the fire, and whether his marriage to Alice was

driven as much by economic necessity as by a desire for

company. Having said that, he may not have profited

much from it, as Alice bequeathed most of her property toher brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces when she died,

noting carefully in her will that she did so by and with theconsent of the said Christopher Hey. Certainly,

Christopher probably did not benefit much from thecollection resulting from the brief issued after the fire:

the Norfolk quarter sessions order book records in July

1674 (7) that no parte of the mony wch shall be collectedby virtue of any brief to be obteyned for the losses

susteyned by ye great fire wch lately happened atWattonbe not appyed to ye benefit of landlords or such

other persons of abilitye who are able to live of themselves

& mainteyne theire families without ye charitye of the

Kings liege people It was a sad end for him, and for hisfamily: Thomas vanished from the scene, and the Hey

dynasty played no further part in the history of Watton.

References

1) Will of John Hey, 1617: Norfolk Record Office (NRO)Norwich Archdeaconry wills

2) Inventory of William Heyhoo, NRO I NV 38/1023) NRO NRS 18144 33A3

4) 1664: Norfolk Genealogy, vol 15 (1983)1667: Public Record Office E179/253/45

5) Will of Alice Hey, 1 681: NRO PCC and Norwich Wills

6) Will of Christopher Hey, 1682: NRO NorwichArchdeaconry wills

7) Norfolk QS Order Book 1669-1681: NRO C/S2/3.

DAVID THROOP VAUGHAN G.I.

By Winifred (Offley) RushtonIn 1943 my sister Marnie was travelling back home by train

from Cambridge where she was training to be a nurse at

Addenbrookes Hospital. In those days a train ran from

Thetford to Swaffham. Marnie was travelling to Watton andhad to put her bicycle on the Watton train as, during WorldWar II, you could not be met at the station by car as petrol

was rationed. It happened that David Throop Vaughan, who

was also travelling to Watton, was in the same carriage as mysister and they chatted.

Marnie suggested he might like to visit our house at Low

Farm, Carbrooke, pointing out that she would not be there.Several weeks later on a Sunday afternoon, Throop came to

visit. We all got on so well and from then on, he became oneof our family, visiting us whenever he was off duty.

Since the War all his family have visited us, often staying at

Low Farm. We met his mother, Betty his wife, his siblings,his three children and many grandchildren.Only a few weeks ago I spoke to Throop over the phone when

he was at daughter Susans home. On the Glorious

Twelfth (12th August), he will be 91 or 2 this year, 2007.

This poem (below) he wrote in my autograph book before Ileft home to go to a London College to train to be a teacher ofdomestic science. The road he is describing is the Saturday

night run from Griston to Norwich to go dancing at the

Samson and Hercules!

ODE TO A LIMEY ROADOh why is it so

That wherer you go,Youre never straight -

But a figure eight.No matter where

You choose to err,

You do it with bendsAnd biased trends.It seems to me

That I cannot see

The reason

For you teasin.Perhaps it was

On account of becauseYou designers

Were mis-aligners;

Or possibly tooFrom a trail you grew

Made by a guyLit up high,

Staggering homeOn an all night roam

Leaving a route

Which wandered about.For beauty, tis true

None do excel you;But in a G.I. truck

With traffic to buck

And all of us in a hurryWere caused much worry,

Impatience and nerves.By your beautiful, beautiful curves.

Good luck in College, Wizz!

David Vaughan

15 Sept 1944

Not long after Mrs Rushton sent me this, she received thefollowing letter from Throop thanking her for sending him a

copy of the book of photographs of the 3rd SAD at Watton

published recently.

Dear Wizz,Gee, I thank you so much for The 3rd SAD and 25th BombGroup in Norfolk. It is a wonderful book and it brings back

so many memories of the War. I consider Ken Godfrey a

good friend and have known him and Jan ever since early1944. Pete Bodle I never knew but these two men put a greatstory together. The picture of the Watton Aerodrome from

the air brings back many memories of our activities there. I

remember the B-24 which was cut in half and laterreassembled with a rear half of another B-24 to make a good

plane and one of the repair guys I talked to said that it flew

better than the original plane did!I saw Marlene Dietrich the day she visited our base. I

remember those planes. I was present at the V.E. Dayassembly pictured on pages 30-31. The pictures certainly

bring back memories. I remember tent city as I lived there

a few months in one winter. We had over 4,500 men livingon the base so it was pretty crowded, especially the mess

halls.The booklet is certainly a treasure and I thank you again!

And now a few words about me. I spent a month in the

hospital last year getting over some aches and pains and

trying to find out what pills I ought to have. Now we have itpretty well settled. I have been moved from a four roomapartment down to a one room apartment and I am presently

trying to condense my many belongings down to a reasonable

size. At the moment I have a lot of stuff in storage and whenI have more time I will get rid of it all.

I try to spend time reading but I seem to spend a lot of time

sleeping. I just got some new teeth so I can eat better and lookbetter.

For my birthday, Susie is planning a party with over thirty

people at her house and we will look over photos and stufffrom my lifetime. She is making a big project of this and it

will be a very busy time for all of us.I am impressed with the activity you engage in, travel,

driving, house care, visiting Dorothy, and all the other stuff.Good for you!

Again I thank you for the 3rd SAD book. It means a lot to

me.I send you my love,

Throop

Date post:	03-Jun-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	julian-horn
View:	215 times
Download:	0 times

Looking Back Issue 3

Documents