Posts Tagged ‘North Norfolk’
The first ever Victorian Nights Festival to take place in North Norfolk in May 2012
From 18 – 20 May 2012, the North Norfolk towns of Cromer, Sheringham and Wells-next-the-Sea will be transported back to the Victorian Britain thanks to a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund. The first ever Victorian Nights festival will celebrate the lavish Victorian Age, a significant period in North Norfolk’s history, as it heralded the coming of the railways and marked North Norfolk as the popular holiday destination for tourists it remains today.
Participating venues in the three towns will be opening their doors after-hours for a packed programme of FREE events to entertain and amaze. The programme features Victorian fire eaters, escapologists, an old fashioned photo parlour, fairground attractions, circus acts, a steam train ride, cottage craft workshops, film, guided walks and the chance to meet lots of costumed characters. All the events are aimed at families, the local community and visitors to the area. Most events are drop-in, but some must be pre-booked. See the Victorian Nights leaflet for more details or see the full Victorian Nights Events List.
The festival is part of the national Museums at Night campaign, the annual after-hours celebration of arts, history and heritage. The campaign is co-ordinated by Culture 24, a not-for-profit online publisher, working across the arts, heritage, education and tourism sectors.
The initiative is the work of eight cultural organisations across the three towns: Cromer Museum, RNLI Henry Blogg Museum, Cromer Preservation Society, North Norfolk Railway, The Mo Museum, Sheringham Little Theatre, Sheringham Preservation Society and Wells Maltings. The project is being co-ordinated by Laura Crossley, a freelance museums and heritage consultant.
As well as going along to the exciting events, there are lots of opportunities for local people to get involved with Victorian Nights. The festival’s volunteer programme features a range of interesting roles, from marketing, to photography, to driving a minibus! A special volunteer scheme, in co-operation with the Norfolk Library Service, will see 20 local people attend a certificated literacy and blogging training course, before promoting the festival via fortnightly blogs. A dedicated schools programme will also give local children the opportunity to get involved via a competition and education pack which can be used in schools. The organisers would also like to invite local businesses to take part in the fun by opening late during the festival.
To find out more about this exciting new project, or to get involved, please visit: www.victoriannightsnorthnorfolk.com. Victorian Nights can also be found on Facebook (Victorian Nights North Norfolk) and Twitter (@victoriannights).
“Oh George, take me home! Take me to Blickling, not to Hever, for at Hever I should see the rose garden and think of him. But take me to Blickling where we were together when we were very young….and where I never dreamed of being Queen of England.”
So wrote Jean Plaidy in her 1949 novel Murder Most Royal. Plaidy believed that Anne Boleyn was born at Blickling in the Tudor house that was there before the Jacobean mansion that we see today was built.
No one knows for certain where Anne Boleyn was born. Hever Castle in Kent and Blickling both have grounds for claiming her. But as research continues into the Tudor house that still lurks within Blickling Hall it is becoming easier to imagine that Blickling was a grand Tudor home, well-suited to the needs of the wealthy and ambitious Boleyn family.
If ‘The Tudors’ tickled your historical fancy, or if you have an interest in historical literature, then do we have a treat for you. Over the 17th – 20th may 2012, The Boleyn Festival – a four day feast of all things Anne Boleyn, will be held at Blickling Hall near Aylsham.
Historians, novelists, costumiers and musicians will gather in the glorious surroundings of Blickling Hall to remember the Norfolk-born woman whose marriage to Henry VIII caused uproar throughout Christendom. Confirmed speakers include Eric Ives, Alison Weir, Suzannah Dunn, Sarah Gristwood, David Loades, George Bernard, Neil Storey, Susannah Lipscomb and Harriet Castor. Wonderfully, they don’t all see eye to eye when discussing Anne’s religious fervour, her ambition, her intelligence or her fidelity. However, they do all agree that Anne was more likely to have been born at Blickling than anywhere else.
View the Festival Programme.
Aspects of the Festival that we’re most excited about include the public display of the Wycliffite Bible. This hugely important illuminated manuscript, never before shown to the general public, is inscribed “liber Iacobi Boolene manens in Blickling”, or “James Boleyn’s book dwelling in Blickling”. James was Anne’s Uncle and her Chancellor while she was Queen. Anne was known to have displayed an English bible in her rooms so that her ladies-in-waiting could read the gospel in their own language. It is possible that it was this very Bible.
In support of the Boleyn Festival at Blickling, Norfolk County Council Library & Information Service is delighted to announce that the Wycliffite Bible once owned by Anne’s Uncle James Boleyn of Blickling will be available to view in the Norfolk Heritage Centre on these dates and times: Wed 2 May 2-4, Fri 4 May 10-12, Sat 5 May 2-4, Tue 8 May 2-4, Wed 9 May 10-12, Thur 10 May 2-4, Tue 15 May 10-12, Wed 16 May 2-4, Mon 21 May 2-4, Wed 23 May 10-12.
Come along to find out more about this amazing manuscript volume, its history and connection with Anne Boleyn.
There will also be a complementary display of items relating to Anne and the Boleyn family from the Norfolk Heritage Centre’s collection, in the Heritage Centre at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library in The Forum during May.
Another noteworthy event taking place during the Festival is the traditional midnight vigil on Saturday 19th May (the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution). The evening starts with prayers being said for Anne in St Andrew, the church on the Blickling Estate in a service led by Revd Marion Harrison. Costume historian Molly Housego will attend the prayers dressed as Anne Boleyn and afterwards will explain just how Anne would have dressed for a day at court. Later, historian and story-teller Neil Storey will tell spine-chilling tales of other Norfolk ghosts before leading the audience out to see if Anne’s headless ghost makes its way back to her place of birth. Not for the faint hearted…
For further details about The Boleyn Festival visit www.boleynfestival.co.uk.
To buy tickets email blickling@nationaltrust.org.uk or ring 01263 738030 or 0844 8004308. Buy a four-day pass to the Boleyn Festival for £90 – that’s 10% off the full ticket price.
2011 is proving to be a bumper year for grey seals pups on Blakeney Point.
Blakeney Point’s grey seal breeding season for winter 2011 has already broken the records, with more than 750 pups born from early November to mid-December.
Grey seals on Blakeney Point, north Norfolk. ©National Trust
There continues to be a meteoric rise in the grey seal population, with the first recorded seal pup born in 1988 and by 2001 an established breeding colony of 25 pups born on Blakeney Point. Since then, the population has increased year on year to some 779 new pups born in 2011, with the number expected to exceed over 850 pups.
Graham Lubbock, one of the National Trust’s warden’s on the north Norfolk coast, is delighted with the season’s success, “The number of seal pups born this season is amazing, we have already recorded 779 pups, which means including mothers and bull seals we have some 1800+ seals on Blakeney Point. In the last three years the pup count has increased year on year by almost 100 pups, and an incredible 31-fold increase since their first year of breeding, 11 years ago.”
Grey seals were the first mammal to be granted legal protection in the UK, so this is a good success story in terms of population doing well following protection.
Grey seal breeding numbers at Blakeney Point:
2011 – 779 (& still counting)
2010 – 700
2009 – just under 600
2008 – 413
2007 – 278
2006 – 213
2005 – 175 (estimate)
2004 – 100
2003 – 80
2002 – 50
2001 – 25
“Grey seals take four to five years to reach breeding maturity, and like to return to the place they were born to breed. At some point, they’ll reach capacity, both in terms of space on the beach and food supply. We were expecting to see the number of new born pups level off from year to year but there is no sign of that happening yet. It is such a success story for the grey seal.”
Seals are incredibly sensitive to human disturbance; land-bound pups may look ok if they are approached, but they can be distressed by the experience. The females will defend their pups if they perceive any danger, but the bulls are there to mate, so will defend the females, flattening pups in their wake.
The seals are much loved feature of the Norfolk coast, and a very important part of what makes Blakeney Point so special. The recommended way for people to see them is by taking a seal boat trip from Morston Quay. By boat you can get really close to the seals without causing any disturbance. However, if people do decide to walk the 3.5 mile walk along Blakeney Point to see the seals then they are encouraged to be extra vigilant for the seals and their young pups which are now dispersed across the property and easily disturbed. Seals can be aggressive and can bite so should be treated with respect. Visitors with dogs must keep their dogs on leads for the safety of the seals, their pups and the dogs.
A combination of high tides and recent windy weather has resulted in a number of young pups appearing in less remote locations such as Morston Marshes and Blakeney Quay. The National Trust received over 20 telephone calls last weekend alone. The generally accepted approach is that this is a naturally functioning seal population which will have some mortality, although the National Trust says they do respond to welfare concerns raised by the public and proactively liaise with the RSPCA.
The majority of young pups are healthy and if left undisturbed will be ok and their mothers will come and find them.
With more high winds predicted over the coming days, the National Trust is asking the public to be mindful of young seals appearing in less remote areas away from Blakeney Point. If any seals have obvious signs of injury or welfare concerns then please contact either the National Trust on 01263 740241 or contact the RSPCA’s hotline number on 0870 55 55 999.
Grey seal pups - a windy day on Blakeney Point. ©National Trust
Blakeney National Nature Reserve, on the north Norfolk coast, features 1,097 hectares of wide open spaces and uninterrupted views of this natural and dynamic coastline. Saltmarsh, sand dune and shingle habitats are home to a wealth of breeding birds, and Blakeney Point is famous for its seabird colonies, Grey and Common seals. In 2012 the National Trust will be celebrating 100 years since the acquisition of Blakeney by the National Trust, the first nature reserve in Norfolk.
- 18/05/2012 - Victorian Shell Artistry May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Shipwrecked! Back to 1897 May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - A Walk Through Time: The Victorians May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Norwich 20 Group – Looking into 20 – paintings and sculpture at The Forum May 18, 2012
- 18/05/2012 - Tony Foster Paintings/Angela Harding Prints May 18, 2012