Following a meeting at Cawston Village Hall on Thursday 20^th April, to which at least twenty parishioners attended,
CAWSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY has been formed.

The committee consists of Des Cook as chairperson, Terry Simons as treasurer and Theresa Carman as secretary, Jeanne Vince, Eric Cullum and John Gilbert.
 

The committee met for the first on Thursday 4^th May, at Jeanne's home with coffee and biscuits kindly supplied, thank you Jeanne!

We are now pleased to announce that the inaugural meeting of the society will be held on Thursday 15^th June at 7 pm at Cawston Village Hall, absolutely everyone is welcome, bring your photos and memories of Cawston. We will be charging £1 entry to cover the cost of hire of the hall and tea, coffee and biscuits are included.

The possibilities for the society are endless, but we need NOW to collect and collate the history of OUR village so do please support this venture, HISTORY IS JUST A TICK AWAY! If you would like to attend the meeting but do not have transport, we would be only to pleased to pick parishioners up, just telephone Des on 872111, Theresa on 871917 or Terry on 871523.

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June meeting 2006

We hope everyone found the first meeting of the society at Cawston Village Hall, on Thursday 15th June, interesting and informative. The committee would like to thank all those folk who have very kindly given donations for the start up of the society.

The dates, which will be the fourth Thursday of each month at 7 pm at the Village Hall, and proposed itinerary for future meeti ngs are as fo Haws:

Thursday 27th July - Talk about Cawston by Mrs Ivy Lake No August meeting due to holidays

Thursday 28th September - Film Show by Des Cook of our Cawston website, www.cawstonoarish.info

Thursday 26th October - Talk about houses and their features by Stephen Heywood (tbc)

Entry to each meeting will be £1 per person to cover hire of the Village Hall and refreshments. We would welcome members to the society, £12 per family, £9 a couple or £5 per person.

The committee is full of enthusiasm for this new venture, we hope that our fellow villagers will· share in our enthusiasm so that the history of Cawston will be kept for generations to come.

What an interesting account of Cawston past that Mrs. Ivy Lake gave at our last meeting on Thursday 27^th July, she certainly rekindled memories for many folk such as playing netball on the site of Marsham's garage (which is in the process of changing again!) and taking the Christmas day cockerel (no turkeys in those days!) to be cooked by the local baker in his huge oven, I could go on! We, the committee, must therefore thank her very much for agreeing/having her arm/twisted to give the talk. Ivy must also be thanked for making cakes for the two meetings we have had so far, much appreciated by all! Also thanks to Patsy for being chief tea maker, what would we do without a cuppa eh?

Our chairperson Des Cook, comes up with new documents and photos of Cawston past at every meeting, being a relative newcomer to the village (21 years), I find the photos especially fascinating, how the village has changed in only a lifetime. We have a brilliant aerial photo of when Stocks Loke and Fairfields was a meadow, when the old school was a much larger building than it is now and when the Whitehouse Farm on the corner of Chapel Street was still a farm, it's hard to imagine isn't it!

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 28^th September at 7 pm in the village hall when Des will project our Cawston Parish website (www.cawstonparish.info) history contents onto a screen, he has uploaded heaps of photos and documents onto the website so it should make a fantastic show.

On Thursday 23^rd November at 7 pm we have a chap called Stephen Heywood giving a talk all about old houses and their features in Cawston. Terry simons met with stephen a few weeks ago and they visited many of the oldest houses in Cawston so that stephen could plan his talk. It should be very, very interesting!

We'd like to welcome you all to the village hall on the nights mentioned above. We do just charge £1 entry per person to cover the rent for the hall on the night and teal coffee/biscuits

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Our offer still remains to any folk who cannot get down to the hall for meetings by their own steam, one of the committee would be only to pleased to provide transport. Just telephone Des on 872111, Terry on 871523 or Theresa on 871917.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 23^rd November at 7 pm when Mr. Stephen Heywood will be giving a talk about old houses in Cawston and their interesting features. It should be a fascinating listen!


CAWSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY                                                  
      CARNIVAL COMMITTEE

Together with a number of other parishioners the Historical Society committee members have decided to organise a Carnival week and procession for September 5^th - 8^th 2007. We have had two meetings to get the idea off the ground and a number of dubs and organisations will have received letters by now asking if they would be at all interested in getting involved. We have decided that the theme for the Procession wi 11 be "Cawston through the Ages" so people can use their imagination to come up with a float or costumes appropriate. Just to whet the appetite ideas such as a Battle of the Bands evening, a Celidah evening, a beer festival (including dark beer, not all gnat's **** ha ha ha), threshing engine display, a tug of war competition (Cawston were tug of war champions in years gone by of course), a glamorous grandmother (Rosie!!) and knobbly knees (Peter!!) contest etc. have been discussed so far. We will keep you updated of further developments via the magazine in the months to follow, watch this space ....

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On Thursday 23^rd November at 7 pm we have a chap called Stephen Heywood giving a talk all about old houses and their features in Cawston. Terry simons met with stephen a few weeks ago and they visited many of the oldest houses in Cawston so that stephen could plan his talk. It should be very very interesting!

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OLD HOUSES OF CAWSTON       

Forty-five people attended the meeting on' historical houses of Cawston in the Village Hall and were addressed by Step hen Heywood from the Heritage and Landscape Department of the County Council. Stephen is a Conservation Officer and is a specialist in medieval architecture and a member of the Antiquarian Society.

Step hen illustrated his talk with photographs taken of various 17^th century houses in the High Street, including some highlighting a beautiful Delph blue tile fireplace, a very rare piece, an original mullion window and of course the curved gable ends that decorate many of the roofs of the houses. He was able to explode one or two myths about old. houses too. One is that the beams of many houses in the area have been taken from ships and re­used. Definitely untrue. Also that the cellars of the Woodrow Inn once served as a tunnel entrance to the church for smuggling purposes. A romantic notion swiftly crushed by Stephen who was able to compare the double cellar at the Woodrow with many of the cellars found in houses in Norwich.

Interestingly the "Dutch gable ends" in the village are not the real McCoy. These can be found at Blickling Hall and are the triangular pieces on the roof ends. The audience thoroughly enjoyed Stephen's talk.

On Thursday 28^th December a few members stole themselves away from their Christmas festivities and attended the Archive Evening in the· hall, thanks to all who came. Des projected some archive photos onto a large screen and those attending attempted to put names to all those folk in the photos. A good few names were put to faces but we have a collection of 1977 Queen's Jubilee Photos with children dressed up who w.e would love the names of I we're sure that many of the children in the photos still live in the village and are reading of our meetings and put an end to our wondering! Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without a festive this right now, do come along to one cuppa and a mince pie, with many thanks to Ivy Lake and Patsy once again!

Hopefully Chris Barringer's talk last month ignited your enthusiasm for the history of Cawston so much so that you'll want to attend our next :

Archive Evening including group discussion about life in Cawston in the 1930s on Thursday 22^nd February at 7pm in Cawston Village Hall

Entry will be free for Members and £1 for non-members.

Please note that the Historical Society meetings always take place on the 4^th Thursday in the month And remember, history is only a tick away!