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February 2010 Meeting Report
 

Castle Mall: Talk at the Historical Society Cawston - 25^th February

Mr & Mrs Salt gave an informative and illustrated account of the history of the Castle Mall.

The site was originally a central and massive farmers market for cattle and sheep, stretching from Rose Lane to the Castle meadows. It included an auction ring for the sale of the animals. Later the market moved to Harford and the site was eventually given over to car parking.

Work began in 1989 and demolition work started at Timberhill. The site was cleared for archaeological exploration and each area of the 4 acre site was mapped out.

The discoveries from this work included an air raid shelter built in 1939,

a well , a pre Norman conquest church and graveyard and kilns and dwellings dating back to Saxon times.

Bore holes were made down into the site and pylons were sunk into the earth to stabilise the site and establish solid foundations.

Initially, a bailey bridge was constructed to link the Castle Mall to the surrounding city and this was removed in 1992. Roads around the site were widened and new junctions created.

In the Castle Mall building there are 11 escalators and the main staircase is of a unique design. As part of the exterior of the site, gardens were extended to cover some of the site.

In all the total cost of the project was £145 Million.

Meeting dates:

March 25th History of the W.I.

22nd April  – Talk: Archaeology of Cawston this is in place of:
                       The Peasants revolt  which is now booked for the 27th May.

Meeting held at the Village Hall at 7pm

All welcome, Entrance - 50p members, £1.50 non members – include refreshments.

Terry Simons

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March 2010 Meeting Report

Talk:- The Womens Institute -

If like me, you thought a talk on the Womens Instititue would be uninteresting, you would be wrong.

Daphne Howlett outlined the history of the W.I. which is an organisation with a track record of campaigning on a range of social issues.

Formed in Canada by Adelaide Hoodless, she was concerned with such issues as sanitation, food hygiene and child care. She came from a farming family and saw at first hand the living  conditions of farming women who had to bring up their children with little support from their husbands. It was observed at the time that farmers looked after their animals better than their wives or children.

Adelaide wished to support women as home makers.

In 1897, a meeting at Storey Creek in Canada was called and attended by over one hundred women and the Womens Institute was formed. Adelaide became the first president and adopted a motto for the organisation “ Home and Country” . Through her efforts, the WI spread throughout the world.

In this country in 1915 women had no vote, little education and often lived in unsuitable conditions. The first WI was formed in the Isle of Angelesey and the organisation grew quickly. It was supported in 1917 by a government grant to encourage its work and its first president was Lady Evelyn Suffield.

It was an organisation formed for all women interested in rural life and over the years has campaigned politically on a range of issues including education for girls in home economics, hot meals in schools and of course votes for women. It is however, independent of political parties.

Its high point was in 1960 when it had 300 institutes and 10,000 members.

The Federation of WI's in Norfolk was formed in 1917 and the Cawston WI was formed in 1921 and continues to this day.

Please note our next two talks are:-

Archeology of Cawston   April 22^nd         Tim Pestell

Peasants Revolt             May 27^th          Barbara Miller

All welcome.
Terry Simons

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April 2010 Meeting Report

There was a good turn out for the talk about archaeology in Cawston given by Mr Andrew Rogerson, a Landscape archaeologistwho works for the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service. He showed us maps of the archaeological finds in Cawston dating back to the Iron Age. Unfortunately he didn't have many pictures of the items that have been found in Cawston/Eastgatel Sygate over the years. The early finds were north of our present village centre but as the timeline progressed the finds were mainly around the village centre, probably by way of people metal detecting in their gardens. The finds are documented and kept in the Norfolk Archive Centre in Norwich if anyone is interested in seeing what has been found.

May 2010 Meeting Report

Our May talk by Barbara Miller provided a fascinating account of the background and circumstances of the Peasants' Revolt.

At the time of the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381, this country was in a state of chaos. The Black Death had affected all classes, but of course the poorest were most affected. We were at war with France, there was a shortage of skilled artisans and corruption was rife in government - any of this sound familiar?

At this time Norfolk was the richest county in the country and Norwich itself was ruled by a merchant elite. The monasteries owned considerable swathes of land and the monks were generally hated by the population. In 1371 the tax system had been revised and the new poll tax had been introduced. This tax was enforced by collectors who were sent to count the population.

The economy was in a parlous state and the army went unpaid and were becoming restive. It was also a time of poor harvests. On top of this, the Chancellor Simon Sudbury, demanded a huge sum of money, to continue to fight the war against France. This was the background against which the Peasants' Revolt was launched. In Norfolk the leader was Geoffrey Lister, in Kent it was Wat Tyler.

The rebels convened a meeting in Kings Street, Norwich. In Kent and Essex the rebels, after sacking Rochester and capturing Colchester, formed two huge armies in London. The King met the rebels in London and acceded to all their demands and many of the rebels went home, but others stayed and continued to wreak havoc. Eventually the rebels were defeated and put to death and today only their names remain as leaders of a rebellion. Their demands for an end to some of the worst excesses of feudalism were not met, nor their demand for an amnesty for the revolt leaders. In time of course the creation of an army of landless labourers and the beginnings of the payment of wages for services. spelled the end of feudalism. '

Our talk on Thursday July 22nd at the Village Hall will be about At Home in the 1930's. All Welcome.

Terry Simons.

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June 2010 Meeting Report

Hoping everyone is enjoying their summer holidays, we can’t complain that we haven’t had a decent summer this year …or can we??

Our meeting in July was very interesting indeed; I took so many notes that I’ve had trouble picking out a few facts and figures to add.   It was entitled  “At Home in the 1930's” by Katrina Siliprandi. 

The 1930’s revolutionalised home life, although it seems much of the inventions of the 30’s didn’t appear in our neck of the woods until the 50’s and 60’s.  Here’s a list of new things that you could buy in the 1930’s:

Black and white tv’s, Standard lamps, Fitted kitchens (with “dresser” included), Flush toilets, Football Pools, Labour saving electrical devices like irons and vacuum cleaners, Women’s Own and Woman magazines were new out, Stainless steel cutlery, Black Bakelite telephones, Porridge and custard in packets, Breakfast cereals in packets, Salmon and peaches in tins, Stop Me and Buy One ice cream carts.

Butlins opened in 1937 at Skegness, cinema became very popular with the likes of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire and Walt Disney, Whist drives were a popular entertainment too.

No meeting will be held in August because the committee thought everyone might be on their holidays.

So our next meeting will be on Thursday 23rd September in Cawston Village Hall and it’s a talk by Mr Neil Storey entitled “Good Old Norfolk”. 

As with all of our meetings now, it will start at 7.15.  For any of you who haven’t attended before, entrance is £1.50 for non-members and just 50p for members, with free cups of tea and coffee and cakes after the talk and a raffle.

We would love to welcome new people to our talks and to the society in general so if any of our regular attendees could persuade others to come along that would be wonderful, remind them that they are part of Cawston’s 2010 history!

Is anybody out there good at drawing faces as we would like to produce a series of pictures and write ups about local people, the idea has come from another village magazine where in each quarterly magazine they have a 2 page spread dedicated to a long term resident of the village, coming from North and South Creake the series is entitled “The Creakers”.  Any suggestions as to what we could call our Cawston folk would be welcomed and of course nominations of who should be featured and/or details about them would be great.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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August 2010

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer holidays. We didn't have a meeting in August because we thought everyone might be on their

Our next meeting will be an Thursday 23rd September in Cawston Village Hall and it's a talk by Mr. Neil Storey entitled 'Good Old Norfolk".

As with all our meetings now, it will start at 7.15 pm. For any of you who haven't attended before, entrance is £1.50 for non-members and just 50p for members, with free cups of tea or coffee and cakes after the talk and a raffle.

We look forward to seeing you.