Deep snow covered the whole county of Norfolk and the small village of Cawston, situated about ten miles north of Norwich, was almost entirely cut off from the surrounding villages by snowdrifts that were almost ten feet high.  The heavy snowfall started one day in mid January and was accompanied by a strong cold wind blowing in from the North Sea.  The change in weather had come unexpectedly but provided a delight for children and an ideal picturesque landscape for photographers.

And this is where the story starts when a photographer from The Midlands came to stay in Cawston for a few days to take photographs of churches in the vicinity for a new book to be published about old churches in North Norfolk.  The day before the snow started the photographer had been seen in Booton, Salle and Heydon taking detail photographs of these charming churches. 

On the day of the snowstorm, the rising snowdrifts in Haveringland had caused the bus companies to suspend the bus service on the Cawston to Norwich route.  Warnings on the television and radio advised people to stay at home until the snow ploughs had cleared the main roads.  Despite these warnings and the prevailing deep snow along the Norwich Road, the photographer ventured out to Haveringland that day in his mini van and was last seen making a short stop at the Ratcatchers Inn.  

The photographer was staying at the Bell Inn in Cawston and when he did not arrive back that evening the proprietor became alarmed and called the police.  “A snow plough in Haveringland has just reported an empty mini van.  Could this possibly be the photographer’s vehicle?”, the police officer asked.  There was no mistake as the proprietor of the Bell Inn always noted down the car number of the guests in case they did not pay their bill on departure. 

At around 8 pm that evening a squad of policemen with dogs arrived in a landrover, fitted with chains on all four wheels, to commence the search for the photographer.  After searching the fields for a couple of hours there was no alternative but to stop until the next day as the snowstorm became heavier and no footprints or clues had been found . 

Following the snowstorm that night, Cawston was literally cut off from the outside world until the snow plough made its way through the village later that morning.  In the afternoon there was a clear blue sky but the sun was unable to melt the thick layers of snow and ice.  On this day even to a stranger there was no mistake that this was Norfolk when you gazed into the low and wide East Anglian skies.  In Haveringland, the search for the photographer continued that afternoon but was stopped again as darkness approached.

Two days later the thaw started and the daytime temperature rose to seven degrees centigrade.  Everywhere in Cawston layers of ice were falling from the roofs of the houses and the dripping of the water could be heard in the entire village.  The traffic returned back to normal and gradually people were seen in the local shops replenishing their supplies.. 

The snow along the Norwich Road in Haveringland melted during the course of the day and the photographer’s mini van was visible from afar.  There was a further police search for the photographer that day in fields, old huts and buildings and farmhouses but no clues were found about his whereabouts.  His camera equipment was missing from his car and another appeal was made on television and radio that evening.  It remained an inexplicable mystery how the photographer could have suddenly vanished in the deep snow and was still not to be found.

Ten months later just before Christmas, a local resident of Cawston saw a newly published book in Norwich about churches in North Norfolk and noticed that it contained pictures of Haveringland and Brandiston church taken during the heavy snowstorm in January.  He contacted the publishing company and was told that neither the family nor the publisher had seen the photographer again since he disappeared in Norfolk.  One day in March, however, the publishing company received a parcel posted in Felthorpe, without a sender’s name and address, that contained the photographer’s camera and some undeveloped films.  The photographer’s wife had give her permission for the publication of the photographs which had obviously been taken by her missing husband. 

Norfolk is a large county of over a million acres with large parts almost unpopulated like in Haveringland. There are large areas of woodland around this village as well as lonely lanes, lakes and ponds, almost isolated from civilisation in winter.  On that particular day in January when the photographer disappeared, the flatness of Haveringland made it difficult to identify the roads from the fields. It is true that bodies have been found in Norfolk but they are probably only a fraction of those people that have mysteriously disappeared in a county with numerous natural hiding places.  The mysterious disappearance of the photographer will probably always remain a mystery, but his memory will live on with his photographs of churches in and around Cawston taken on that unforgettable cold winter’s day.

Michael Yaxley

Bonn, Germany

November 2007

(This story may not be published in any form without the permission of the author or the Cawston Historical Society.  Should any publishing company wish to publish this story it is welcome to do so providing that one free copy of the publication is sent to the author and one copy to the Cawston Historical Society.  It is requested that any royalties resulting from publication are sent to the Cawston Historical Society).