FACTORALY - E28 NORFOLK

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

East Anglia is hard to get to from London, which is probably why it's been allowed to keep so much of its unique character! And Norfolk is even further away than Suffolk, so it's special in all kinds of ways. This episode looks at just some of the character and characters that make up this distinctive county. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello. Hello. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night. Well, whenever you're listening to this, hello, my name's Simon Wells. And my name is Bruce Fielding. And we are both a couple of professional voiceover artists who happen to love random facts, trivia, interesting things, obscurities. That's true, actually. Did you know is how most of our conversations start? Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely. We're both pub quiz fans. We both read an awful lot of books about just useless, trivial stuff. Yes. And then every now and then we sit together. Well, not together. Remotely together.

And we pour some of our thoughts out and discuss our findings about a particular subject, and we share them with you, our delightful listeners. We hope that they're not going to be very big subjects generally, because otherwise it's a lot of editing, because we'll be speaking for hours and then have to get it down to 30 minutes. Yes. We usually find something quite niche. Cucumbers. Dogs. Yes.

Things like that. And this week, what are we talking about, Simon? This week, we've gone the complete opposite. This week, we're discussing an entire county. Yes. The county in question is Norfolk. Norfolk, eh? Norfolk, eh, indeed, yes.

So, do you have any personal affiliations with Norfolk yourself, Bruce? Have you been? I think I went to Swatham once. Right, okay. But other than that, it's not you been? I have. I think I went to Swatham once. Right, OK. But other than that, it's not a county that I know especially well. OK, OK. And you?

I know it a bit because my grandmother-in-law is from Norfolk, speaks with a delightful Norfolk accent, which I've decided I'm not going to replicate. I do enjoy doing accents, but my Norfolk accent is very close to my Somerset accent and I don't want to offend anyone. But then again, if a client asks you to do a Norfolk accent, you probably just do it anyway. Oh, I just do it anyway. Of course. Yeah. So yes, I've had a few family visits to Norfolk

over the years. Yeah. So it's a nice, nice area. It's very rural. It's very green. It's generally perceived as flat. North Norfolk is actually quite hilly. There are quite a lot of hills and cliffs and undulations along the coastline of North Norfolk. I guess Norfolk is the Norfolk, isn't it? That's right. Yeah, exactly. For anyone who's wondering where this place is that we're talking about, it sticks out of the east part of England. You've got that large bulge on the right hand side, collectively known as East Anglia. And within East Anglia, you've got the North Folk and the South Folk. So you've got Norfolk and Suffolk. Simple as that.

But we're not talking about Suffolk today, are we? No, we're not. Good. I hope not anyway, because I haven't researched Suffolk. So as you said, Norfolk is old. There are lots of medieval structures around. There have been archaeological finds dating back from the Ice Age. There have been coins found. There have been tools excavated from around the Ice Age. So people were living there, you know, a very, very long time ago. And there's a particularly interesting site called grimes graves which i visited and this is a neolithic flint mine or series of mines all right dating from about two and a half thousand

bc so they're quite old and um it's a series of of pits about 14 meters deep and then interconnected by tunnels so you know flint was being dug out of the ground in norfolk way before anyone ever got their hands on on the peat or the chalk or anything else and you can go and visit these things you can go and climb down a ladder and um not quite stand up especially if you're my height but um interesting place well worth a visit um in the bronze age norfolk was apparently quite big on on metal working again there are things that have been excavated that show lots of different metal working tools and things like that um so yes it's been it's been around for quite a long time before actual proper history got its hands on it. Well, talking of history, there's obviously lots of families live in Norfolk.

Yes. Lots of people have holiday homes there as well. Sure. And there's a family called the Windsors. I've heard of them. They've got a holiday home in Norfolk Right, okay Just a little cottage is it?

A little cottage called Sandringham Oh that's the one So the king basically lives at Sandringham as a holiday one of many holiday homes that they have in the UK but it's where they go for Christmas Oh right, yes

So it used to be that the kings slash queens slash kings UK. But it's where they go for Christmas. Oh, right. Yes. So it used to be that the kings slash queens slash kings speech was made from Sandringham and it was originally live from Sandringham. But now it's pre-recorded in a recording studio. Right. Yes. But the king still goes and listens to the king's speech on Christmas Day at Sandringham. So I understand. I understand that he actually goes and listens to it and watches it somewhere else while the family are having a few ports and stuff. Well, that's a nice little family tradition, isn't it? Yeah.

Shall one go and listen to oneself on Christmas Day? Do you listen to your stuff? I do. I listen to my stuff back if it goes out broadcast. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but you hear people who are actors on TV go, I never watch my own stuff, darling.

Ah, rubbish. I just don't believe them. Yeah, no, of course not. I always seek out wherever my voice has been used. I always sort of go and see if I can find it in order to point it out to people.

This is kind of relevant. Right. Because I once heard my voice being used at something that I'd done, which was a virtual reality Howard Carter, Tutankhamen exhibition. And Howard Carter was born in Norfolk. Boom. There you go.

You've connected it right back to itself. Well done. There was something that I was researching, which is very Norfolk, that actually is based in Suffolk. Oh. Mention it anyway. So there's a lot of old churches there. And there were a lot of famous bishops and archbishops who came from Norfolk. The original Nosy Parker was from Norfolk. The original Nosey Parker was from Norfolk.

Right. This is Archbishop Matthew Parker, Nosey Parker, who was a spy for Queen Elizabeth I. Oh, really? That's fantastic. So I thought that was quite interesting. The other thing I found is there's this bloke called Julian. Right.

Who lived in Norfolk. Julian of Norwich. Right right is actually not a bloke at all it's a woman okay and she was one of the first recognized female writers oh really and she's she lived in the 14th century and she was a thing called an anchorus like a female anchor an anchorus they are amazing people, anchoresses. What anchors? This is new to me. I've never heard the term.

So Julian of Norwich decided to give up all worldly stuff and basically live in a box, which is about six feet by nine feet. And she basically lived in this box for her whole life. Wow. And the box was a small building that was attached to norwich cathedral okay and there's like little holes for her to get food and to you know whatever whatever needed to come in and out went in and out through through a couple of holes yeah and people would come to the church and they would ask her for advice now I can't believe that you would want advice from anybody who lives in a flaming box.

That's unusual. It's very, very. And they were, I mean, some of them, when they went into the box, they were given last rights. Like you are now dead to the world. Wow. And you are going to devote the rest of your existence to God in a box. And this was? This was 14th century.

Wow. I would strongly suggest that you go to the show notes because I will put a link in to explain what Anchoresses did. Wonderful. Now, around not too long after that, actually, I found a world's first that occurred in Norfolk back in 1477. And apparently this is the world's earliest known Valentine card. OK.

And this was sent by a lady called Margaret Brews. And she sent this Valentine's card to, and I quote, her right well well beloved john paston so it wasn't anonymous then no evidently not that um that was he came in later on but yeah 1477 the earliest known valentine's card isn't that sweet isn't that lovely and um that led me to poke around on on various different tangents as often this does um in Norfolk, on Valentine's Day, they have a character called Jack Valentine, or Father Valentine. Oh, right.

And he goes round on Valentine's Day leaving small gifts for children on their doorstep, and these gifts are attached to a long piece of string. And as the children open the door and go, ooh, yippee, a present, Jack Valentine yanks the string and pulls the gift away from the child. Yes. And this is a Valentine's Day tradition that exists only in Norfolk.

Only in Norfolk. Yeah. So obviously, you know, there are men and women, or as they call them in Norfolk, they call them broads, I think. You had to go there. I knew one of us would do it. Those Norfolk broads. They are very interesting.

They are. There are 41 of them. And up until the 1950s, people thought that it was a natural phenomenon. But it turns out it isn't. people thought that it was a natural phenomenon. Do-do-do-do. But it turns out it isn't. It turns out that from medieval times, people wanting things that caught fire, i.e. peat, would dig hundreds of thousands of tons of peat out of the Norfolk Broads,

which created these sort of canal-like things. And then when they flooded, they created these navigable rivers, sort of canal-type. Waterways, yeah. Waterways, yes. But isn't that interesting that they thought they were, until the 1950s, they thought they were a natural phenomenon. I had no idea it was until as recent as that.

Yeah. Wow, that's brilliant. As you say, they were just pits that were dug out i have quite a few lakes around my neck of the woods in shepparton which are all x gravel pits that have been filled in with water and now provide nice sailing clubs and and nice little walks and things like that but yeah so these these pits um i think i read that they were on on average about 15 feet deep and um just pit after pit trench after trench having dug this this peat and also clay for for building purposes and then because it's all it all sticks out on the east coast and because some of it is quite flat the sea very naturally sort of flooded that area. Yes. Made it very popular for boating holidays.

I looked into a very interesting chap who was a harbour master. His name was Wally Hoseason. Wally Hoseason. Hoseason's holidays? Hoseason's holidays. So Wally Hoseason decided that it would be quite a clever idea to buy up a few boats and rent them out to people and have holidays on the Norfolk Broads. Yeah. I read there are about 200 miles worth of

waterways in the Norfolk Broads. That's an awful lot of digging, isn't it? Yes. If all of those were man-made, 200 miles worth. And they're all quite wide. Yes, they are. They're quite broad. Yes. Yeah. Even before those were created in medieval times, that area is obviously quite marshy. You get a lot of reed beds and that sort of thing. All the way back to Roman times,

the Romans had these particularly flat-bottomed boats. And they would trade, an awful lot of trade would happen sort of coming up the east coast. So those areas have always been relatively navigable. There are a few main rivers that sort of lead out to estuaries on the east coast around that neck of the woods but yes the the idea that they actually a couple of thousand years later carved out 200 miles of waterways just in order to get the the peat out is phenomenal industrious people indeed talking of industries actually there aren't that many big industries in in norfolk there's a couple that i that i that i know of and one which everybody knows of which which is Coleman's mustard. Oh, I didn't go there.

Brilliant. Well done. So for about 200 years, Coleman's mustard was actually produced in Norfolk. Right. And if you look on old Coleman's tins, it's like Coleman's of Norwich

is the name of the company. Okay. But they stopped making mustard in Norfolk a little while ago. But yeah, Coleman's of Norwich is the name of the company. But they stopped making mustard in Norfolk a little while ago. But yeah, Coleman's Mustard was one of the very big industries in Norfolk. As was motor racing, and still is to some degree. Really? I mentioned before that I've been to Hethel a few times,

and the car nerds amongst our listeners will have realised that the reason that I would have gone to Hertford would be to go and visit Lotus. Because Lotus is based in Norfolk, very proudly based in Norfolk. Didn't know that. They're, in fact, one of Norfolk's biggest employers. Really? Yeah. They directly employ about 800 people.

And indirectly, 22% of their suppliers are based within the area. Oh, right. So that's quite useful. And they started to, when they first moved to Norfolk, they basically bought up an old American air base because they wanted it for a test track. And then they built the factory and stuff. And they started producing the Elan and the Europa there back in 1966.

Right, okay. As you just mentioned mustard, I sort of had a look around at local delicacies of the 1966. Right, okay. As you just mentioned mustard, I sort of had a look around at local delicacies of the area. Oh, right. I started looking at turkeys because Bernard Matthews. And just because of the lay of the land, it's a very agricultural area. They've always grown crops.

There were an awful lot of sheep in Norfolk because the soil was rich. It produced good grass. That's good for feeding your sheep. So there was quite a big wool industry around the area. Oh, right. But around the 1600s, turkeys suddenly started being bred in the area and a particular breed called the Norfolk Black.

Oh, yes. I've seen them hanging up in butchers. They leave the black feathers on the back. Yes, that's right. Yes, they're quite decorative. And there are some accounts of local turkey farmers taking their turkeys to London in order to be sold for Christmas markets, you know.

And I would always have assumed that you would just load your turkeys onto the back of a wagon and have a horse pull it all the way to London. But there are records of people walking their turkeys to London, a route of about 100 miles. By foot, with turkeys? On foot, herding the turkeys, exactly, herding the turkeys all the way to London. It may well be that this was just a ceremonial thing, or it was just one particular farmer who felt like a bit of a jaunt. I don't know.

But apparently there are records of these turkeys having little leather boots put on them so as not to damage their feet because it's a long old journey. I was going to mention that because that sparked a thing in my head about turkey shoes, turkey boots. Turkey boots. I didn't even know this was a thing. Yes. mention it i i have heard of it isn't that great isn't that fantastic we've got mustard from norfolk we've got turkey from norfolk and of course we've got crabs chroma cabs chroma cabs chroma crabs oh i tell you what if there isn't

a local taxi firm called chroma cabs they are missing out on a trick there um so chroma is right on the northeast coast of of norfolk um the water around there is is very rich in nutrients as i said before there's a lot of chalk in the ground around there. And so the water around that coast is quite nutrient rich. And it therefore produces very, very good crabs. Chroma crabs are renowned throughout the world for being very tasty, very flavoursome, quite tender. More white meat. Exactly that, yeah. A higher ratio of white to brown meat than any other variety of

crab um and i've i've had some crab whilst on holiday in chroma and um their staple is a dressed crab so you take the flesh out of a crab you mush it up and do whatever it is that you do in order to prepare it and then you stuff it back in the shell and serve it on a plate in the in the form of a crab and so the crabbing industry is is quite big around there yes and they do it in a very sustainable way they do it in a very traditional method they catch the crabs in in crab pots and on the boat they actually check each crab that's caught to make sure it's of of a suitable size and there are legal legal requirements as to how big your crab has to be in order to keep it. Like a minimum

size. Yeah, exactly. The idea being that if it's smaller than that, it's probably young and it should be thrown back into the water in order to breed, in order to keep the population going. So it's actually a very sustainable industry. That makes complete sense. Very time consuming, but

sustainable. Yeah, so obviously it's big into boats, into fishing, into sailing. And there is one sort of son of Norfolk that is like more famous than anybody else that ever came out of Norfolk. Horatio. Lord Nelson. Right. And a proud son of Norfolk as well. He was very proud of being from Norfolk Horatio Lord Nelson right he's a son of and a proud son of Norfolk as well he was very proud of being from Norfolk yeah he was born up in Burnham Thorpe I don't know too much about Nelson apart from the fact that he is a Norfolk lad right um but but it's quite interesting that

the Nelson column in Norfolk has Britannia on the top, and Nelson's column in London has Nelson on the top. Interesting. So there's a Nelson's column that isn't Nelson's column. It's a Britannia column. Yes. Great. It's interesting. I've struggled to think of Nelson as being from Norfolk.

I imagine him having a cut glass London accent, you know. Yes. I'd actually forgotten he was from Norfolk until you just mentioned it. Well, there you go. So they also have names for things that are quite unusual. Oh, local dialect. Local dialect is quite interesting.

Yes, go on then. Okay, I'm going to give you some words and you can tell me what you think they are. Oh, fun, a game. Okay. What's a Dodman? Dodman. Someone who pilots a boat. Nope, it's

a snail. Is it? Yes. Okay. What's a bushy Barnaby? Bushy or bushy, depending on where you're from. A variety of squirrel. I'll give you a hint.

If you pronounce the letter, so it's a bushy barnaby. A bushy barnaby? Yeah. Is it a type of bee? It's a sort of flying insect. Really? Yeah. It's actually a ladybird.

A ladybird is a bushy barnaby? Yes. Oh, I'm using that from now on. Did you know the collective noun for ladybirds is a lovelinessaby. Yes. Oh, I'm using that from now on. Did you know the collective noun for ladybirds is a loveliness? Oh, there you go. A loveliness of bushy barnabies. Of bushy barnabies, yeah. Brilliant.

Cool. That's a tongue twister for the morning. And they talk about people going off and crocking. Crocking. And crocking is crying. Oh, okay. So that was quite interesting. Yeah, okay. So that was quite interesting. Yeah, brilliant.

We talked about Nelson. There are other famous people that have come out of Norfolk, including one Alan Smethurst. Alan Smethurst. Alan Smethurst. Doesn't ring a bell. Now, given your previous occupation,

you should know who Alan Smethurst is. Ohethurst. Doesn't ring a bell. Now, given your previous occupation, you should know who Alan Smethurst is. Oh, no. Oh, no. Am I failing in my duties as an ex-postman? Alan Smethurst was also known as the singing postman. Oh, right. Okay. Have you got a late boy?

Have you got a late boy? Overteen late. Oh, right. So he was from Norfolk as well. I don't know that much more about him apart from the fact that he was the singing postman and had had a number one hit in the uk with a song called have you got a light boy i'm that's good enough for me which is north which which is again it's not it's colloquial norfolk yes that's brilliant

so norfolk produces produces some interesting characters, interesting words, interesting customs and traditions and so on. I've found that there's a ceremony every year that happens in Yarmouth called the Blessing of the Nets. Ah. And ever since, I think it goes back to about sort of the 13th century, fishermen would bring their nets in to dry off and they draped them over the walls of Yarmouth Minster. And they would have the local clergy pray blessings over these nets and sing and sprinkle them with incense and so on in order to help the fishermen have a good following year. And herring was a major, I think still is,

a reasonably big industry in the area. And after the blessing ceremony was done, everyone would just sit around and have a massive great big herring supper. I read somewhere that they had like, the herring fleet was absolutely huge and would bring had like, the herring fleet was absolutely huge and would bring in like tons of herring every day. Massive, massive herring fleet.

And herrings were apparently in the area known as silver darlings. Oh, that's nice. Isn't that lovely? Silver darlings. How would you like your silver darlings done today? How would you like your silver darlings done today? How would you like your silver darling, darling? One of the abiding memories that I have from my childhood is hearing,

I think it was a chap called John Vinant or Vinance or something, who would, at the beginning of a TV show, go, and now, from Norwich, it's the quiz of the week. It's the sale of the century. Right. And the sale of the century was a quiz show with Nicholas Parsons. And it was very long running. It ran from like 1971 to 1983.

Oh, that's a good innings. Very good innings, 12 years. And it was based on an American TV show, which I had no idea that it was. Obviously, at that time, we assumed that we invented everything. But yeah, and the music for that... Oh, I recognise that. I don't know the show, but I recognise the tune. Okay, so that music was actually the American music.

Right. But they updated it and put syndromes on it and things like that eventually. But the Sale of the Century was from Anglia Television. Oh, of course. And Anglia was, I think it was probably the 10th or 11th ITV station in the UK. And I think it started up in the late 50s, early 60s. And they had some really, I mean, Sailor of the Century was obviously the one

that says I'm now from Norwich. So you knew that Sailor of the Century was from Norwich. But they also produced another one of my favorite shows from my youth, which was, I think, called Tales of the Unexpected. People killing each other with frozen lamb. Things like that. And that was another brilliant show.

Yeah. So Anglia TV did some good stuff. And they probably still do. I didn't research much into what they actually do now. But I just remember it was a knight on a horse carrying a flag was the logo for Anglia Television. Right. horse carrying a flag was was the logo for anglia television right now that must mean something because i've seen a company called anglian windows sort of the equivalent of everest yes and their emblem is a knight on a horse with a lance this must be something to do with norfolk must be tell you what yeah we don't currently know the answer because

we're doing this on the hoof and we haven't researched this particular thing. But you, dear listeners, you can join in the conversation. If any of you are sitting there going, I know, I know why that's the emblem of Norfolk, please let us know. Was St George anything to do with Norfolk? Did they have particularly good jousting festivals in Norfolk? Are we making all of this up? You guys can tell us, please. Put it in the comments. Yes, please.

So Simon, do you have anything else to talk about on Norfolk? I don't think I do, actually, no. I'm sure there are many, many other facts. Like I said earlier, we could probably do an entire episode on just each little village in Norfolk. We could. But we don't have time. We don't have time.

In fact, time has run out. It has indeed. Thank you, listeners, for listening. Thank you very much indeed. We appreciate it. And if you've enjoyed this one, try another one. Yeah, keep on going. We've got topics galore that we've discussed.

And more to come. So make sure you subscribe so you never miss one. Absolutely. Please subscribe, like us, share us. Share us with your chums. If you know people who are equally interested in random facts and useless knowledge, tell them about this. They'll enjoy it. Yeah, they will.

They'll love it. So we will be back with more. Indeed. Come again soon. And goodbye. Goodbye.