Lynn News nostalgia 1996 & 2003: King’s Lynn Springwood High School Valentine’s Day challenge and ITV1’s Home On Their Own at Ingoldisthorpe
Nostalgia round-up, from Tuesday, May 16’s paper
This was the scene in May 1996 when two presentations were held at Lynn’s Springwood High School. In February that year, pupils were set a St Valentine’s Day challenge “Put your money where your heart is”, raising funds by taking part in a non-uniform day – with teachers also getting into the spirit by adopting school uniform.
The result was £513 being collected and the cheque was presented to Mrs Barbara Thomas (right), Lynn branch secretary of Save the Children, which the school supported. It took the total amount raised for the charity by the school to around £5,500. John Maiden from Lynn firm Porvair presented six Skillballs to pupils and PE teacher Jas Singh (left). Photo: MLNF-96527
On this week: May 14–20, 2003:
Binmen in West Norfolk are threatening to strike over a £38 pay row and having to handle drug addicts’ needles with their bare hands. Only some of the Serviceteam’s 60-strong workforce have been issued with the necessary heavy duty gloves to pick up the potentially lethal needles which they handle on a daily basis, the workers have claimed. Pay disputes and excessive working hours, where teams are out for 12 hours a day, have also been cited as the major reasons for proposed action.
The head teachers of South Wootton Junior School and North Wootton Community School have warned that after-hours sport could be stopped if some parents continue verbally abusing staff acting as referees or umpires. The two leaders have taken the unusual step of writing a joint letter to all parents “as a result of recent unfortunate comments made at inter-school events”. They also warned that any spectator failing to follow the recognised code of good conduct would be asked to leave the school site and banned from future events.
Norfolk County Council has been asked to explain why it still has £10.7 million for education when West Norfolk schools are laying off staff. In the midst of a school funding row, figures just published show County Hall has the ninth largest amount of unused cash of all local education authorities in the country. The council has hit back, however, saying the Government has “ring-fenced” what the money can be used for.
Film crews from ITV1’s Home On Their Own programme, where children are allowed to take control of the family home and redecorate it exactly as they want, have dropped in at Ingoldisthorpe. Catering coaches, numerous vehicles, floodlights and the show’s glamourous Tess Daly descended on Ingoldsby Avenue to the home of Sheena Carman and her three children. A crack team of builders, designers and inventors have upgraded the children’s bedrooms and built secret passageways into the playroom which now has a TV, microwave and security keypad on the door to keep out unwanted adults. They have also built a novel mechanism for feeding the family dog.
What’s in a name? A lot, it seems, for someone who has stolen the Tilney Fen End nameplate from beside the Chapel Road and School Road junction in the village. Police are investigating the disappearance of the sign, worth about £150, between May 1 and 12. The parish council say it is the third sign to vanish within the past six months.
Protestors are delighted that the planned closures of two West Norfolk residential homes look set to be temporarily shelved by Norfolk County Council. High Haven in Downham and Burman House in Terrington St John had been earmarked for closure because they did not meet the Government’s national minimum standards. But now, county councillors are recommending that any decision on the future of the homes be postponed so that a review of the existing and future needs for residential care in West Norfolk can be carried out.
Work on Lynn’s long-awaited multi-million pound town centre redevelopment is now set to begin in late August – two months after it was initially scheduled. It means the development will not be ready for Christmas 2004 as planned, but will open early in 2005. However, it is expected that new businesses destined for the town will be announced shortly, including that of popular discount store TK Maxx.
An 11-year-old Fakenham boy who disappeared more than 30 years ago is to be permanently remembered in the name of hostel for homeless people, which has been opened in Fakenham. Jean Newing, of Bracknell in Berkshire, the mother of missing schoolboy Steven Newing, returned to Fakenham to officially open the hostel in Barons Close. It has cost in the region of £680,000 and has been named Steven Newing House. Steven disappeared from his home in Warner Avenue on September 2, 1969, and has never been found.
West Norfolk Rugby Club veterans team secured the Norfolk Veteran’s Cup for the fifth consecutive year with a 21-20 victory over North Walsham. Walsham scored a converted try ten minutes from time to set up a nail-biting finish to the final, but West’s solid defence held firm.
The first two weeks of Norfolk Police’s hard-hitting campaign to target crimes like burglary and robbery, and step up the number of bobbies on the beat has been deemed a success. Operation Harrier was launched at the end of April and already 113 people have been arrested in Norfolk in a series of dawn raids – with 34 of those being in the Western area.
