On This Week: December 1-7, 2001 in Downham Market, King’s Lynn, North Wootton, Sandringham and Tilney All Saints
In our weekly feature, we look back through the pages of the Lynn News…
All eyes were on Camilla Parker Bowles when she joined Prince Charles at Sandringham Church for Sunday morning service. The unexpected public appearance was the first time the Prince’s long-term companion had attended the service along with other guests staying at the Royal estate. There were calls of “lovely to see you” from the crowd to Mrs Parker-Bowles, while ardent royal watcher Mrs Mary Relph, of Shouldham, said: “I was very pleased to see Camilla with the house party. If Camilla is what it takes to make the Prince of Wales happy, he should be allowed to be with her.”
Downham’s High Haven residential home could be replaced with a new £3.6 million housing-with-care complex. West Norfolk Council cabinet members have supported a bid by Broadland Housing Association to build the complex on land off London Road in the town. The bid includes units for 45 residents plus seven bungalows and it is thought the Government, county council and Broadland would share the cost of the project. Downham’s High Haven has 38 residents and 38 staff and was entered on a list for sale or transfer in 1998. It also has a specialist Mentally Infirm Unit with eight residents. Housing-with-care means elderly people live in their own flats, similar to sheltered housing, but have more residential care.
Afton Quinn, the Lynn News’ Super Kids 2000 winner, had the honour of turning on a display of nearly 50,000 festive lights outside the home of the Blundell family in Main Road (the old A47) at Tilney All Saints. The Blundells invited ten-year-old Afton, of Gayton, after being impressed by the story of her dedication in looking after her family when her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Half of next year’s 60 anticipated nursing vacancies at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital could be filled by more Filipino nurses. The Lynn and Wisbech Hospitals’ NHS Trust has about 600 full-time nurses and about 20 vacancies. Members of the human resources development committee were told that overseas recruitment had been successful in the past year, with about 80 nurses recruited from the Philippines on two-year fixed-term contracts.
Three West Norfolk primary schools are among the top 20 in Norfolk in this year’s performance tables for 11-year-olds. North Wootton Primary School was placed 12th out of nearly 200 schools in the county, with a total score of 279 out of a possible 300 in English, maths and science tests. Close behind was Denver Primary School having jumped 115 places into 13th position; and Ashill Primary School climbed 60 places into 20th position. At the opposite end of the tables was North Lynn’s St Edmund’s Community School – said to be among the 120 most deprived schools in the country in terms of social deprivation – and headteacher Nick Butt said: “It’s very depressing the way the tables present it as if there is something wrong with the school when the Education Minister thinks we do a good job.”
Joe Perry, the Lynn Maltings Q Club resident professional, finished runner-up to former world champion Stephen Hendry in the final of the £250,000 European Open in Malta. It was Perry’s first ranking final and although he went down 9-2 to Hendry his heroics of the previous six days left him on the verge of the top 16 provisional rankings ahead of the UK Championships starting this week.
Train passengers arriving at Downham had a shock when they returned to their cars in the railway station car park. Vandals had struck at six vehicles, smashing windows and gouging doors. It had been a horrendous journey home for the passengers because of delays, having left King’s Cross at 9.21pm and not arriving at Downham until 1am because of engineering work – and the car owners were incensed to find the damage caused to their vehicles.
West Norfolk’s deputy mayoress, Peggy Spencer, has been recalling the time she taught The Beatles to boogie. The death of George Harrison has brought back memories of the time that she helped the Fab Four with a spectacular scene for their film Magical Mystery Tour in the 1970s. Peggy said: “Paul called me and asked if I could help to create his vision of The Beatles dancing down a white staircase to a tune he had just written. It took two days to film and it was great fun.”
Boating to Lynn from London could become a reality if “missing links” in Britain’s inland waterways are opened up. Currently only smaller narrow boats are able to reach Lynn and The Fens because of access problems. Improvements would need to be made at the Grand Union Canal and the River Nene in Northamptonshire and Peterborough, as well as a new canal built to link Bedford and Milton Keynes to facilitate the entire route, say experts.
