Stephen Fry at King's Lynn Town Hall presents certificates signed by Prince Charles, Tower Gardens, Tilney All Saints, Fakenham Museum, Bircham Windmill, Wissington sugar factory and Queen's South Wootton gift in 1993

Our weekly Memory Lane column looks back to March 5–11, 1993 and March 1993...

Cockatiels and budgerigars disappeared from the aviary in Tower Gardens, Lynn, one night this week – and now borough chiefs have warned the council-run facility could face closure if there are repeat occurrences. Birds have been stolen before, but police are unsure if the motive this time was theft or whether the birds escaped after a vandal attack. Damage to the aviary was not major, but a section of wire mesh had been pulled back. Many birds had been donated to the aviary by owners who could no longer care for them and while not a top priority feature, the council acknowledges that it provides entertainment for many people and young children.

Dow Chemical in Lynn has shed around 20 workers as part of a major company restructuring programme, just a month after staff were told the company had suffered heavy financial losses across Europe. Those who lost their jobs were given the bad news at the site and then taken home from the Estuary Road factory by taxi. The company said it had been forced to make immediate cost savings and jobs had also been lost across the UK including London and Wales.

A row over whether a huge 126-tonne load should travel by road through Tilney All Saints has reached boiling point, with an eleventh-hour bid being made to find an alternative route. The massive boiler is due to be transported to Lynn Docks from Peterborough and another identical load is due to travel the same route later in the month. But villagers are unhappy and the issue has gone to the highest level of government.

English Tourist Board chiefs have been left with red faces after a blunder with a new tourist map placed Fakenham Gasworks Museum 80 miles away in Suffolk and Bircham Windmill in Lynn. The West Norfolk attractions are among several in the county shown in the wrong location on the Experience the Making of Britain map, which the ETB has issued to celebrate Industrial Heritage Year. Owning up to the error, it says it has sent out 200,000 addendum slips with the maps, correcting its error in locating the Fakenham museum at Falkenham, near Felixtowe.

Wissington sugar factory should not grow any bigger until a road is built to bypass Wereham, county councillors have said. They expressed strong objections to plans to build new juice tanks, access roads and parking spaces next to the existing factory, after West Norfolk Council asked for their views. British Sugar wants to increase production from 10,700 to 15,000 tonnes a day and has applied to the borough council for planning permission.

The Queen has donated an undisclosed amount to the Stephanie Norton East Anglian Bone Marrow Register from her 1992 Garden Fund. The gift and a letter were sent on her behalf to Stephanie’s mother, Mrs Sue Norton. The receipt of the gift fell in the same week as the birthday of leukaemia teenage victim Stephanie, of South Wootton, who would have been 26.

Pinpoint bowling by a team from Clenchwarton Primary School Parent Teacher Association led to them becoming the first winners of a schools’ tenpin challenge at the Strikes centre in Gaywood. Nineteen teams took part in the first competition and Clenchwarton took the honours through the quartet of Caryl Prior, Sue Courtman, Stuart Biggar and Nigel King.

The Green near the Post Office at North Wootton has been labelled a disgrace by parish council members. Vehicles have ploughed up the area and councillors are worried there won’t be much green left. They are asking for suggestions to resolve the issue.

An eight-foot high bronze statue was prized from an alcove 20 feet above the entrance to Lynn’s King Edward VII High School at the weekend. The heavy statue of a 16th century scholar was then dropped some 12 feet from a parapet leaving a large dent in the tarmac below before being taken away. The thieves also tried to dislodge a similar statue a few feet away, but that attempt failed.