On the 18th of December we held our Christmas meeting to which we welcomed The Watton Shanty men. They entertained us with Shanties, Traditional Christmas song, Carols, Poems and with a Wind Synthesizer.
This was enjoyed along with Non-alcoholic mulled win, fruit juice and mince pies.
Our last meeting was our film night when Phil Slater came along with his 16mm & 8mm projectors to show us a selection of clips we had chosen from his catalogue, these were the Mississippi Showboats, some Kings of Speed, the Norwich Royal Lady River trip, the Home Guard Christmas Tea and Charlie on Guard. We also had a film of a Watton Carnival from1959. This was of special interest to one of our newer members as she was in this carnival dressed as a Knight.
Our last meeting was our AGM which was attended by our president the mayor.
Reports were all received, and the committee all re-elected for another year.
Following the official business of the AGM we were given a short talk by David Dent on the plans to demolish Wayland House and rebuild with a Digital and Creative Media Centre. This would include a Cinema – Film and audio studio with editing suite – Game development laboratory and testing facility – Community Café – Serviced business office for local entrepreneurial start-ups. – Meeting rooms, and Housing for Library Service, Art Gallery, Wayland Partnership, Wayland Chamber of Commerce. David answered questions from the floor before we finished the evening with our annual Quiz where all won a prize.
We were given an illustrated talk by Keith Thomas entitled:
“Life as a Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Helicopter Pilot”
Keith started his illustrated talk telling us of a day’s work for each shift which included how the equipment was inspected and tested every day. He went on to talk about the different types of rescue, along with one or two amusing facts and how they developed a new lifting harness for those who had been in the water for several hours, which increased the chances of survival. A very informative and interesting illustrated talk.
THE WATTON SOCIETY VISIT TO ST PETER’S CHURCH MERTON
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 17th July members of the Watton Society and the Meet Watton Group spent a delightful few hour at the beautiful Merton Church. We were treated to a very informative talk about the church history and architecture as well as the village and the De Grey family. This was followed by a chance to walk about the church and outside to see the lovely views of the grounds and Merton Hall. To make the visit perfect we were then provided with refreshments including delicious cakes and sausage rolls. Thank you so much to the Merton group for a wonderful afternoon. We felt honoured to have been able to see and learn about this lovely church.
This month we were treated to an illustrated talk by Revd. Jacqui Horton entitled …
“A Journey Round Iona” She gave us the history if the island along with how the islanders develop the island and its abbey with volunteers, which she did for two years back in the beginning of this decade, then returned last year to see the developments which we were shown with her images of then and now.
April Meeting 2024
This month Adam Clark came and gave us a talk about Bees, he keeps bees in Saham Toney and Ashill.
He told us how a hive is constructed and passed round some examples. He went on to tell us how the bees work and the different types of bee in each hive, and how the queen lays her eggs and the workers then seal the eggs in their cells. He went on to tell us about the year of a beekeeper, and the bees’ activities throughout the year. He told us of how the bees collecting the nectar inform the others of where the best pollen is by doing a dance in a figure of eight, the distance is depicted in the size of the eight and the direction from the hive using the sun in relation to the hive entrance. The hive entrance is also guarded by other bees to stop other insects, like wasps coming into the hive.
He ended by giving out some leaflets, showing the year and which plants produced the best pollen at which time of year and a leaflet telling us about trees useful to bees.
A very interesting and informative meeting.
This month we were treated to a talk about hearing dogs for the deaf by Veronica Colley along with her dog Logan.
Veronica laid a blanket in the corner which Logan then laid on and slept. Veronica then told us first about herself and her hearing difficulties and how the dogs helped.
She had learnt to lipread, this was very helpful in having a conversation,
But if she was at home alone and the doorbell rang, she would not hear it, but Logan would, and would come to her get her attention and head for the door, checking she was following him to the door. She also uses a kitchen timer for reminders of various things she needs to do at certain times, again Logan will come and get her attention and head off to the timer, again checking she has followed him.
She gave a member of the audience a Fire Alarm to be activated when she indicated, whilst telling us of how it would work. When the alarm was set off Logan awoke from his snooze on the rug, came up to Veronica, nudged her with his nose indicating an urgent exit.
When the dogs reach the age of 9 years a new dog is introduced first to check the two dogs get on OK, if so the two work together and the new dog slowly takes over the roll of “Hearing Dog” and the original one becomes a pet.
This was a very informative talk along with some practical demonstrations.
Linda Benton came and gave us a talk about her career in the metropolitan mounted police.
When she started the horses had not received specific training for police work and were not fitted with the safety items we expect today, for example they were not fitted with eye shields/blinkers, and the officers did not have safety hard hats, nor did they have truncheons.
They were initially used in crowd control, like football matches, demonstrations etc. As one mounted officer would have the same effect as a dozen officers on foot.
She told us of how these things changed through her career, she brought along some items of memorabilia, which we could look at on the table after her talk.
George Collins came and gave us a talk on Military Hats along with many examples. George showed us the hat, explained its history and use then passed it around the audience to examine and if wished they could try the hat on.
He moved on from hats that were likened to helmets to soft hats and bearskins ending with some caps and berets.
