On Holiday in Great Yarmouth

We have a new friend! Fred Henry was found by our local missionaries just knocking doors through Brandon, a town 8 miles SE of us. Fred is on our way to church so we pick him up every Sunday. He and his daughters had planned a vacation (holiday here) in Great Yarmouth on the coast NE of us, but something came up and his daughters couldn't go so he invited us. We gladly accepted 3 nights in an old, but very nicely maintained hotel: Warners Gunton Hall Chalet Resort. This is a picture of the front lifted from their web site. And the next picture is how the chalets look today in weather that is trying to be rainy. 

It was a most welcome treat to get away from the daily work and relax with a good friend (Fred is our age!), good food, and new sights to see. We spend some time exploring the shops in an old shopping center, touring a huge old church, walking to the beach, and just getting acquainted with a guy whose wife, a sudden victim of cancer, passed away several months ago.

This beautiful old church was a delight to behold. The intricate stone work never ceases to amaze us as does the sheer size of these structures built long before tower cranes and steel beams. In the front of the church we found a fascinating bit of history. This plaque, while not really related to the church, gives a glimpse into the property ownership culture of England. ALL the land belonged to the king. Even today we run into concepts like "fishing rights", "the game runs with the land" and our next door neighbor whose employment benefit was hunting rights on the farm he worked.

This plaque was erected in 2008 on the 800th anniversary of the signing, by King John, of a lease wherein he gave the borough of Great Yarmouth the rights of self-administration for the sum of £55 per year. This was a land mark occasion and a real step forward toward republican democracy. You can click on the picture to read it.

Here is an old shopping center in Great Yarmouth (the mouth of the river Yar). The bikes have the "required" wicker parcel basket fastened to the handle bars. We enjoyed especially the antique stores where we could ask about strange objects. For example, one that looked like a crockery version of a thermos bottle complete with tapered top. However, the top was sealed and a cork plugged a hole in the middle of one side. It turned out to be a bed warmer. You filled it with boiling water and stood it upright in your bed a half hour before retiring. Its height formed a tent wherein the warmed air circulated and reduced the shock of entering the sheets (if you had any) in the poorly heated houses of the day.

Ninety miles behind Charlet is France. The smiling bloke is Fred, of course. The temperature was about 44° F.