24 Thursday May 2012
Posted in History, Uncategorized, Victorian Nights Festival
If our adventures have whetted your appetite for all things Victorian, why not check out the diaries of Queen Victoria herself? They are just becoming available to read online, thanks to the work of the Royal Archives, the Bodleian Libraries and ProQuest. It’s not every day you get to sneak a peek at a Queen’s diary!
http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/info/about.do
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18183157
-Costumedramaqueen
23 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Well it may have been more than a little nippy (!) last Saturday evening but the fabulous Rollo was in no way put off as he enthralled a captivated audience with Victorian entertainments outside Cromer Museum.
Moments before Rollo warms up by fire-eating
And more warmth was found inside where visitors sang along to well-known Victorian parlour songs. (I’m sure I even heard a version of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?)
(If you’re thinking the chap in the gansey in the background looks slightly peculiar and glassy-eyed, no need to worry. He’s called Valentine and sits strong and silent and on permanent display in the Victorian cottage kitchen in Cromer Museum.)
The musicians’ repertoire also included Clement Scott’s Garden of Sleep, a wonderful piece of Victoriana – a song absolutely of its time..
Making the Cromer Victorian experience complete were magic lantern performances, demonstrations of cottage crafts, including rag-rugging and crocheting and decoupage (a hit with younger visitors).
So to all you dresser-upers, parasols, gloves, bonnets and shawls will have to be put back in your cupboards, in anticipation for an outing this time next year…
- Kate Banks
21 Monday May 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Meeting inside the Cromer Museum early Saturday evening was as much a necessity as a starting point for our second Victorian Nights walk, for – like Sheringham the day before – it was cold, windy and threatening to rain at any moment..!
We started by exploring through the Museum, full of fantastic Victorian relics (there were many people in proper Victorian costumes there, too!) and heard a very musical live rendition of late Victorian popular songs. And we discovered much older relics of prehistoric finds in the cliffs, including some bones of the famous ‘Steppe Mammoth’ found in West Runton, just along the coast, in 1990.
Nothing Like a Fire-Eater to Warm Things up!
But it was time to venture outside into the grey early evening air – just in time to see the fantastic Fire-Eater in the Museum’s entrance yard, and what a performance! After eating at least 8 hot flames on sticks, he then turned into an Escapologist, donning a complete ‘scape-jacket’ buckled up all around his body by a willing assistant from the watching crowd. He said the record for releasing himself was around 24 seconds, and I think he did it in just over 25 seconds – to loud applause from all of us!
Historic Side-Streets, Churches and elegant Hotels…
It was time to set off on our Victorian Cromer walk, with our intrepid, cream-suited Guide, passing by Cromer’s famous Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul. Apparently, the original Church collapsed in the 17th Century and was left a ruin for nearly 100 years before, with the support of local people; it was rebuilt to its present stature, with the tallest Church tower (165 ft) in the whole of Norfolk. The graveyard bears the remains of many famous people, including the Tucker family, who owned the original Tucker Hotel which was opposite, alongside the once grand Hotel Metropol (now flats/offices). (There’s also a stone commemorating a Masonic Lodge in the grounds..!) Also – on the corner of the High Street stood a Blacksmiths, and a Post Office, in Victorian times.
Piers, Bath Houses and Lifeboats…
On down the narrow High Street we trudged, towards the cold, wild sea, and Red Lion Steps. Looking back, we discovered that the magnificent Hotel de Paris was once the private summer residence of Lord Suffield, before being extended and made into the Hotel. Before today’s grand Pier was built, there stood an old Jetty, erected in 1846, but this was often damaged by either ships crashing into it, or by massive storms of the time. In 1867, one of these storms did considerable damage to not only the Jetty, but also the Bath House, just along the beach, which used to offer hot sea baths, but was washed away in the storm. (There’s now a small Hotel on the site). And in 1897, the Jetty finally succumbed to another shipping collision, from a coal barge, and was almost completely destroyed.
The Birth of Today’s Pier and Seaside Attractions
In 1901, today’s magnificent Cromer Pier was finished to replace the old Jetty, at a cost of £17,000, with the 510-seat Pavilion being added later. And the present modern Lifeboat station later still. Today the Pavilion Theatre hosts “probably the only remaining ‘end of the Pier’ shows” in England, and still attracts many famous performers and acts today. The surrounding Promenade and famous walkways up the cliffs were developed over recent years, and tales of bankrupted building firms and ‘dodgy deals’ abound, but our Guide explained that the result today is that the last sea walls were so well built that they only need minor renovation in the next round of refurbishment.
We all gathered again in the Pavilion Bar, to hear more about Cromer’s history, shipwrecks and characters of Victorian times, and then walked back to Pier’s entrance steps, drenched as we nearly were by the sea coming up from under the boardwalk!
One of the most Famous Names in the history of the Lifeboat Service…
Followed by some locals in beautiful (and very warm-looking) Victorian outfits, we braved the wind and crashing waves nearby and fled into the site that was originally ‘Rocket House’ – where a rocket was set off to alert the lifeboat men working around the town to urgently rush to the lifeboat and put to sea. Here now is the fabulous modern-looking RNLI Henry Blogg Museum, home of the famous HF Bailey Lifeboat, and many fascinating exhibits showing the history of the RNLI over many decades. The Museum was named after Coxswain Henry Blogg (1876 – 1954) whose bravery in helping save 873 souls over his 50+ years of service won him many awards – including the George Cross.
‘The most beautiful Lifeboat I’ve ever seen’
And the HF Bailey Lifeboat – perfectly preserved in all its majesty is there – and is certainly the most beautiful looking Lifeboat I’ve ever seen! With its finely rounded and gleamingly varnished wooden cabin and wheelhouse, and its large central funnel and polished brass fitments – it’s simply stunning! Although not as powerful and fast as today’s modern Lifeboats of course, I’d still certainly welcome the sight of ‘HF Bailey’ if I was floundering off the coast today!
After briefly visiting other Victorian Nights stands around Cromer, the night was drawing in, and time for me to head home (to Holt). But all our Group in Cromer – and Sheringham beforehand – agreed that it was a fantastic and enjoyable ‘Victorian’ weekend where we’d all learned so much more about our local area than we knew before, and everybody involved had really worked hard to make it a success. We all really hoped there’d be a similar Festival next year!
Andy Gage. Saturday 19th May 2012.
21 Monday May 2012
Posted in Sheringham, Uncategorized, Victorian Nights Festival
Tags
Circus, Circus Skills, Clowns, Museums at Night, The Mo: Sheringham Museum, Victorian Nights Festival
It wasn’t just we volunteers and our special guests who got all dressed up for the Victorian Nights weekend, oh no! We encouraged our younger visitors to dress up too- keep an eye out in the local papers for the proof.
Rollo the clown performed magnificently, entertaining us all with his stories and tricks… and made us jump once or twice when his balloon modelling didn’t quite go to plan! Fellow clowns Razz and Auntie Pearl also popped in and provided music and more fun. Children didn’t just learn circus skills, they even had the chance to make their own stilts. It was such a popular activity that we actually ran out just before the end of the day.
We hope all our visitors had as much fun as we did. Who knows what Museums at Night will bring next year…?
-Costumedramaqueen
21 Monday May 2012
Posted in Sheringham, Uncategorized, Victorian Nights Festival
Tags
Black Knight Historical, Museums at Night, Queen Victoria, The Mo: Sheringham Museum, Victorian Fashions, Victorian Nights Festival
Saturday evening at The Mo saw a feast of fabulous Victorian outfits on parade- and even the chance to see just what a well-dressed lady would wear under her gown. (I’m not talking about the volunteers, as smart as we all looked in our Victorian costumes!). Specialists from the ‘Black Knight Historical’ company put on a fashion show, using the gantry in The Mo’s main gallery as their catwalk. Some of the costumes were on mannequins, and others were worn by ‘real’ models. It really brought the era to life! The team really knew their stuff, commenting on each costume as they went and answering questions from our visitors afterwards. We were all fascinated to get up close to such beautiful clothing. Most of the outfits were reproductions of real clothing found in portraits, photographs and illustrations.
The front view of one of my favourite dresses from Black Knight’s Victorian Collection.
Did you know that a Victorian lady would wear up to 6 petticoats to give the right shape to her dress? And this was obviously along with other underwear such as “combinations”. No wonder upper class ladies needed maids to help them dress.
The back view and bustle.
The timeline of dresses was very effective. We saw how, at the time Victoria was born, regency dresses were in style with their military detailing and high waistlines under the bust. Later, waistlines dropped and gowns became more swishy and voluminous on the bottom half. Examples from the 1870’s (ish!) showed how the skirts then narrowed again but had bustle detailing. I had to ask one of the models, Kindra, just how practical the dresses were to sit down in- I’d always wondered. She kindly demonstrated that the bustles simply collapsed when sitting down, and would pop back up again when standing. (Brilliant Victorian engineering on a small scale!).
Whatever Queen Victoria wore immediately became fashionable (much like with the Middleton sisters today). As she loved Scotland and everything Scottish, Tartan became very “in”. When ladies got married they usually just wore their best frock, but when Queen Victoria wore a new white dress for her wedding she set off a trend that became a tradition. One that’s still around today.
It wasn’t just ladies’ fashions on show though. We saw several very dapper gentleman promenading. I was amused to hear that the phrase “back-hander” is said to have come from when Politicians passed money through the tails of their coats when sitting in Parliament in order to influence people and policy. Shocking!
http://www.blackknighthistorical.co.uk
https://twitter.com/#!/BKHISTORICAL
http://tinyurl.com/bmf2v4y – Black Knight Historical’s Facebook page.
-Costumedramaqueen
21 Monday May 2012
Posted in Sheringham, Uncategorized, Victorian Nights Festival
Tags
Museums at Night, Newsreels, Picture Palace, Sheringham Little Theatre, Victorian Nights Festival, Victorians
After my visit on Friday night to the Peter Coke Shell Gallery I visited the Sheringham Little Theatre for their evening ‘At the Picture Palace a Century Ago’. Our hosts told us how they rescued old unwanted pieces of Victorian technology and restored them. They then played us several films on a hand-cranked projector, and played the piano as an accompaniment. Each time the lights dimmed, the projector whirred and the piano tinkled away I felt for a moment like I’d gone back in time! It was magical and quite moving to see real Victorians “living” again on screen.
Each film only lasted a few minutes but each was fascinating in its own way. The first comedy film ‘Run for a Bride’ reminded me of a cross between Simon Pegg’s ‘Run Fat Boy Run’ and Monty Python’s ‘Ministry of Funny Walks’. Of course the talkies hadn’t been invented yet, so comedy had to be mostly physical and exaggerated.
We also saw a film that combined live action and stop-motion animation scenes, ‘Dreams of Toyland’. In one frame we even saw an animator placing one of the toys in position- not something Aardman Animations would let happen today!
My favourite film however was actually the newsreel. It covered stories as varied as an air-crash in France, a society wedding, and the then Prince of Wales inspecting volunteers from the St. John’s Ambulance. In 1910 Picture Palaces only received one newsreel a week, often long after the actual news event had happened. Later they received two newsreels a week, one covering Mon-Weds, the second Thurs-Sat. Can you imagine only seeing the news once a week?
Would you miss access to world news every day? Or do you think that 24 hour news channels are overkill?
-Costumedramaqueen
21 Monday May 2012
Posted in Sheringham, Uncategorized, Victorian Nights Festival
As we’ve seen, the Victorians had all sorts of crafty hobbies and were interested in the natural world. Their legacy lives on. The Peter Coke Shell Gallery in Sheringham displays 180+ items all made by artist Peter Coke (1913-2008). There’s a huge variety of objects on show. He decorated boxes, shields, obelisks, and even made pictures and models with shells. (And a fan- which is very Victorian!).
I particularly liked the gardens and waterlily ponds. They reminded me of the Easter Garden that MaidinSheringham created (see a previous post). Many of the flowers are clearly identifiable as real types of flowers. There’s everything from roses and lilies to surprisingly realistic-looking orchids (well… if you squint a bit!). Coke even created houses and castles that look like something from a fairy-tale; one is even lit up from the inside.
The Peter Coke Shell Gallery really is a hidden gem.
Why not go beach-combing next time you’re by the sea and make something with the shells you find? The Victorians would definitely approve!
http://tinyurl.com/cljw6az Maritime Heritage East
http://tinyurl.com/c3m7n2h North Norfolk District Council
-Costumedramaqueen
21 Monday May 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
historic walkways, Lifeboats., Sheringham’s past, Sheringham’s X factor, Victorian Sheringham, wild walks
Anyone seeing us – a huddled mass of people waiting near The Mo, and being buffeted against the early evening wind – might wonder what was going to happen next.
But with threatening rain and a wild sea crashing only yards below, we braved the elements and followed our intrepid guide with a carrying voice along Sheringham’s East promenade, and on into a magical, historic journey into Victorian times…
Historic walkways and crumbling clifftops…
We battled past historic pubs, like The Crown, standing now where other previous pubs had toppled into the sea many years ago… then past the Two Lifeboats pub, which had had many uses beforehand, including a coffee house (and a Temperance Meeting place before that). We also discovered that Sheringham once had its own Jetty, in the 16th Century, before it was washed away by the cruel seas of long ago.
Heading ‘Up West’
There’s no doubt that on Sheringham’s coast, everything – even today – can be at the mercy of the sea, and many brave souls have lost the battle, through shipwrecks, subsidence, fishing accidents and other disasters. Heading towards the ‘up-market’ West end side of the town, we sheltered in the famous Lifeboat House, built in 1894, and marvelled at the restored Victorian 16-oar Henry Ramey Upcher Lifeboat there, and heard many stories about the brave lifeboatmen who saved many souls (including as many as 16 sailors in one dark night) off the Sheringham coast in 1895 and beyond.
Whelks were Sheringham’s ‘X-Factor’… Crabs were Cromer’s!
As we progressed through the stormy weather, we learned that in Victorian times, there would be as many as 200 fishing boats up on the beach, all competing for the (then more plentiful) shoals of offshore fish – and also Whelks, which made Sheringham famous. (It was said that the finest restaurants and Gentlemen’s Clubs of London couldn’t get enough of them)! There was so much competition for the best fish catches, that many of Sheringham’s fishermen moved ‘lock, stock and boat’ to Grimsby, where they had more of the sea to themselves, in those days (and probably helped Grimsby’s fish market develop, too).
Fast Forward into the Steam Age
Another thing that really put Sheringham on the map was the coming of the Railway, in 1887. Nothing was ever the same from then on. Day-trippers started to arrive, and Sheringham quickly developed itself as a desirable resort for the ‘upwardly mobile’ classes of the time. Some of the many benefits this afforded was the building of many fine Hotels, Guest Houses, and grand residential houses and garden squares along and near-to the cliffs, on land owned by Henry Upcher, who was really the creator and developer of the Sheringham we know today.
The coming of the ‘Rich & Famous’
These new fine buildings included the Grand Hotel (now gone) and the ‘Marble Arch’ – grand entrance to the ‘West End’ beach, where the first breakwaters were built in 1895, below the grand promenade. The Grand Hotel boasted one of the very first lifts to all floors; also a grand ballroom, lavish entertainment saloons and fine suites, frequented by famous figures including Albert Einstein who often stayed, and ‘promenaded’ along the front. Nearby was a then-famous golf course, where Shakleton, Arthur Conan Doyle and Moriarty often played.
‘Gentile’ Streets and fine architecture
Exploring through the rest of the ‘West End’, we passed by the beautifully kept War Memorial and gardens, also the last remaining rounded red Victorian post box (still in use) and on past St Peter’s Church, built in 1895 for £8,000, with finely crafted flint-knapped walls, and on to the shopping area in the centre of town (Sheringham officially became a Town in 1905).
Shopping through the Ages…
Approaching the main shops of today, we discovered that Bertrum Watts was one of Sheringham’s oldest-established businesses, starting in 1902, and the Little Theatre was originally built in 1880, and the Clock Tower in 1903 (under which was originally the town well). Nearby, where W.H.Smiths now stands was – for over 100 years – the site of a Grocery Store, and today’s Starlings the newsagent, stationers and toy shop was established just over 100 years ago, too. Another revelation was that – looking up towards the Railway Station from the Clock Tower – you could clearly see that many shopfronts were built out as extensions of the original front rooms of residential houses there, to cater for the increasing number of visitors to Sheringham over the decades.
Back to the Present Day…
Our final gathering place was Lifeboat Plain, near where, in the 1914-18 war, the very first bomb to drop in the UK landed. Lifeboat Plain got its name from having the first Lifeboat Centre there (in what’s now Oddfellows Hall) and the recently-converted holiday apartments building was once a boatbuilding shed. And where The Old Tea Rooms now stand, was the site of the very first shop on the Plain.
All in all, our ‘Walk Through Time’ was a fascinating and rewarding experience, and all of our Group (now in serious need of warming up!) said they had learned a lot through our trip – and that included many people who were Sheringham residents! So we all gave a big ‘Thank-You’ and clap to our wonderful guide, and went on our separate ways. And do you know what? That very moment it stopped raining!
Andy Gage – Friday 18th May.
16 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in History, Journey, Maltings, Norfolk, Time, Uncategorized, Victorian Nights Festival, Wells-Next-The-Sea
I have been researching the history of the Postcard. Did you know that cards showing images became popular in the 1880’s? The cards would show pictures of famous landmarks, scenic views and the Sea side as Trains became popular modes of transport bringing Victorian tourists to the coast. This got me thinking about Wells and all the tourism the old Train brought to the town. I can picture in my mind’s eye all the beautifully dressed Victorian Ladies stepping off the Train on Polka road and making their way to the High Street, where all the shops used to be. With the launch of the Victorian Nights Festival only 2 days away, I took advantage of this sunny Wednesday afternoon to take a few photos of what Wells looks like now and the journey people will be making on Saturday for the Victorian Family Day at the Maltings. The frame represents time, reminiscent of what the scene would have looked like in the past linking the present day with history, to create contemporary postcard memories.
See you all on Saturday 19th May for the Victorian Family Day at the Maltings in Wells 10am onwards.
14 Monday May 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Circus, Cromer, Museums at Night, Norwich, Norwich Castle Museum, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Sheringham, VICTORIAN, Victorian Nights Festival, Wells-Next-The-Sea
Museums at Night is a country-wide inititative inviting the public to visit museums at night-time (does what it says on the tin, really!).
There are some great events happening within Norfolk over this weekend (Friday 18th to Sunday 20th May), including the Victorian Nights Festival being held in Cromer, Sheringham and Wells-next-the-sea. With events ranging from having your portrait taken in Victorian dress to The Mo’s Tremendous Victorian Circus there’s bound to be something for everyone!
For more information on the events, here’s a link to the brochure: http://victoriannightsnorthnorfolk.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/victorian-nights-leaflet.pdf
For those of you further inland there’s plenty happening in Norwich, with live music and artist performances at the Castle Museum, as well as storytelling and performances by Nunah Theatre at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. The Sainsbury Centre’s Young Associates (which I am a member of) will be hosting an evening of music, film and performance in the Modern Life Cafe.
For more information on what’s happening in Norwich, check out their websites:
http://events.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/public_events.aspx?page=1&event_venue_id=3
http://www.scva.ac.uk/whatson/special_events/?id=1540&homepage=1
Photo courtesy of the Young Associates
- Maxine
