On a dark and stormy night 64 people gathered in the Village Hall for what has become the ‘must-go-to’ event of the year - the Garden Club quiz. Contestants arrived early to make sure their table decorations were as good as they possibly could be, in an attempt to win the much-coveted prize for ‘Best Decorated Table’: this eventually being awarded once again to Margaret Hickman Smith’s team for their Santa’s sleigh theme which occupied so much of the table that there was barely enough room for the wine glasses, and food – when it came.
But before the food came, the questions had to be dealt with. Old favourites were trotted out such as ‘how long did the 100 years’ war last?’ I put ‘16 years’ but the correct answer was 116 years, but by heck I was close! And ‘what is the answer to 15 cubed?’(Answers on a postcard please.) Maybe if I had got these (and a few other) questions right, our table might have won: we were pipped to it by a team from Mulbarton, ably led by Nick Brookes and his wife. We came second.
Andrew Coleman did the scoring on his amazing laser display unit that only took four university-educated men (one of them a physicist) about 45 minutes to set up (it had to be plugged in) and the Question Master / compère was Jan Cutting from Long Stratton who probably ended the evening with a sore throat to go with her gift and the undying thanks of the entire Diggers & Dibblers committee. Well done Jan!
(Click on the small pictures to enlarge them - photographs by Su Leavesly)
£350 or thereabouts was raised for club funds and all the rubbish was taken away, and the floor swept clean; thanks go to all who helped with the setting up and the taking down at the end, with especial thanks to Sarah House and her team of helpers for making all the wonderful hanging decorations on the ceiling.
Next year’s date? Saturday December 8th.
Put it in your diary.
On Thursday 13th October a group of about a dozen Forncett HIistory Group members and friends met at the Erpingham Gate of Norwich Cathedral for a guided tour around the area, where weavers and textile workers of the past had plied their trade.
The Revd Andrew Good declared Forncett St Edmund’s very first fete open at one o’clock on 6th August to the distinctive chimes of the church’s single bell. Delicious cream teas were expertly prepared by Jasmine and Sheila and served by them and their team of lovely ladies, while ‘Frier Tuck’ (Taverham) was on station providing other refreshments. There was a very wide selection of bric-a-brac for sale, but a major attraction, as always, was the home-made cakes and provisions stall, which had completely sold out before the end of the day.
A BIG thank you to everyone for attending and helping with the fete.
The remaining two windows in the Chancel, and the Tower West window have been replaced by workmen from Devlin Plummer Stained Glass specialists.
The idea had already been in my mind for a while when I broached it at our Benefice Meeting early in the year, thinking that probably it might prove to be a mammoth solo effort. However, the proposal met with a positive response and the plan snowballed to include all the churches as well as St Mary’s at Forncett. Of course, it was not a completely new idea as Ashwellthorpe had had two forays into such a venture, most recently at the Millennium, and the Diocese mounted a public reading at the Forum in Norwich long after we were well into the Old Testament.
