photos Su Leavesley
Click on pic for slideshow

On Sunday 22d May, thanks to a grant from South Norfolk Council, about 100 residents joined our celebration of The Queen’s 90th birthday.

The children enjoyed a variety of entertainment from Frances, JMS Catering (Jan and Mike Smail) provided a fabulous savoury buffet; Jackie and Gill produced lots of beautifully decorated ‘fairy cakes’; Barry supplied all that was needed from the Bar and thanks to Andrew for the PA system.

We all enjoyed near perfect weather on Jubilee Green and the chance to meet old friends and make new ones. Thanks to all who helped get everything ready in the morning, who came along to join the celebrations in the afternoon ... and helped clear up in record time at the end.

Click pic for slide show
photos by Richard Ball

When St. Mary's was closed in the early 1980's everything from the interior was removed or vandalised. The medieval font was given to the Roman Catholic Shrine at Houghton St. Giles, North Norfolk, where it remained for many years. After hearing of the restoration work and the 'Angels' Award last year the font was offered back to St. Mary's, being surplus to their requirements.

It was removed from the shrine in late 2015, and repaired and restored by stonemason Bruce Riley. On 27th May 2016 he installed the font back in the church. It is probable that the marble plinth is of the same type used in Norwich Cathedral.

Currently (June 2016) there are still many people alive who were christened in the font before it was removed.

On the 28th April at St Edmunds Church in Forncett End, an awareness training Seminar for the newly installed Defibrillator, the second for our village, was given by Martin Render from The Community Heartbeat Trust. This was incredibly well attended and a great success. It was also good fun, very informative and, possibly, motivational. Light hearted and very serious in equal measure to make the important points that needed making. This was an opportunity to understand what a defibrillator is, how it can save lives and most importantly dispel any fears and myths about using these incredible devices.

For those that were unable to join the session, I would like to pass on the 4 crucial things that Martin wanted us all to remember from the evening.

1. When a person has a Cardiac arrest, the heart doesn’t pump blood around the body as it should and without intervention from somebody, that person IS going to die. So the option to do nothing isn’t really an option.

2. If the heart has gone into a rhythm known as fibrillation, a Defibrillator is needed to try to get it working again. These new defibrillators are so easy to use that you don’t need any training; ours even has a video display showing you what to do.

3. Using a defibrillator on a person CANNOT DO ANY HARM and will not deliver a shock to the patient unless he/she needs it.

4. You are not going to be sued or be in trouble for trying to save a life with a defibrillator and it is unsuccessful 

I would like to thank all those that attended the session for coming and hope that you did find it helpful. If anyone who attended has any comments or feedback about the session I would be very pleased to hear from you (). We would like to arrange further sessions, maybe on an annual basis, so keep a look out for details. More details from the evening cab be seen on the Forncett website.

Thanks also to Martin Render and Community Heartbeat Trust and to John and Margaret Webster for the use of the Church.

photos Su Leavesley
Click on pic for slideshow

Several months after it was removed from its prominent position at the road junction at the bottom of Mill Road, in front of St Peter’s Church. our Village Sign has now been fully restored and returned to its proper place.

The design of the sign was originally researched by Bill Matthews in the late 1970s and, helped by his daughter Debbie with some of the drawings, it was eventually constructed and erected on its oak post and flint base (topped with a millstone from one of the Forncett mills) to mark the marnage of Pnnce Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

Over the years. former Parish Councillor Andrew Smith has carried out maintenance and re-painting as required, but it was decided a year or so ago that a total refurbishment was required. Bob McClenning spent several months drying out. stabilising and eventually re-painting the actual decorative sign. David Taylor supplied wood sections for the lettering and the other supports, expertly crafting them to match the (by now very decayed) originals. Linda Preece used her skills as sculptor and wood carver to recreate ‘The Forncetts' name.

Graham Gale and Brian Frith dismantled and, after the artists and craftspeople had done their work, reassembled the whole sign (using the original re-painted wrought ironwork).

Now on show for all to see, complete with a new plaque to remind everyone that the renovation took place in the year of the 90th birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth Il, we hope the sign will last many more years.

The speed awareness sign (SAM2) reported in a previous Flyer as being purchased by the Parish Council was delivered in November and is now being employed around the village by a team of four volunteers - Harry Bowers, Keith Fromings, Philip Yull and the writer. Locations for the signs, on stretches of road limited to 30 mph, have been designated by Norfolk County Council’s highways department. There are 3 locations in Forncett End on the Norwich Road (B 1113) and the Long Stratton Road and 3 locations in Forncett St Peter on Mill Road and Low Road and generally the sign will only remain in each location for a maximum of about two weeks.

Most drivers will be aware of the SAM2 signs - they are vehicle activated and indicate clearly to the drivers of oncoming vehicles their speed in mph. If they are exceeding the speed limit a flashing warning sign will entreat them to ‘SLOW DOWN’. The actual vehicle speed will continue to be displayed up to 39 mph but above this no speed is indicated so as not to further encourage those drivers who might see a challenge in seeing how high a speed they can generate on the sign although the warning sign will continue to flash. This latest generation of sign also records the number of vehicle movements and the speed of any vehicle when it activates the sign. We now have recorded data from the initial three locations and the results are in the table below.

The locations of the sign were:
   ‘A’ - outside Austhorpe House adjacent to the bus shelter on Norwich Road (B1113) northbound.
   ‘B’ - on the bend outside the Methodist Church on Long Stratton Road westbound.
   ‘C’ - on the Mill Road hill westbound (recorded over the Christmas and New Year periods).

Overall an average of 43% of drivers on our village’s main roads exceeded the statutory 30 mph speed limit. A significant proportion of these do so at speeds that shows little regard for the safety of the village and its residents. It’s also worth noting that these higher end violations were not all recorded at the dead of night as might be expected, there being a fairly even spread throughout the full 24 hour periods including the daytime peak periods.

Top Speeding ‘prizes’ go to drivers of vehicles on: Norwich Road (B 1113) northbound on the 10th December at 10.20 am clocked at between 65 and 70 mph, and, Mill Road westbound on the 24th December at 6.20 pm clocked at between 85 and 90 mph. We’ll continue to update this information in future editions of the Flyer. 

Photo by Sarah Prior
(click pic to enlarge)

Carols by Candlelight on 4th December at St Mary's was once again well attended. The singing was helped by 'Dolce' choir who also performed four pieces including Away in a Manger and O Holy Night.

We have been contacted by staff at the Roman Catholic Shrine at Walsingham, as they no longer have any need for the medieval font, originally from St Mary's Church, it will be returning to the Church, and should be installed in the next few months. This will be of interest to anyone who was christened there years ago when the font was used, and we'd like to hear from you.

There are a number of good quality 2nd hand books for sale in the church, do pop in and have a look if you're passing.

VERY few households will be able to resist the lure of a box of supermarket mince pies over the coming weeks, so the Ladies Who Lunch team stayed at home and tested ten boxes and packets of mince pies that are easily available to people in most areas.

Our brief was simple; sample a piece of mince pie and mark it out of 5 for; taste; appearance; amount of fill, and general ‘integrity’ which encompassed all other aspects including whether they came out of the box in bits to how uniform they were, and whether they had leaked any filling, or had excessive amounts of twig and pips in. Also the calories, (but you don’t want to know about that! Except that the Co-op was highest at 263 per pie!). and number of ingredients was noted. Three sets of pies came in plastic cartons (from instore bakeries) and two of them were without information.

(Click pic for more,
photos by Sarah Prior)

On 7th September 2015 Graham Prior and seven other members of the 'Friends of St Mary's' who have been heavily involved in voluntary work for he church, travelled to London for Historic England's Angels Award Ceremony. The church was shortlisted in the category 'best rescue or repair of an historic place of worship' along with three other churches.

The ceremony took place at the Palace Theatre, and the judges were Andrew Lloyd Webber, Emma Bridgewater, George Clarke, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall ( Dean of Westminster), Dr Bettany Hughes, and Historic England's Chief Executive Duncan Wilson.

The Friends group were delighted when Songs of Praise presenter Connie Fisher opened the envelope to reveal that they had won the award, which was presented to Graham and May Prior by Connie and Dr John Hall.

A reception at Kettner's Bar followed the ceremony, and was much enjoyed by everyone.