Then and Now ...

Here's the page in a readable size!


Last night, a pure fluke, I caught the last 10 minutes of Great British Railway Jouneys on BBC2. To my delight the preview of tonight's program indicated that it will feature Peele's Norfolk Black Turkeys, who have been a backbone of our village for generations . I'm out for much of this evening but shall of course be recording it! It's that which inspired me to do today's blip.
Peele's are a family run business going back generations who, although obviously making use of modern technology, still work to olden-day husbandry principles and totally reject current battery farming methods. Last year Pat Graham (nee Peele) rang me - she was writing a book about the history of the Peeles and the village, knew I had an old photo (from about the 1950s) of the original block of 6 cottages of which mine and K & H's next door are the surviving two (the other four were slightly earlier than our two, a combination of brick and mud-brick, and were demolished about 1980 due to severe deterioration after many years of standing empty). Pat wondered if she might borrow it to include in her book. Obviously I was only too happy to offer the photo! Although our cottages are not directly related to the Peele's themselves, we'd heard over the years that of the six cottages mine and next door's were reputedly once the hamlet's ale-house! We always suspected it to be true, as just above floor level in my living room is a gorgeous old oak beam which was the lintel to the cellar steps (the cellar long since having been infilled to prevent damp). At the top of the stairs there once was a door interlinking the two cottages. And on either side of the deep chimney breast in mine the recesses are arch shaped - a classic pub feature. I bet these two cottages could tell some tales, lol. When I took the photo to Peeles for her and we chatted about the cottages, Pat confirmed the stories we'd heard, and was able to fill me in about much of the cottages' early history. As the photo shows, we also had a post-box on the wall of ours. Their exact build date isn't known but they definitely already existed in 1811 (Pat's book confirms this) so are now over 200 years old.
A few months ago Pat's book was published, and I now of course have a copy. So today's blip is a merge of the front cover of Pat's book, the page showing that old shot of the cottages with the info about them, and a shot taken this morning of mine and K & H's ones as they are today.
Have a great weekend (despite the lousy weather!) xx