Big Cat Tales...

I just happened to mention to Hubby last week that we have not had any 'big cat sightings' lately when, what would you know, a spate of reports and reminiscences appeared on our local e-news!

One story from the 1990's was from a very reliable lady I know, who had herself seen a big cat near here and had tracked it for the whole winter, even retrieving hair samples which she sent off to a local zoological centre and the result she got back was positive. Puma! This was also about the time when a man from this village kept one as a pet which she says attracted others to its pen when it came into season.

This possibly ties in with my own experience of around that time which was the first I had heard tell of such a local beast. Mountain Lions are not of course native to this country though I suppose there is no reason they shouldn't survive here given that they can take extremes of temperature and live anywhere from forests to plains. I guess it is within the bounds of possibility that they could secret themselves away in pockets of vegetation and woods, living off deer, rabbits and anything else they can hunt.

Technically Pumas or Cougars are one of the largest of the ‘small cats’ even though some can match the size of a leopard and are fourth heaviest of the New World cats after the lion, leopard, jaguar and tiger. Adult Pumas are slender and agile animals, measuring about eight feet in length from nose to tail and are about two feet tall at the shoulder. They have plain-coloured fur ranging from tawny to silver grey or reddish brown with lighter underparts, jaws, chin and throat. They have round heads, upright ears and with their acute hearing and excellent vision are formidable hunters.

So, back to my story... It must have been in the late 1990's that hubby, daughter and myself were walking through a low pasture near to the river when we noticed a cow lying down in a corner. On investigation, we discovered she was in the process of giving birth but seemed to be in some difficulty with the calf decidedly stuck. Between us we grabbed the calf's legs and aided by her contractions, hauled it from her alive and well.

I dashed off to find the farmer who was very grateful to us for helping out and for letting him know there was a new-born outside in the open. He said this had happened before but on that occasion, they had only found the stripped bones of the calf. Butchery had been ruled out by the very particular claw and bite marks that could only have been made by a Big Cat. He also confirmed that a Puma had been sighted several times in the area by an old man in the habit of walking out around dusk and dawn.

These following comments were from our local e-letter last week:

'At approximately 7 a.m. this morning my husband saw a tawny coloured big cat with a long tail looking remarkably like a mountain lion in the field next to our house. Could this be possible?' -Tibenham

'I saw something that looked like a wild cat while out running in Forncett End last year. I did a good fast run home that day!'

So, what are the chances of secretive Pumas still living in fields and forests hereabouts? Given that they would usually give us humans a wide berth and are capable of springing high into trees and leaping brooks and rivers, it could be entirely possible or probable..?

The County Flags of East Anglia

County Flags flying in Parliament Square, London, July 2019

Oooh, Granny does love a good flag! What a brilliant idea to hang 50 of the county flags of England, Scotland and Wales together in Parliament Square to mark Historic County Flags day. What a lovely sight! The display between 23 and 26th July, formed part of national festivities taking place across the country. Government has just made it easier for local authorities to mark its boundaries with road signs and to fly county flags whenever possible without having to apply for strict planning permissions and I for one, hope it generates much interest.

Here in East Anglia we have some lovely flags though I am a bit miffed that the lovely red heading (chief) on Norfolk County Council's arms has been left off the new county design. I think visually they've missed a trick though it seems according to the official information below that it was quite a late addition to the arms.

Among the fifty flags displayed there were some new designs but in the main, they are flags previously associated with their counties and often have links to prominent families that have helped shape a particular region such as Norfolk.

NORFOLK: This design is the banner of the arms attributed to Ralph (Ranulph) de Gael (de Guader), first Earl of Norfolk (1071-1075). The de Gael banner has been used to represent the county throughout the centuries and forms the basis of many county society emblems. In 1904 the de Gael arms formed the basis of the county council arms, however the red chief with royal emblems were added by request of King Edward VII.

The SUFFOLK flag features the crown and crossed arrows attributed to St Edmund. St Edmund was a King of East Anglia who was shot with arrows by vikings, thus explaining the elements of the emblem. At the time the East Anglian capital was in Suffolk and after his death his saintly cult was based in Bury St Edmunds within the county. Over time his emblem has served to become an emblem of the county itself.

The three gold crowns represent East Anglia, in which CAMBRIDGESHIRE is located. They are placed against a blue field which is the same shade used on the East Anglia flag. The wavy lines represent the River Cam and are in the colours of Cambridge University.

And finally, my own birth county of Essex, a very brief description but these are the arms that used to be displayed on my junior school and which impressed me even at that tender age.

The flag of ESSEX is ancient in origin and features three Saxon seaxes on a red field.

Heraldry is so colourful and so full of intrigue, power struggles, war and peace. A very complex subject run under the very strict rules of arms and overseen by the College of Arms in London, founded in 1484 and ever since then has created and maintained official registers of coats of arms, pedigrees and much, much more.

By the way, a vexillologist is a person who studies flags and the word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum (flag) and the Greek suffix-logia (study).One who designs flags is a vexillographer, and the art of flag-designing is called vexillography. One who is a hobbyist or general admirer of flags is a vexillophile. You should be able to dine out on that information!

Norfolk

Suffolk

Essex

Cambridgeshire

https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/

https://www.flaginstitute.org

Village Signs

A small selection of East Anglian Village signs

A lovely feature of the towns and villages of East Anglia are their village signs. By far the most are situated in Norfolk which has some 500, with Suffolk not far behind. The rest of the growing 4,000 are distributed countrywide.

It was King Edward VII who first remarked, early in the 20th century, that village signs would add to travellers’ interest as they made their way around villages of the sprawling Sandringham Estate, the North Norfolk country retreat of the royals. He subsequently commissioned four from the Princess Alexandra School of Carving, and another three were added later.

This charming idea was promoted more widely by Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI) in a 1920 speech to the Royal Academy. This in turn led to a popular newspaper, The Daily Mail, setting up a prize-winning competition for village sign designs.

Back in Norfolk, art teacher Harry Carter of Hamond's Grammar School was approached to carve a sign for his home town of Swaffham, little realising that with that first effort, he started a ball rolling that would not stop until he was an old man who had made in excess of 200 of them!

​Many of those first oak signs have a charming naivety about them, inspired and funded as they were by small and enthusiastic village committees. Today as well as individual makers, there are businesses dedicated to their production, utilising different materials besides wood, their signs bringing to life in stunning visual form stories that make each village unique.

The Women’s Institute movement, so much a part of rural English communities, was highly significant in promoting village signs which were often incorporated at times of national festivities. There was a surge to mark the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and subsequently her Silver, Gold and Diamond jubilees. Other more local events are also marked.

It has become a popular leisure occupation for photographers both amateur and professional to ‘collect’ village signs and the internet has many fine examples to peruse. Granny can proudly go one further than that, because in the 1980’s she actually carved two village signs. One for Burgh St. Margaret and the other for Hellesdon, as well as restoring others.

Swanton Abbot Village Sign repainted by Granny, image credit Evelyn Simak

Long may the tradition endure, I say, as they have certainly done what Edward VII foresaw, that is, brought added interest to our journeyings around the beautiful countryside of East Anglia and England.

Hellesdon Village Sign (ancient side) before re-siting outside Village Hall.

2010 - final touches to 2nd repaint of double-sided Hellesdon Village Sign, originally carved to be  left natural and sited on Bull roundabout 1985.