Potter Heigham Bridge and its Ghosts!

Reefed yacht image - Andrew Woods

Situated in the parish of Repps with Bastwick and within the Broads National Park of Norfolk, sits the medieval bridge of Potter Heigham believed to date from 1385.

The brick and stone, narrow three-arched bridge is traffic-controlled allowing only single vehicles to pass and I presume the traffic lights were installed after a lorry plunged off the bridge and into the River Thurne below in the 1960's. Fortunately, it seems the waters were low at the time and the driver was rescued.

​From a boats-man point of view, this is arguably the trickiest bridge to navigate on the Norfolk Broads. When waters are high, clearance under the main arch of the bridge is only 6' 6" (1.98 mtrs) and hire-boat users unfamiliar with the wicked wiles of tidal ebb and flow are required to pay £10 each way to a River Pilot from Phoenix Boatyard to guide them through the semi-circular, steep-sided arch, the only one of the three spans that is navigable to river traffic.

The general rise in water levels of the past few years has seen a decrease in the number of boats able to pass under the bridge dropping from around 10,000 craft to less than 2,000 per annum which I guess must bode well for wild-life conservation areas in the calmer and less well-used reaches above the bridge. I imagine too that rising climate temperatures will also see an end to sightings of a ghostly drummer boy from Potter Heigham who skates across the frozen waters to a place called Swim Coots on Hickling Broad each February as he once did in 1815 to secretly meet his lover before the melting ice gave way and he drowned.

Perhaps though if you're really keen to see a ghost and were to stand beside Potter Heigham bridge at midnight on the last day of May, you may just catch sight of, if not hear the pounding of horses hooves and the rhythmic turning of wheels as Lady Carew and her daughter Evelyn are borne away from her daughter's wedding celebrations to wealthy Sir Godfrey Haslitt of Bastwick. The skeleton that snatched her, drives a phantom coach and four but as they thunder across Potter Heigham bridge, they are engulfed in flames and plunge over the side and into history. Payback for a wicked witch and the love-potion she had earlier prepared that ensnared Sir Godfrey for Evelyn.

Yes, a very interesting Scheduled Monument is Potter Heigham Bridge!

Lorry rescue, Potter Heigham Bridge1962 - Photo Eastern Daily Press

https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk

Fabulous Forsythia

Who doesn't love Forsythia? The sight of its vibrant yellow flowers really makes Spring feel like Summer! It is very commonplace but nevertheless much treasured as a reminder of sunny days to come.

It was a surprise to me when I found out that Forsythia is a genus of flowing plants in the olive family Oleacea. There are about 11 species mostly native to eastern Asia, Japan, China, and Korea. No species of Forsythia was common in cultivation before about 1850 and it was not until 1908 that the first outstanding variety was imported into this country. Since those times many cultivars have been created.

We are most familiar with the early-flowing bush or small tree common to many parks and gardens named after Scottish botanist William Forsyth, (1737-1804), royal head gardener in Kensington and founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society. Its hardy four-lobed yellow flowers are produced in profusion in early spring before the leaves. These become pendent in rainy weather thus shielding the reproductive parts. The fruit is a dry capsule, containing several winged seeds.

Forsythia suspensa (Lian Qiao) with its graceful arching branches is considered one of the 50 fundamental herbs of Chinese herbology in use for over 4,000 years for ailments such as skin conditions. According to some legends, once forsythia begins to bloom, it means you’ll still have three more snowfalls before the winter is truly over but I've a suspicion this applies only to the Far East...?

In numerology, forsythia with its four joined petals is associated with the number 4 which is the number of Foundation: the four winds, the four seasons, the four astrological elements. 4's are solid, 'four-square' and reliable, so like those stoic forsythias in our gardens.

In the Victorian era, flowers were assigned special meanings, as part of a secret language hidden within bouquets and vases of mixed blooms and foliage. Forsythia was associated with anticipation which fits nicely with its role as a vibrant harbinger of Spring and the seasons to follow.

Korea has a musical instrument called the ajaeng, whose string were made of twisted silk supported by separate movable bridges was plucked or played with a bow. The bow is some 65 cm (25 inches) long, fashioned from a peeled and hollow forsythia branch that has been hardened with pine resin which helps resonation.

Berets

Granny's first serious encounter with wearing a beret was at school. We had

a new headmistress take over our girls' secondary modern and with her came

a radically different up-to-date uniform though still not obligatory.

Out went the ugly navy-blue gym-slip and white blouse, in came a mid-green

A-line skirt, finely striped cotton shirt in red and white with simple red ribbon

twist at the collar. To top the lot, the piece de resistance, a soft-green beret

with a swinging red silk tassel at the rear and school badge on the front. Wow,

did we look smart!

I loved my beret with its jaunty tassel. Others hated it with a passion!

Interestingly, looking back to my education in which we were streamed into A, B, or C classes, it is my impression that the 'A' streams who were apparently keener on their education, were the ones who chose to wear uniform. Other more rebellious girls turned up to class in what was deemed by the school as unsuitable attire which more than once occasioned them being sent home to change as their fashionable too-tight straight-skirts and high-heels stopped them from actually mounting the tall science-lab stools!

Granny was Head Girl Lucton County Secondary School for Girls, 1959/60

Certainly since leaving school nearly sixty years ago, I have never worn a felt beret though envious of those that can carry them off successfully since they radiate a certain chic associated largely with the French. Indeed, the Breton beret is well recognised and the practical appeal of similar headgear worn throughout Europe since the Middle Ages was taken up in earnest with the advent of the military tank in the First World War. Of necessity tank operatives needed close fitting hats that would keep on as they slipped through the small openings into their vehicles. Their berets were so successful that they were taken up by other armies and today, by different colours, method of shaping and badges, we are able to differentiate readily between forces and nations.

Granny only occasionally adorns herself with a hat nowadays and when she does, it is in Autumn or Winter with a knitted or crocheted one that drapes more along the softer lines of those worn in the past by Scots, painters, poets or other Bohemian types. Granny has a large choice of berets, as it is a favourite winter occupation to crochet new ones - the photo will show you exactly what I mean!