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This is the photograph from Florence Boardman's 1915-1917 photo album showing the caption below it. I am assuming that the caption means that this is the Horning Ferry boat, but you could read it as saying that this is a boat at Horning Ferry. Of course, there might have been other boats used as well. It is possible that the captions were added later although they are in the same hand throughout the album. Nigel Ludham Community Archive Group

I have been doing lots of updates to the Ludham Archive website www.ludhamarchive.org.uk There are new photographs and information all over the site. I am particularly pleased to have at last got some pictures of the Fairy Garden and Ludham Manor Bird Sanctuary. Lots of people remember the Fairy Garden but pictures are very hard to come by. If anyone has any memories of the Fairy Garden or any pictures, we would really like to hear from you. For now, take a look at the pictures we have got. Click the "Interesting Stuff" button. Nigel Ludham

Cleverly done, but it does seem to be the triumph of graphics over exhibits. Nigel

There used to be a little museum there which covered WWII. The museum is long gone. The propeller was one of the exhibits. I think the contents went to another museum after it closed. Nigel Ludham

It's a really good film. Fantastic quality for 80 year old amateur film. I particularly liked the view of the Ant will all the old wind pumps turning. Nigel

I really don't know much about the film at all other than it was shot on cine and has been copied to DVD at some point. It must be early 70s and is at the main yard. Any information would be appreciated. I think it looks like good amateur and it is probably 8mm judging by the quality. Nigel

I was recently given a copy of a cine film showing changeover day at Southgates boatyard. Must have been early to mid 1970s. It ends showing the yard closed and derelict. It's a good film and nicely made, but there is no indication on it about who made it. Has anyone ever seen this film or know anything about it? Nigel Ludham

Neil Sorry, I should have commented earlier on your post about Ludham. As you have seen, Ludham has somehow managed to retain that strong sense of community which has been lost in so many places. Having lived for many years in London, Ludham seems like simply another world. I was walking into the village the other morning and I met my next door neighbour returning from Throwers with a newspaper. We stopped to chat and he said that he had met so many people wanting to mardle that it had already taken him one and a half hours just to get the paper. The Ludham Archive Group is a manifestation of this sense of community. Local people take an interest in the history of the village and actively help people enquiring about family trees and long lost relatives. Just this week I sent a family tree to a person in Australia taking him back to the 17th century. We have also traced a lost harmonium this week (also for a person in Australia), but that's another story. Nigel Ludham

I now have further information about the closure of Parkinson's shop at Ludham Bridge. It still looks correct that the shop was removed in the early 1950s and before 1952. However, the shop actually closed during the war. The Government were concerned that the bridge would be a target for bombs as it was a strategic crossing point. So they requisitioned the shop and closed it down. The Parkinsons were moved to the bungalow with the verandah a little bit further upstream from the bridge. Their daughter recalls playing in the derelict shop after the war. The bridge itself was defended during the war and the positions for the spigot mortars can still be seen. The mill upstream of the bridge was used as a sort of 2 story pill box. The shop would have been virtually in the line of fire. The Parkinsons never reopened the shop. Mrs Parkinson taught at the village school and Mr Parkinson used to drive daily to a job in Dereham. Maybe more information will come in but that's all I have for now. Nigel Ludham Community Archive Group

Neil I'm not quite sure what a "Ludhamite" is. I live in Ludham so I suppose that counts. I keep adding stuff to the website, but the volume of new material flowing into the Ludham Archive always exceeds my ability to research and add it. I have got loads of "Then and Now" pictures but some are more interesting than others. Currently I am working on a page on the Church clock and I have been promised some new photographs of the P38 crash in the High Street. If there are any aspects of Ludham that people would like added to the website, then just let me know. The thing we do the most is help people researching their family trees. Two enquiries a week is not unusual. Glad you liked the site. Hopefully, there will be more information about the shop soon. Nigel Ludham Community Archive Group

I forgot to add that there is a "then and now" version of this photograph on the Ludham Archive website at http://www.ludhamarchive.org.uk/then.htm Nigel

Yes, that's right. I will let you know if we get any information regarding the reasons. Nigel

Hi Carol We discussed Parkinson's shop at the Ludham Archive Group meeting today. The feeling is that the shop was removed in the early 1950s, no later than 1952. One of our members has taken this away for further research and I will get back to you if this brings any results. Nigel

Hi Carol I will ask Mike Fuller next time I see him. I expect he will know. I wonder if it went when the bridge was fortified as part of the WWII defences? The area round Ludham Bridge has changed a lot since those days. The public staithe was downstream of the bridge. When the new bridge was built it was on a different alignment and took part of the old staithe. The current staithe is in the area shown in the photograph. Nigel

Hi Carol There is this site http://www.remembernorfolk.org/ which has got collections of archive photos on it. It took over from ARCH which was a Council funded project until the money ran out. It's something we avoided getting involved with at the Ludham Archive and we decided to do our own website. Commanet is no more so websites with that name will no longer work. I think Comma went bust. Nigel Ludham

Today, I was looking through a collection of cine film we have recently been given. I found some quite good quality footage taken inside the Dog at Christmas 1973. It is quite short but it is significant from a history point of view. The film needs to be converted to a digital format and this will take a while. There is loads more taken all over The Broads. Most of it I have not even looked at yet. Brian - the Ludham Archive website is www.ludhamarchive.org.uk Nigel Ludham

The Ludham Archive Group would be very interested in any memories of The Dog or indeed of anything else related to Ludham. enquiries@ludhamarchive.org.uk It is proving very difficult to find any historical information about The Dog in the 19th Century and before. We are still looking. Nigel

Hi Lorraine No need to post the picture, I can simply copy it from this site. However, if you have any other pictures which could be added to the Archive, could you please send them to enquiries@ludhamarchive.org.uk. Thank you very much for this and for the interesting information. I will get back to you with more information as requested. The mop is not any sort of code. It will be obvious when it turns up. Maybe not for another couple of weeks. Best wishes Nigel

Lorraine I will get Pop Snelling's address and send it to you. Next time I see Beulah, I will find out what she knows. Her father was the landlord of the King's Arms during the war and so they, no doubt, knew about the goings on at The Dog. Can I have a copy of the picture for the Ludham Archive please? Any others you may have would also be appreciated. By the way. If somebody tries to leave a mop with you for me to collect, I don't actually want it so it is yours. Nigel Ludham

Hi Lorraine As you say, there seems to be little information out there about The Dog Inn. It gets the odd mention so we know it was there but nobody seems to have bothered to photograph it or to write down anything that went on there. Maybe the building itself is the best guide as the history must be written into the brickwork. Pop Snelling's book "Ludham, A Norfolk Village 1800 - 1900" ISBN 0 9535293 0 4 (Joan M Snelling) mentions The Dog in a number of places. It seems that in the 19th century there were far less buildings between the Inn and the medieval Ludham Bridge and it was probably a quiet place. However, it was on the main road and near to Ludham Hall. I suspect Hall Road was more important in the past. It was an enclosure road, wide with areas of grazing at the sides. You can track the innkeepers and families from the census records but this only goes back as far as 1841. It is possible that Pop Snelling has more information. She is still alive and lives in France now. You could write to her as she takes a keen interest in Ludham still. Have you spoken to Beulah Gowing on the subject? If not, I can ask her next time I see her in the village. The Ludham Archive would be interested in any information you can find. Best wishes Nigel Ludham

Hi All Sorry about the delay in replying. I have only just been alerted to this thread. I don't look in here very often. I can't add a lot to the history of the Dog above that which has been covered so far. The Ludham Archive has got quite a good picture by Pop Snelling (author of a couple of books about Ludham history) and there is a map in the Records Office in Norwich showing The Dog. However as the map is dated 1912 it does not add much. However, it does show the road junction as "The Dog Corner" and the road which we call Hall Road as "Dog Inn Road" This is handwritten so it may well reflect what the locals called it at the time. Best wishes Nigel Chairman, Ludham Community Archive Group www.ludhamarchive.org.uk

Thanks Barry With reference to the plane crash, there is a booklet about it giving all the details. There is also this website http://www.station131.co.uk/55th/Pilots ... J%20Lt.htm You will see the Lightning was a Lockheed P38. Lt Goudelock was the pilot. He returned to Ludham on several occasions from his home in Canada and only died recently. Nigel Ludham

That photograph is of a Lightning, but the one which crashed in Ludham is an earlier propeller aircraft made in America. The incident happened during W.W.II and there were no fast jets back then. Nigel

Ludham may seem to be a sleepy sort of place now, but it once had an RAF airfield and an army camp in it. Not surprisingly, it frequently came under attack and had a number of plane crashes. The brief story of the incident between Throwers and the Butchers was that an American lightning was returning after some outing and it was damaged and tried to land at RAF Ludham. Unfortunately, it did not make it and crashed into the Village ending up in burning wreckage in the middle of the high street. Two locals were given medals for bravery when they rescued the pilot. Nigel Ludham

Thanks for the picture of the ad Springsong. Can we have a copy in the Ludham archive? I notice that the ad above is for the Ludham Butcher. Presumably, this is England's butchers. They were located to the left of Throwers where the car park now is. They had a lucky escape when an American plane crash landed in the alleyway between the shops. Nigel Ludham