Hickling History

[Guest]

Just came across a new (to me) website, which might be of interest to anyone who enjoys the history of the Norfolk Broads. It's called "Voices of Hickling" and includes interviews with longtime Hickling residents, talking about their memories of the area. It's apparently a fairly new website and will be continually added to, as time goes on... 

I hope it's okay, to provide a link to another website, but I thought this might be of interest to a few of us...   http://www.voicesofhickling.co.uk/

[TheQ]

A friend, Harry Nudd, was one of the first to be recorded for it, (wearing the brown hat, on the meet the voices page), Sadly he died early last year, If he was in full Norfolk mardle mode not many will understand him.. A genuine Mashman he was Born in the house alongside a windpump as his father was the keeper of the pump..

I've inherited his model railway and a few of his tools..

[JennyMorgan]

I met Harry in Lathams when it was Lathams rather than QD. He was talking to a proper talking Norfolk friend, I was introduced to Harry, not that I had anything much to add to the conversation, but I did rather wish that I had had my cassette recorder with me, if you know what one of those is! My now departed friend worked in the warehouse, apparently it was no good putting him on the tills as none of the 'izzerts' or 'settlers' would have understood him either! He too was 'Po'er' born & bred. His wife worked in the fishing tackle shop but that was because she was bilingual, she could also speak English, wen she spuuk orl fancy!

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

I met Harry in Lathams when it was Lathams rather than QD. He was talking to a proper talking Norfolk friend, I was introduced to Harry, not that I had anything much to add to the conversation, but I did rather wish that I had had my cassette recorder with me, if you know what one of those is! My now departed friend worked in the warehouse, apparently it was no good putting him on the tills as none of the 'izzerts' or 'settlers' would have understood him either! He too was 'Po'er' born & bred. His wife worked in the fishing tackle shop but that was because she was bilingual, she could also speak English, wen she spuuk orl fancy!

It's a funny thing, but when I first came to Norfolk and Suffolk, I didn't have a problem with the 'accent', as I was used to 'marshland Essex' which isn't a million miles different. A few of the 'dialect words' caught me out at first though. Then when I moved to live in Gorleston / Burgh Castle for a few years, I picked up the dialect too. In the seventies, it was still fairly 'strong', particularly in the older folk. A lot of the old boys I knew had worked on the herring drifters, others had worked on the land, each had their own dialect words.

When people say there is a 'Norfolk Dialect', actually, there are lots of Norfolk/Suffolk dialects. Many people I knew could tell straight away which part of Norfolk/Suffolk someone came from, simply by the way they spoke. 'Norwich Norfolk' was different to 'Kings Lynn Norfolk', which was different to 'Yarmouth Norfolk' and so on... And as for Suffolk, well that's a whole other story...

[TheQ]

58 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

I met Harry in Lathams when it was Lathams rather than QD. He was talking to a proper talking Norfolk friend, I was introduced to Harry, not that I had anything much to add to the conversation, but I did rather wish that I had had my cassette recorder with me, if you know what one of those is! My now departed friend worked in the warehouse, apparently it was no good putting him on the tills as none of the 'izzerts' or 'settlers' would have understood him either! He too was 'Po'er' born & bred. His wife worked in the fishing tackle shop but that was because she was bilingual, she could also speak English, wen she spuuk orl fancy!

That's because Hazel is a  Londoner (near enough somewhere between there and Watford I think) I should see her Friday...

[JennyMorgan]

4 hours ago, kingfisher666 said:

It's a funny thing, but when I first came to Norfolk and Suffolk, I didn't have a problem with the 'accent', as I was used to 'marshland Essex' which isn't a million miles different. A few of the 'dialect words' caught me out at first though. Then when I moved to live in Gorleston / Burgh Castle for a few years, I picked up the dialect too. In the seventies, it was still fairly 'strong', particularly in the older folk. A lot of the old boys I knew had worked on the herring drifters, others had worked on the land, each had their own dialect words.

When people say there is a 'Norfolk Dialect', actually, there are lots of Norfolk/Suffolk dialects. Many people I knew could tell straight away which part of Norfolk/Suffolk someone came from, simply by the way they spoke. 'Norwich Norfolk' was different to 'Kings Lynn Norfolk', which was different to 'Yarmouth Norfolk' and so on... And as for Suffolk, well that's a whole other story...

Getting on for 45 years ago my wife to be & I were in the Anchor Bleu at Bosham in Sussex. We sat one side of a chimney breast chatting away when a body looked round the corner & told us that I came from Oulton Broad and that my girl-friend was from Lowestoft, he came from Camps Heath. He was quite right! Strange thing is that I went to school in the heart of Norfolk, place called Taverham, where more than half the pupils were rich farmers, or boatyard owner's sons, would have thought that I would have picked that up & lost the Suffolk influence.

 

[JennyMorgan]

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

That's because Hazel is a  Londoner (near enough somewhere between there and Watford I think) I should see her Friday...

Not the wife of Harry, at least I didn't think so. Confused or what? Did Hazel work in the fishing tackle department? If it was she was a lovely lady and we always had a chat.

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Getting on for 45 years ago my wife to be & I were in the Anchor Bleu at Bosham in Sussex. We sat one side of a chimney breast chatting away when a body looked round the corner & told us that I came from Oulton Broad and that my girl-friend was from Lowestoft, he came from Camps Heath. He was quite right! Strange thing is that I went to school in the heart of Norfolk, place called Taverham, where more than half the pupils were rich farmers, or boatyard owner's sons, would have thought that I would have picked that up & lost the Suffolk influence.

 

You can take the boy out of Suffolk, but you can't take Suffolk out of the boy...

[TheQ]

14 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Not the wife of Harry, at least I didn't think so. Confused or what? Did Hazel work in the fishing tackle department? If it was she was a lovely lady and we always had a chat.

Hazels family came up from london-ish When she was a teenager, and ran the shop in Hickling. What she did once when the shop closed,  I don't know. But recently I know it was not retail..

[Vaughan]

14 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

where more than half the pupils were rich farmers, or boatyard owner's sons,

That's because the boatyard owners' sons had been brung up praarper.

[Timbo]

What an amazing and important historical resource! 

I have to admit that I fell in love with Hickling village over this last two years. As someone brought up in a village, Hickling still has that village feel of community to it sadly missing from my home village in Lincolnshire these days.

As for the Norfolk accent, I'm getting better at interpreting. There are some similarities with my fenland Lincolnshire accent, we have more Dutch words in our dialect and in my case more than a touch of 'Donny'. There's still one chap at Martham that I cannot understand at all. A really friendly and helpful chap but I don't understand a word the chap says.

Next time we get the 'Old' Coot's Club together we really should get them recorded!

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

That's because the boatyard owners' sons had been brung up praarper.

Not loik them little ol' boys from down aroun' Luusstorft.

[grendel]

in the deepest darkest parts of kent we have a rural accent - sounds very west country, I swear its just farm workers the world over develop these accents to confuse furriners

[JennyMorgan]

Anything but Estuary English please! To this untutored ear that sounds more like a speech impediment than it does an accent. Mind you, said users of Estuary English might well consider Norfolk in exactly the same light!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Anything but Estuary English please! To this untutored ear that sounds more like a speech impediment than it does an accent. Mind you, said users of Estuary English might well consider Norfolk in exactly the same light!

It's a sad, but undeniable fact, these days you'll here more 'Estuary English' spoken in many areas of Norfolk, than the very watered down (estuary water) local accent/dialect...

[Bound2Please]

30 minutes ago, kingfisher666 said:

Estuary English' spoken

Try Mersea Island or Harwich old town and parts of Wivenhoe and Rowhedge then

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, kingfisher666 said:

It's a sad, but undeniable fact, these days you'll here more 'Estuary English' spoken in many areas of Norfolk, than the very watered down (estuary water) local accent/dialect...

Sad but true! 

[TheQ]

On 11/07/2018 at 16:57, JennyMorgan said:

Not the wife of Harry, at least I didn't think so. Confused or what? Did Hazel work in the fishing tackle department? If it was she was a lovely lady and we always had a chat.

I've found out why you confused ,  according to Hazel, there were three Harry Nudds in the area all related. The one on the Hickling voices site, was Hazel's Harry

[Wildfuzz]

Was Harry the gent who until a couple of years ago looked after the parish staithe at Hickling, if so I used to see him as I went to work.

Timbo is right, Hickling still has that village feel, I have been lucky enough to live there for the past 10 years, the Greyhound is a proper village pub with all the characters that go with it, watching the football this week was a hoot, free chips and sausages to.

[TheQ]

Not 100% sure but Highly likely, he was fairly short lightly  built and practically lived in Overalls. He did a fair bit for the sailing club as well..

[JennyMorgan]

On ‎13‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 23:06, TheQ said:

I've found out why you confused ,  according to Hazel, there were three Harry Nudds in the area all related. The one on the Hickling voices site, was Hazel's Harry

Not all brothers then, economising on names! Grandfather, father and son perhaps? Maybe Hazel has a couple of spares, just in case!

Wonder which one I met?

[TheQ]

cousins were involved..