Boxing Day Pursuits.

[Vaughan]

May I be the first to wish members a happy Boxing Day?

Many happy boyhood memories for me, out hunting with harriers, or out with my father (and my school headmaster) as one of the beaters on  shoots in Norfolk.  In the winter term, my headmaster at Langley used to take my whole form off school for the day to provide the beaters for a big syndicate shoot near Scottow.  He then wrote it down in the school curriculum as "nature studies".  And what better way, for young boys to learn about the countryside, than a day out with an estate gamekeeper?

I also remember long hours, stood in a hide beside a pond, on evening duck flights on the Broads marshes.  My father used to rent a flight pond in the marsh behind Southgates main yard in Horning, which is now all marina moorings with new houses.  He paid one of Southgates' men, Mr Trory, to feed the pond with barley and they came to shoot about 4 times every winter.  The other members were Perci Percival, Ray Bondon, Miles Simpson and Gilly Tallowin, from the New Inn.

Over the years, father began to do less shooting, owing to rheumatism and one day, he got a phone call from Southgates :

"Is that the Commander? Thass Trory here".

"Hello Trory, how are you?"

"Well" (he say) "thass this here pond o' yours and oi int verra happy".

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that - what's the trouble?"

"Well thass loik this hair.  Oi go down the pond of an evenin' with a sack of barley, loik yew pay me for, but these days, oi keep a'hullin' on it in - them duck come a' tearkin' on it owt - but yew never come down hair a' shootin' on 'em!"

 

[Vaughan]

This has reminded me of another classic bit of "Norfolk" from a bill submitted by a blacksmith, to the local farmer :

Hay for the 'orse.

water for the 'orse.

a fetching' on 'im - a shoe 'in on 'im and a bringin' on 'im hoom agin.

[grendel]

well my boxing day pursuits will probably be atypical to most, so far today I have designed a handwheel in CAD for a draw bar on my lathe, so that I can use the MT3 collet sets i bought myself as a christmas present, then once that has completed it will be down to the lathe to fit it, and then maybe an hour or so spent making chips and round pieces of metal into smaller round pieces of metal.

[gancanny]

well, i cannot match our gredel.

     i have dragged myself from the sack,  put the kettle on and loaded the toaster,  put a match to the wood burner then rested,  i am now enjoying my second coffee in front of the hot stove watching the sleet coming down outside,  luvverly

[marshman]

Hi Vaughan, going to test your memory here!!

Are you sure the pond was down behind Southgates Yard 'cos there is still a pond, not used for shooting these days of course, at the other end of the village in the marshes behind what is now Clives new yard. Toddle off through the woods at the back of his and go down towards the old wind pump and its almost opposite Cockshoot Dyke.

Been down there a few times but it is fearfully wet in that area - looking from the aerial photos its now looks pretty brown and turgid - perhaps it needs mud pumping!  

 

[BroadAmbition]

Boxing Day pursuits?

Not for me, it'll be a proper lazy day.  House tidying, sorting out gifts from yesterday.  One in particular, it is some sort of waterproof shooting waistcoat only this one needs charging up!  Then apparently once out in the field I am supposed to switch it on and it becomes a heated body warmer - amazing.

What else that I want to get done?, well if it eventually stops raining there is Trevor Transit to bath and of course get Purdey dog out on a walk.  Today will be as I said a lazy day.  Tomorrow however me n Purdey will be out all day on a game shoot.  My first one this season that I'll actually be shouldering my game gun.  This then is our traditional Boxing Day Shoot on my mates farm estate

Griff

[floydraser]

After chucking my phone in the marina My old one is driving me mad, reminding me of why I replaced it. Checked online that Carphone Warehouse have what I want in stock and thought to save time I would nip down and fetch it. Fosse Park, Leicester - packed. No pandemic here apparently. "Sorry Sir, we're out of stock." Stuff it, I'll sit on my a**e at home and they can deliver it.

[Vaughan]

7 hours ago, marshman said:

Are you sure the pond was down behind Southgates Yard 'cos there is still a pond, not used for shooting these days of course, at the other end of the village in the marshes behind what is now Clives new yard.

If you look up "The Big Six" by Arthur Ransome, you are talking of the area he called The Wilderness, between The New Inn and the old Chumley and Hawkes boatyard, which used to be what is now called "carr".  Just marshy land overgrown with osier bushes.

If you Google it now and look on the satellite, you can see what they call Ropes Hill Dyke, with another lane beside it called Southquays Lane which leads down to what used to be Southgates Main Yard, just upstream of Horning Sailing Club.  Nowadays heavily developed with marina moorings and houses but in the 50s and 60s, just open marsh, with no trees. 

Perfect for duck shooting!  And well sited for a return to the Black Horse, just up the road, once night had fallen!

[gancanny]

will that be next door to   rabbits marsh,  i think thats it name

[Wussername]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

If you look up "The Big Six" by Arthur Ransome, you are talking of the area he called The Wilderness, between The New Inn and the old Chumley and Hawkes boatyard, which used to be what is now called "carr".  Just marshy land overgrown with osier bushes.

If you Google it now and look on the satellite, you can see what they call Ropes Hill Dyke, with another lane beside it called Southquays Lane which leads down to what used to be Southgates Main Yard, just upstream of Horning Sailing Club.  Nowadays heavily developed with marina moorings and houses but in the 50s and 60s, just open marsh, with no trees. 

Perfect for duck shooting!  And well sited for a return to the Black Horse, just up the road, once night had fallen!

Is it any wonder that bird life has decreased. You don't see many ducks waddling through a housing estate.

[gancanny]

crabbetts marsh,  that was the area in horning next to southgates old yard

[Wussername]

Excuse me, one minute we are discussing Broadland pursuits on Boxing Day which I personally found very interesting. Then we were hijacked, talking about lathes and stuff. 

[grendel]

5 minutes ago, Wussername said:

Excuse me, one minute we are discussing Broadland pursuits on Boxing Day which I personally found very interesting. Then we were hijacked, talking about lathes and stuff. 

sorry, I started it with my boxing day pursuits, and it is in the broadscot lounge.

[Wussername]

No offence meant. It is the way of forums.

[Vaughan]

18 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

My first one this season that I'll actually be shouldering my game gun.  This then is our traditional Boxing Day Shoot on my mates farm estate

I hadn't thought of that - I suppose there won't be shoots on Boxing Day this year, as you don't shoot game on a Sunday.

They do here in France, though!  Once they have shot everything they can find that moves, they then shoot road signs and speed cameras.

Now the latter, I regard as "fair game"!

[TheQ]

No one told the shoot round us, as they were definitely out shooting yesterday.

Snowflake Sailing club at Horning always have a special event on boxing Day. Yesterday they had two race series programmed at 11:15 and 12:15..

Normally it's a social event as well, but with covid restrictions and the bad weather I didn't attend this year...

Normally I'd be sailing in the event, but the boat owner I sail with, is still unable to sail after an accident two years ago and my own boat isn't ready to sail yet but it's getting closer...

 

[grendel]

10 hours ago, Wussername said:

Excuse me, one minute we are discussing Broadland pursuits on Boxing Day which I personally found very interesting. Then we were hijacked, talking about lathes and stuff. 

lathe discussion now moved into its own post.

[Vaughan]

Perhaps going off the subject a bit (perish the thought!) but it's my thread - so there. . . 

Around 1949 my father was at Southgates for a duck flight, and in an old dinghy dyke behind the sheds, he found an old yacht, sunk and abandoned, since before the war.  I think he fell in love with her because she reminded him of the gaff cutter that he had owned in Hong Kong, in the late 30s.  No-one knew who owned her and maybe, the owners had not survived the war, but father was eventually able to buy her from Southgates, raise her, get her back to Thorpe and completely re-build her.  As a young boy, I remember being taught how to pour the pitch in the seams of her teak laid deck.

She is still going today, as River Cruiser No 53, "Crystal" and here she is, winning the all-comers race at Barton Regatta, in 1958.

 

 

One of my oldest and dearest friends, John Walsh, an ex owner of Crystal in the late 60s, has passed away in the last few months, so I am also posting this in his memory.

[ChrisB]

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

No one told the shoot round us, as they were definitely out shooting yesterday.

Snowflake Sailing club at Horning always have a special event on boxing Day. Yesterday they had two race series programmed at 11:15 and 12:15..

Normally it's a social event as well, but with covid restrictions and the bad weather I didn't attend this year...

Normally I'd be sailing in the event, but the boat owner I sail with, is still unable to sail after an accident two years ago and my own boat isn't ready to sail yet but it's getting closer...

 

They were probably on a vermin drive or pigeon shooting. It is illegal to shoot game, including hare on a Sunday or Christmas Day.