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North Walsham
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North Walsham is a large market town situated fourteen
miles north of Norwich. The
name 'Walsham' derives from Wael's homestead. St.
Nicholas' Church - which is the second largest in
Norfolk - dates from the 15th Century - but
unfortunately lost its tower in 1724.
St. Nicholas' Church
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The town is home to The Paston Grammar School - which was
founded in 1606 by Sir William Paston. Distinguished
'Old Pastonians' include Lord Nelson (and his brother),
Henry Rider Haggard, Stephen Fry and Allan Smethurst - The
Singing Postman. Today, it is still an educational
establishment - namely Paston College.
Paston School Gate
Sir William Paston and the Rev Michael Tilles (the
school's first teacher) are both remembered in the
school song:
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Sir William Paston, he up and said
The Norfolk lads, I am sore afraid,
Have overmuch liberty
Come hither Rev Michael Tylles,
and into their heads we'll hammer
Godly learning to guide their wills
Arithmetic, writing and grammar.(See
complete song) |
Sir William
Paston - a descendant of the letter-writing Pastons -
has a magnificent tomb inside St. Nicholas' Church. It
was designed for him by John Key of London.
Sir William Paston, St. Nicholas Church
St Nicholas also contains the grave of a long-forgotten
poet called Henry Headley. He was born at Irstead in
1766 - the son of the Vicar of North Walsham - and was
educated at the Norwich
School and at Oxford University. In 1780 he
published his first collection entitled Poems and
Other Pieces. He was unable to marry Myra - the girl
he loved and after marrying another in haste - lived for
some time in Matlock in Derbyshire. However, he was
already suffering from consumption and, despite a trip
to the warmer climes of Portugal, died tragically at the
age of 23. He is buried next to his parents.
North Walsham has a number of other literary
associations:
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Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) In Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Dancing
Men - Holmes and Watson take the train from North
Walsham to Ridling Thorpe. (The fictional village of
Ridling Thorpe is probably a composite of Ridlington and
Edingthorpe.) Here is
Watson's description of the landscape they see from the
train window:
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'...yet there was much to interest us, for we were
passing through as singular a countryside as any in
England, where a few scattered cottages represented the
population today, while on every hand enormous square-towered churches
bristled up from the flat green landscape and told of
the glory and prosperity of old East Anglia. At last the
violet rim of the German ocean appeared over the
green edge of the Norfolk coast, and the driver pointed
with his whip to two old brick and timber gables which
projected from a grove of trees. 'That's Ridling Thorpe
manor,' said he.' |
In the story Holmes cracks a code composed of dancing
men - an idea which Conan Doyle picked up while staying
at the Hill House Hotel in
Happisburgh during his
motoring holiday in 1903.
George Borrow (1803-81)
In Lavengro (1851) George Borrow records a boxing
match which takes place in North Walsham on 17th July
1820. Borrow's father was a pugilist.
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'I think I now see them upon the bowling-green, the men
of renown, amidst hundreds of people with no renown at
all, who gaze upon them with timid wonder. Fame, after
all, is a glorious thing, though it lasts only for a
day. There's Cribb, the champion of England, and perhaps
the best man in England; there he is, with his huge,
massive figure, and face wonderfully like that of a
lion. There is Belcher, the younger, not the mighty one,
who is gone to his place, but the Teucer Belcher, the
most scientific pugilist that ever entered a ring, only
wanting strength to be, I won't say what. He appears to
walk before me now, as he did that evening, with his
white hat, white greatcoat, thin, genteel figure,
springy step, and keen determined eye.' |
Agatha Christie (1890-1976)During the 1930s the
crime writer used to spend her summer holidays at the
Beechwood Hotel in the town. She used to travel up to
Norfolk by train from London and would write in the
summer house in the garden. The hotel was owned by two
doctors and after dinner Agatha and they used to discuss
poisons.
The author's pestle and mortar and eight of her
favourite leather-bound books were given to the hotel
and can still be seen today. |
Mal Peet (1947-Peet grew up on a council
estate in North Walsham and was educated at the Paston
School before studying English and American Studies at
Warwick University. He described his family life in the
town as 'emotionally impaired'. He has written a number
of books for young adults - often with sport-related
plots e.g. Keeper (2003) and The Penalty
(2006). He was once quoted as saying:
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'Like many people (I suspect) I had no real interest in
children's literature until I had children of my own.
It'll sound a bit evangelical, I suppose, but I truly
believe that there are few things more important,
useful, and protective than sharing stories with your
children. After their bath, heaped into a big, deep
chair, doing the voices, discussing the pictures,
softening your voice as the rhythm of their breathing
deepens... You start to understand why certain books
work and others don't.' |
Peet's 2011 novel Life: An Exploded Diagram is
set in Norfolk in the fictional village of Bratton
Morley and tells the story of Clem Ackroyd. Clem falls
in love with Frankie who is the daughter of a rich
Norfolk farmer and their passionate love affair is
played out against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile
Crisis.
Stephen Fry (1957-
In his autobiography Moab Is My Washpot
Stephen Fry describes how he hated attending Paston School and
how he used to play truant. (He was sent here by his parents
after being expelled from Uppingham.)
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'Paston School lived up to all my prejudices, as things
always will to the prejudiced. I did not take to the
place one bit. I can remember barely anything about it,
except that it was there that I started to smoke and
there that I learned to play pinball: not within the
school grounds, but within the town of North Walsham.
For within a very short space of time I started to cut
the school dead. I would get on the Cawston bus and
dismount at either Aylsham or North Walsham and then
head straight for a cafe and spend the day pinballing,
listening to records by Slade, the Sweet, Wizzard, Suzi
Quatro and smoking interminable Carlton Premiums, Number
Sixes and Embassy Regals.' |
Links:
More photographs of North Walsham
More Paston Family Photographs
More Norfolk Sherlock Holmes photos |
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism