2019 Group venues

We will be going to: Colchester (for a talk), Thetford, Rayleigh or the Essex Hadleigh, Stoke by Nayland and Ipswich for the AGM

Thetford

We know Richard III was first buried (and exhumed many years later) on 25 August and it seems logical, although we don’t know exactly, that John Howard, Duke of Norfolk was interred on the same day. So, it seemed to be the ideal date to visit the 1107 Cluniac Priory, which lies only five minutes from the station. It was a dry day, which is very helpful because Thomas Cromwell’s commissioners were ruthless in implementing the Dissolution and so is the Priory today. The foundations and first foot of the walls remain as well as more at the north end, away from the entrance gate. Norfolk was moved here to join his family a few years after 1485 but before about 1540, when they were taken to St. Michael’s, Framlingham.

The local Wetherspoon, in the market place, bears the Howard heraldic name of the Red Lion and I lunched in there. The walls were festooned with local history – from the Iceni, the Priory building to the Dissolution and the local factories – but I couldn’t photograph these because there were diners in the way. There was a poster about Ayrton Senna, who lived in Attleborough during his Lotus days.

Just round the back was the Dads’ Army Museum, which gave me two ideas about Edward IV. He had a brother with an apparent drink problem and, whilst married, had feelings towards a widow named Grey, both of which apply to Captain Mainwaring.

In memory of John

About a hundred Society members attended a service, as near to six months after his passing as possible, at Westminster Cathedral. There were readings from Philippa Langley and Dave Perry and a variety of hymns and traditional music, including some from William Byrd, an ecumenical post-Reformation composer with strong Essex links.

I, like many of us over the years, have become used to following John to unfamiliar premises for heritage purposes and services and this tradition continues without his physical presence. The service was followed by a well-organised reception in the adjacent Cathedral Hall.