Book Launch

Book launch a success, guests included; councillor Elizabeth Nockolls, Dr Andrew Rogerson; Gressenhall Archaeological unit, Martin Alan; The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Susan Maddock; Norfolk Record Office, John Smallwood; King's Lynn & West Norfolk Archaeological Society, representives from the former Social Club, Brian Howling; Terrington St Clement History Group. Also one of the groups inspirations Dr.Paul Richards, local historian, Author and tutor to whome many of us were his studends at one time or another with the University of East Anglia.

We would like to say a big thankyou to everyone who attended our launch including the Lynn News & Advertiser with a special thanks to Lord Howard for the use of the reading room.

A big thankyou

The groups first book is released following an invitation by the Castle Rising Social Club to produce a booklet for them to use remaining funds left in their account after folding. The booklet would a way of distributing the remaining funds to the parish by giving a free copy to every household within Castle Rising.

After many hours of discussion and several chapters later it become apparent our proposed booklet would become a book. The group over several years has produced many researched topics, which we feel at some point needs publishing once completed. One of our problems is just as you feel you have reached a point in your reasearch where you could draw a conclusion, along comes a juicy piece of information which you feel has to be included.

Trues Yard Museum

Trues Yard can now officially call itself a research centre. Pat Midgley's (founder of Trues Yard) dream of sharing local knowledge with others, was officially launched yesterday with a reception of friends of trues yard, trustees and associates to celebrate this new landmark in the museums history. The museum is also up for an EDP (Eastern Daily Press) award for the best attraction in the county. It is currently believed to be in third position, but will be waiting for the official results in the near future.

Trues Yard is a remarkable place, when digging up local history, thanks to Pat and friends having saved thousands of valuable records over many years from landfills. It holds a vast record on the lost fishing community of North Lynn (North Enders) and the records also include a large photo collection, census records, church records, infact the collection covers many aspects of lynn and the families of lynn.

The Expanding Museum now has in its collection of buildings within its complex, two of lynn's last remaining fishermens cottages, a smoke house, former pub (Naval Reserve) and a smithy.

A large part of the museum covers life in Lynn including it maritime history, there's even a restored local fishing smack in the yard. Trues Yard now has a new sound and video library with local people covering periods upto two hundred years of local history.

Trues Yard for many years has been a place for education with students studying subjects like history at university levels, with studends from all over the area coming to use its rich primary records including some phd students.

More successful  tours around the village  Sept 09

Tue 21st, & Thurs 23rd July saw two more walks around the village for local residents to get a better understanding of the villages past history. Hosted by the Castle Rising History group various members provided information at different stages of the walk. We would to take this opportunity to thank  the local residents who took part for their kind comments and letters.

Members of the group to give talks to other groups

It seems the history group has found another role to play other than researching. Over the past 12 months we have not only been hosts to village tours but are now being asked to talk about our research and discoveries to other groups.

Group work on display for the castle

Shortly members of the public will be able to see contracted pieces of the groups work on display in the castle. The selected topics will rotate from time to time to maintain an interest.

Successful eveing

The group were hosts to the King's Lynn and West Norfolk Archaeological Society on Friday 22nd of May 2009. The evening   consisted of a tour around the village, stopping at points of interest where members of the history group gave a brief talk. These included the Church, Market Cross, Trinity Hospital, Night Marsh, Saxon Salt Industry and the Old Quay.

History Exhibition may 2008

The group hosted a successful  history weekend event  on the 14th/15th of May 2008, held in the Reading Rooms at Castle Rising by kind permission of Lord Howard.  Our exhibition consisted many displays two of which were artifacts provided by  Norman and Kevin, artefacts from the castle and  metal detecting finds from the region.  There was an outstanding display of various match stick models created by a local  skilled and patient man from North Wootton .  The main part of the exhibition were the display boards containing the majority of the groups research, spanning over one thousand years of local history.

We also had a fantastic time line created by John Bull, the printed sheet once opened out, covered over twelve feet in length.  However the highlight of the weekend  turn out to be our video show, a home video taken in the seventies, showed village life including local land marks now disappeared. The converted video copy on  DVD was gratefully received for the event.

We had over five hundred visitors over the weekend, in fact as many as the group  could handle for the size of the venue, considering most of the visitors spent over forty-five minutes with us far longer than we expected. Amongst the visitors was Dr. Paul Richards a former tutor of some of the group, studying local history. Dr Paul Richards made some very positive comments on our exhibition during his visit,  he said "we set a very good example for future students thinking of forming a history group, and he was please to see we had used many documented sources and made references " for which we are very grateful. An article and photo also appeared in the local Lynn News which was a nice piece of publicity for the group. Lord and Lady Howard were also impressed with the groups work as they made their way around the displays.