A Monthly Publication

Dick Melton

 I was riding around the town on my bike this morning when a gentleman shouted to me and asked what I would be writing about this month.  “I don’t know,” I replied, “but I do know that it won’t be about piers, cycle paths, empty shops or car parking charges.”

A lady gave me some very old newspapers.  One of them was The Lynn News and Advertiser

dated 28^th December 1951 and in it was the following report, entitled: ‘Looking back, Looking forward at Hunstanton.’

“With 1951 drawing to a close, Hunstanton can look back on a year not without its achievements.  The town had progressed in several ways during the last twelve months and looks like progressing further in the coming year.  The Urban District Council continued with its housing plans steadily during 1951.  Ten more houses were completed and occupied in the Hill Street estate and another 14 are well advanced and will be completed by March if everything goes according to schedule. A tender for 14 two-bed roomed houses on the estate has been accepted and the building of these is due to start in January with completion due before the end of 1952.

The Council is looking forward to the completion of arrangements for the buying of 12 more acres on the Hill Street site.  When this land is owned by the Council another 100 houses will be built on it.  Another big step forward by the Council has been the conversion of The Sandringham Hotel into a block of offices and flats.  The 12 flats there will be occupied by next month.  The Council will occupy some of the offices and the rest have been let to private firms.

Tenders for Sewerage Scheme for Old Hunstanton will be accepted up until the last day of the New Year and it is hoped that the work will begin before the end of 1952.  The council plan for a sea wall to close the 300 hundred yard gap between Hunstanton and Heacham coast defences has been submitted to the Ministry and this scheme is also likely to come into being during the coming year. (In fact it was not built until 1953, after the floods of that year. D.M.)   

Private builders have been busy during the past year.  Six new houses were completed on the Cliff Estate and with some of the controls on private building lifted recently by the Government this number looks set to rise substantially during 1952.  The past year has also seen work started on the new Secondary Modern School.  This work will continue during the next year and is due to be completed in 1954.

An increasing number of Americans have moved into the town from the near by air base.  This has increased the pressure on housing.  Several large houses have been turned into flats to accommodate them.  The in-flux of Americans has seen large numbers of high-powered cars parked on the streets and some shopkeepers are making the best of this ‘invasion’ – one bar has installed a Juke Box.

An advancement on the cultural side of town life was seen in July when the Norfolk County Library opened a permanent branch at the Old Sandringham.  The Library has proved popular in the community.  Its 1,800 readers include a Baron of sixty and babes of six.  Out of its stock of 8,500 books, 6,000 were borrowed in November.

The holiday season was about average.  Some blame the Festival of Britain Exhibitions in London; others say it was because money was tighter. The Council’s sea front undertakings were more successful than originally anticipated, but it could not be called a good season.  Some of the high-lights of the summer were the Championship Sailing Week, the visit of the New Zealand Bowls Team, the Open Tennis Tournament and the Inter-County Tennis Championships.  The Inter-County and Open Tennis Championships will be held in Hunstanton again next year.”

Well now, we got some rough old weather, in’t we?  As I sit here now it’s snowing quite hard.  A lot of country boys say it’s just like the winters we had in years gone by.  Yes, we have had a few rough winters but not of late.  In 1938 snow fell on Norfolk every day from 15^th December until well after Christmas and places like Hunstanton, Swaffham and Wells were cut off for several days.  Again, in 1947 Hunstanton was cut off.  In those days Redgate Hill was a series of bends and the snow just filled the road so a number of prisoners were brought in from the P.O.W camp at Snettisham Beach, to dig out the roads with shovels.  Again Hunstanton was cut off by snow for a day or two in 1956, 1969 and 1978.  For many years the Highways department would put up snow fences to stop the snow from blowing onto the roads.

In Norfolk we have only had snow fall five times on Christmas Day since 1900: - in 1906, 1923, 1927, 1938 and 1970.  In the winter of 1963 we had three months of snow and ice from January to March, then after that, in The Fens they had severe flooding with the land being under water for weeks.  In 1963 the sea froze in Hunstanton and Heacham and many people went to the beach and picked up frozen fish including lobsters which had been frozen into the ice.  People always say that we have rough weather for the Mart in King’s Lynn on 14^th February – but it doesn’t always happen that way,

Well, that’s about all for now. Spring is on the way and many folks around the town are having a paint up ready for the summer season.  The lads down in the fair have been busy with their paint brushes all winter as have the men on the caravan sites.  There are plenty of Easter eggs foe sale in Tesco’s so it will soon be sunny again in Sunny Hunny.