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Contents

Blakeney Carmelite Friary

John Wright

Synopsis: The Carmelites came to Norfolk in the 1240s and built friaries in Blakeney and Burnham Norton as well as in Norwich, King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth. Blakeney was the last of these to be founded, sometime between 1304 and 1316. It provided support to the community for over 200 years before coming to an end in 1538 with Henry VIII’s dissolution of all friaries and monasteries. While some friaries remain in a ruined state the Blakeney buildings have disappeared almost without trace. The written records are equally sparse and do not provide enough information for a coherent history of the friary. This article brings together both the written and the physical evidence that is currently available.

Ploughing on: a plough pebble from Bale

Eric Hotblack

Synopsis: The writer explores the background of the plough pebble found while field walking in the parish of Field Dalling.

Some issues concerning the 1586 map of Blakeney Harbour

Frank Hawes

Synopsis: This note highlights some anomalies in the western side of the map around Stiffkey and suggests a possible reason for this.

The ‘Black Book of Stiffkey’: some notes on the church of St John the Baptist, Stiffkey by the Rev. C Harold Fitch

Rev. Dr T J Fawcett

Synopsis: Charles Harold Fitch, rector of Stiffkey from 1932 to 1942, and successor to Harold Davidson, kept a book in which he compiled information on St John’s church.1 While not all of his notes merit publication, here I have selected three main topics which are worth putting on the record: these are (a) his notes on the church’s terriers (lists of property and land belonging to the church) from 1845 to 1933; (b) a description of the restoration work of 1935 and the opinion of the Dean of Norwich when he visited the church then and (c) a description of the gravestones or wall monuments inside the church. A fuller transcription is housed in the Blakeney Area Historical Society’s History Centre.

The Blakeney Lifeboat Station

John Wright

Synopsis: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) closed its lifeboat station at Blakeney in 1935. Although much has been published about the activities of the station no comprehensive history has been written. This article is not comprehensive but does present a summary account of the life of the Blakeney station from earliest times to its closure, based largely on material already published.

The Cley 1914 – 1918 War Project

Richard Jefferson

Synopsis: This article, the outcome of a project undertaken for the 100th anniversary of the First World War by the author, lists those servicemen connected with Cley who died in the First World War, adding ten more names to the 29 men listed on the War Memorial in St Margaret’s Church. The article also tells the often tragic stories of some of these men.