WHICH DRAMATIC FIGURE IS TELLING THE TRUTH?

Edmund Theodore Fisher Yes, I am indeed a member of that most famous of theatrical families in local stage history the Fishers. Throughout most of the 19th century we spelt glamour and romance in dozens of towns and scores of villages. My speciality was the Bard and I often reduced audiences to tears with my Othello, Hamlet Shylock and Richard lll. I was born in East Dereham and first made a dramatic mark as a pantomime fool with a group in the town called The Running Angels. Several other members of my family also took part. So that is me the elegant, erect and mildly enigmatic Edmund Theodore Fisher Theo to my intimates. My grave is in Dereham churchyard my heavenly stage. Rupert Mendoza I set hearts a fluttering on stages in Norfolk and Suffolk in those wonderfully artistic years just before the first world war. I was born Rex Makepeace at Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham, the only child of Myrtle and Jem Makepeace. I adopted my theatrical name of Rupert Mendoza on auditioning for the part of a Spanish bullfighter in a now forgotten epic called Crimson Tear produced by the Swaffham Theatrical Company in 1899. The part propelled me to fame not only in East Anglia but also in London, York and Exeter. I concentrated on roles here in Norfolk after a nasty accident during a run at Drury Lane in London. I slipped off the stage and injuries left me unable to take any parts involving rapid movement. My speciality became Greek gods standing at the back of the stage glorying over both cast and audience. Clifford J Arthurton I was a famous actor with the Company of Comedians who performed in the Black Swan Playhouse just a few years before the first Norwich Theatre Royal was built and opened in 1758. As the name suggests, the Black Swan Playhouse known inevitably as the Mucky Duck was based in a famous old inn not far from St Peter Mancroft Church, and my father was landlord in the 1740s. I used my middle initial on all playhouse posters but never revealed what it stood for. Some thought it was James, others Joshua my fathers name but it really stood for Jacob, a name of which I was not fond in the slightest. Modesty ought to prevail here but it

CALL ME AN OLD BLUFFER - 7

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may help you if I confess that my Julius Caesar in Norwich, 1752, was ranked by many good critics as the finest interpretation ever seen in a British stage. Toweringly effective and He has no peer were just two of the plaudits. Thats me, Clifford J Arthurton and please keep quiet about the J! John Brunton Tis I, forsooth, one of the most honoured names associated with the Norwich Theatre Royal. Whisper this name with reverence John Brunton. It was during my management at the end of the 18th century that this splendid building must have reached the zenith of its fame. I was born in Norwich, son of a soap-boiler, and served my apprenticeship as a grocer in London before taking to the stage. Perhaps it was an apron stage in honour of my previous calling. I fathered three actress daughters of divine talent, Ann, Louie and Elizabeth, and we also had a son known as John Brunton Junior. He must be remembered in these parts as he opened the Lynn Theatre Royal so brilliantly in 1815. I am John Brunton Senior a manager, an actor and a philanthropist who did his best in the names of religion and morality.

Festive fun in the air for another cracker of a show. Left to right - Sid Kipper, Keith Skipper, David Clayton, Canon Ivan Bailey and Roy Waller.

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LATE ARRIVALS FOR THE DIOCESAN BALL My lords, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our new incumbent at St Stephens who can only stay a matter of weeks. Parson Through. Please welcome now our good friends from the Convent of the Sacred Heart. The nun with the washing machine is Sistermatic and those carrying begging bowls and holding small radios to their ears are Little Transisters of the Poor. And finally our curate Mark whos shortly off to Rome to play for the priests football team made up of talented part-timers.... Interregnum!

NORFOLK FIRSTS: Norfolks first boy band, The Temperamental Seven, had

their roots in Repps-with-Bastwick where they entertained at a local nightclub, The Pickled Onion, along with self-styled stripper, The Lady of Shallott. The band fell out over who should wear the coveted top hat as leader but were reunited 60 years later for a busking contest in Burnham Deepdale. Fishing line Clam Every Mountain

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ENGLISH AS SHE ARE SPOKE I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble but not you On hiccough, thorough, lough and through? Well done! And now you wish perhaps To learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird, And dead: its said like bed not bead For goodness sake dont call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt). A moth is not a moth in mother Nor both in bother, broth in brother, And here is not a match for there Nor dear and fear for bear and pear, And then theres dose and rose and lose Just look them up and goose and choose. And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword, And do and go and thwart and cart, Come, come! Ive hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! Id mastered it when I was five!

Fishing line It Haddock to be You

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NORFOLK FIRSTS: Norfolks first Apprentice Cobbler of the Year,

sponsored by First Steps of Booton in 1949, was five-year-old Ivor Cutting from Edgefield. He went on to take do-it-yourself classes in Shelfanger, basket weaving in Stratton Strawless and hairdressing in Crimplesham.

Fishing line Kiss Me, Skate

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WIT AND WISDOM OF SID KIPPER The Trans-Norfolk Highway The Trans-Norfolk Highway goes from Lynn to Mundesley, or viceversa, depending on which way up you hold the map. Mind you, some people say it dont exist. Well, theyre just showing off their own ignorance, when theyd be far better hiding it under a bushel, because the roads even got a number. Its the B1145. My antecedor, Gentleman Jack Kipper, had a famous ride along it, and he couldnt have done that if it werent there, could he? No, he could not is the answer, in case you were wondering or hidden under a bushel. He was a notorious highwayman, because he rode a horse. If hed been on foot hed have been a footpad. The way to progress from one job to the other was by way of being a horse thief. On his ride, he notoriously leapt the turnpike bar at Gaywood Hall to avoid paying. Unfortunately, his horse didnt, so old Gent had to pay to go back and get it; and then pay again to take it through. They were very strict in them days. The Trans-Norfolk goes through loads of places. Places like North Elmham, which hundreds of years ago used to be a city, but got relegated after a run of poor results. And Reepham, which at one time had three churches, but one got razed not long after it got raised, in the Great Fire of Reepham in 1543. Another idea them Londoners nicked. Then theres Cawston, which has its own whinery. And Aylsham, Banningham, Felmingham and North Walsham in fact the TransNorfolk is full of hams, due to once being a major pig-droving route. Banningham is where they tried to stop it, but it was all to know of ale, as they say, and nothing come of it. After Swafield, with its naturist reserve, and Knapton, which we dont talk about where I come from, at last its Mundesley. And them four words not something you hear said too often. Of course, my little village of St Just-near-Trunch lies just off the Trans-Norfolk, so we get the breast of both worlds. We get the convenience of travel without all the hustle and bustle although I dont know what people have got against bustles anyway.

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WHAT ON EARTH WAS CROTCH TROLLING? Nurse Troller Crotch-trolling was the charming name given to youngsters antics as they waited for the nit nurse at the village school. It is believed to have been first used at Baconsthorpe in the mid-1880s when a notorious nurse called Edith Troller did the rounds with Dettol and such to get rid of head lice. As the word implies, itching and scratching were not confined to the scalp and so nurses were asked for remedies to treat all parts of the anatomy. Take a break Crotch-trolling was a form of knitting employed by East Anglian women taking a break from work on the land, especially at potato-picking time. It could be done in formation with three or more participants taking it in turn to use the needles and then pass them on. There were crotch-trolling championships at the end of the 19th century at Wolferton on the Royal Estate when the Prince of Wales provided a trophy for the winners. Poachers delight Crotch-trolling was an old method of angling for pike used extensively on the Norfolk Broads. Fishermen had no rod but had the usual reel and with the help of a crotch stick they could hurl bait a considerable distance into the water and then draw it gently towards them. It was much used by poachers as there was no rod or pole to betray their dark intentions. It looked as if they were simply passing the time away. Musical cheers Crotch-trolling was an early form of improvisation on piano or organ and one famous exponent, Jacob Large of Kirby Bedon, used it to stirring effect on a harmonium he played in the village chapel. He claimed to offer two tunes at once in the event of some members of the congregation switching from one to the other during a hymn with more than a single format. Jacob could also add a clinking noise on his instrument if the collection was being taken at the same time.

CALL ME AN OLD BLUFFER - 8

Fishing line Salmon Chanting Evening

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