Summer/Autumn 2004

Summer/Autumn
●
Issue No.8
HOLKHAM NEWSLETTER
L
ooking back over the last seven issues of the Newsletter has been a forceful reminder of all that has
happened at Holkham since the first Newsletter was published at the end of the year 2000, almost four
years ago. In the summer of 2001, issue 1 reminds us of how lucky we were to escape the worst effects
of the Foot and Mouth epidemic.Who now remembers that dreadful time and the sufferings of countless
farmers whose life’s work was destroyed, sometimes overnight? In that same year, we bought the 20,000 tonne
grain storage facility at Bunkers Hill from Dalgety, and that summer, all the harvest grain was handled there.
On the 8th July,The Victoria Hotel was re-opened after extensive refurbishment and to great acclaim.
Windowcraft was established in 2002, while issue 4 details the great party we all enjoyed in celebration of
the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.Those with good memories will remember that that occasion was the first at
which we sold Holkham made ice cream — or did we give it away! In the spring of 2003, the Accounts staff
moved to their new offices. In that same year, our oldest tenant, Ralph Harrison, died, but at the same time
the youngest member of the Holkham family was born; my grandson, Ned.The family is pictured above at
Ned’s christening earlier this year. At the end of last year we commissioned our gigantic new reservoir, and I
returned to Holkham, permanently I hope, after a two-day-a-week, five-year stint in London at the Historic
Houses’ Association. I am determined to restrict my time in the office, and get out and about as I used to do
in the early days of my stewardship of the Estate.
Earlier this summer, Eric Absolon, Bygones Curator, well past the usual retiring age, did in fact retire to
spend more time with his family. Eric came to us as curator in February 2001, and immediately set about
revamping what had become a rather tired Bygones Museum. The west wing was completely renovated in
time for opening in the summer of that year. During the winter of 2001/2002 the dairy equipment room and
the entrance hall received the same treatment.The winter of 2002/2003 was spent moving the History of
Farming Exhibition from what is now the Accounts Office, to the old Game Larder adjacent to the Bygones
Entrance. It is light, airy and a vast improvement on the old.
By the summer of 2003, the east wing had been comprehensively renovated, ready for our summer visitors.
With the conversion of the old workshop to a room displaying the Estate’s conservation policies, the
refurbishment of Bygones is virtually complete. So, my very grateful thanks to Eric and to all that his energy,
enthusiasm and knowledge have contributed to the rejuvenation of Bygones.
The Earl of Leicester
www.holkham.co.uk
Then there were repairs:
— Elizabeth Alderson for mending netts £0.6.0
— To John Hazle for mending the great leathern jack £0.12.0
Mr Might [a rope maker at Wells], jack lines, bell rope, oyl
etc £1.4.0
Archives
LIFE in the Archives Office at the top of Kitchen Wing in the
Hall continues uneventfully, so here are two more alphabetical
gleanings from the past.
M is for Music
The fourth Earl of Leicester, an accomplished classical violinist,
is the only member of the family known to have been an
excellent musician. Over the centuries, however, a wide variety
of music has been enjoyed at Holkham.
In the old manor house in the 1650s, the Puritan ideas of the
Commonwealth did not prevent John Coke and his family
celebrating Christmas and other occasions with the help of
visiting fiddlers and pipers.‘Paul the fiddler’ was paid 10 shillings,
while ‘the other fiddlers’ received £1 between them.
In Thomas Coke’s day, during the last years of the old manor
house, the servants often provided music. In the early 1720s, an
apprentice servant,Tom Robinson, was taught, not only to read
and write, but also to play the ‘short horn’ and the ‘straight
horn’. One of the footmen, Philip Bender, was taught to play
the French horn in 1726, and some years later, another footman,
Hiero Somering, played the bass: a new bow and set of strings
was bought for him in 1737, when Abraham Thomas, the house
steward, also bought ‘songs, hautboy and bassoon reeds etc’.
ABOVE: Can any reader suggest where this photo might have
been taken, probably around 1913? The caption appears to be
‘The C. of N. [perhaps Coke of Norfolk] What ho!!’
Hopefully, these servants had perhaps shown some natural
aptitude for music. Perhaps they provided a distant background
sound, rather than music to be appreciated at close quarters. For
the birthday of Thomas Coke’s wayward son, Edward, in 1740, a
servant was paid for ‘going about the country to engage musick’,
and the band he assembled came from Norwich,Thetford and
Lynn, in addition to a man from Sir Jacob Astley’s to play
the harpsichord.
One of the first purchases by the young second Earl, in 1844,
was a Broadwood grand piano, costing £145.18.00, but we do
not know who played it. Later in the 19th century, small bands
were hired to provide the music for balls, particularly at
Christmas and the New Year, when the Prince of Wales was
often present. Sometimes Walter Howlett, of Norwich, was asked
to bring two or three performers, including a pianist and
violinist. On other occasions, a band was hired from London:
sometimes as few as four musicians, and never more than seven,
‘with no drum’, as ‘the dancing saloon [the Statue Gallery] is
so small’.
Lady Silvia remembers family entertainment in the 1920s,
when she played the piano, her eldest brother,Tommy (the
future fifth Earl) played the drums, and Uncle Joe (Joe Airlie,
married to Bridget Coke) the banjo, while ‘Granny (wife of the
third Earl) and any hapless young men danced away – foxtrots
and the Charleston, which was all the rage’.
N is for Necessaries
The 18th century account books include a category called
‘Necessaries’, covering a wide variety of goods and services that
were not included under provisions or other headings.These
extracts are from the mid 1730s, when the family still occupied
the old manor house, but work was starting on the new Hall.
Some payments reimbursed servants (such as Mr Roblau and the
house porter,William Tomley), while others were made direct to
local tradesmen.
ABOVE: Paterson, the Scottish head gardener in the 1940s, was
often asked to play his pipes on the terrace.
Items for cleaning the house appear frequently, such as house
sand, fullers earth (a particularly absorbent type of clay),‘whiting’
and birch brooms. Sometimes an extra charwoman,Amy
Shultram, was employed for a few days, at 6d per day.‘The bug
man’ was paid £1.1.0 per year, to cope with bed bugs and other
undesirables, and the chimney sweep appears regularly.
Some household goods were also included under this heading:
— Mr Ivory for 4 dozen ordinary case knives & forks £1.3.0
— To Ann Sutton for 26 dozen & ? of ordinary wooden
trenchers £1.6.6.
— Paid Mr Willcocks for 98 yards of fine Holland & 96 yards of
cours [coarse] ditto for sheeting £23.9.6
— William Spencer for 14 wooden chairs for the hall £2.11.0
— William Tomley for 2 pistol tinder boxes etc £0.9.9
— Martha Townshend dairy maid for a butter pott, a scimming
dish etc, £0.2.0
— Mr Markant for cloth for pudding bags £0.7.2
— Mr Roblau for oxes bladders £0.3.6.
Occasionally, a chance entry gives us more significant
information.We know that Thomas Coke took pains to include
the most up-to-date sanitary arrangements in his new hall, but at
least one entry makes it clear that he took care over bathing
arrangements in the old house:‘By Mr Roblau to a cooper for
taking ye bathing tub to pieces, moving it into another room &
putting it together again’ — £0.5.0.
Christine Hiskey
Archivist
ABOVE:This map shows the Hall at the end of Thomas Coke’s
life.The pleasure gardens, probably including the orangery, were
laid out to the south-east of the house, and the kitchen gardens
were near the south end of the lake. Find out more about the
orangery in the next Holkham Newsletter.
Holkham Farming Company Ltd
WITH all the recent warm weather at the time of writing,
we are desperate for rain.The irony is that the irrigation
system is not quite up and running.We are awaiting the
connection of mains power before we can pump water and
check for leaks. By the time you read this, we will be
squirting water across potatoes and carrots. I suspect any leaks
in the underground main will be easy to spot and could
become a new tourist attraction for Holkham.
many people commented on the better quality work than
previous years.
The sugar beet drilling this year has gone well with
some interruptions due to rain.With a smaller workforce
than last year, we have bought a front mounted cultivator so
the beet drilling and cultivation was a one-pass operation on
the majority of the land.This has reduced the wheelings
across fields and plant emergence has been excellent.This
should transfer into better yields also.
The workshop at Longlands has had a well-deserved tidy
and Johnny Hall thought he had come to work on the wrong
farm when he returned from holiday. His latest project is an
overhaul of the Woods Department tractor.The gas bottles are
full, so there should be no problem getting things apart.
All credit to Kevin Bray for struggling with the two
operations simultaneously. It does mean he got a new tractor
and that the rows are more bendy than usual. Apparently, the
cultivator pulls the tractor round curves. Last year it was the
drill pulling the tractor about.To be fair, we did find half way
through the season that the cultivator was made on the skew
so it’s a fair excuse. He will have a few months to think of
one for next year.The whole job was helped by the fact the
land was ploughed and pressed neatly in the first place. Kent
Cooper spent a long time setting the big plough up and
The grain store has been less busy this year, as we did not
store wheat for anyone else. Paul Bloomfield has delivered all
the wheat into the mill at Egmere over the winter and now
has started on cleaning the drier from top to bottom.
Hopefully this means no fires this harvest.
The cattle at Warham are being turned out to grass
and we are busy making silage for next winter.The new
wintering yard was not finished for last year but will be
completed over the summer to hopefully give Jimmy Frary
a less stressful life.
We look forward to a long warm summer, but with the
intervention of Sod’s law, we may get a cold wet one as we
now have irrigation on tap.
Michael Turner
Farm Manager
St.Withburga’s
Church
BYGONES
MUSEUM
AT first glance, the larger part of Bygones does not look greatly
different to last year. But, in fact, much has taken place behind
the scenes.
St.Withburga’s is in good shape — thanks to much
appreciated current support from lots of people as well as
all those who have cared for, restored and watched over this
historic building over the centuries.
We were determined that the very reserve collection, not
usually on display to the public, should be properly organised
and laid out in a manner befitting to the historic value of the
collection. Apart from anything else, this would allow us, in due
course, to more accurately identify all the artefacts and produce
a complete catalogue of some 4,000 items.
ABOVE: The refurbished Bygones entrance hall.
I am pleased to say that the physical work in completing the
upstairs gallery where the collection is housed is now
complete.This only happened because of the enthusiasm of all
the Bygones staff in cleaning, arranging and labelling all the
artefacts. Before that could take place there was much work to
be done in painting the many wooden shelves and display areas,
cladding and painting the ceiling; turning a rather dilapidated
store room into a splendid collections gallery that we are
proud to show to the public by arrangement. Great credit
belongs to Brian Ayton, Sally Harvey and Jill Barrett for their
hard work.
The other major development is the completely new entrance
hall. Gone is the small and rather off-putting kiosk with Jill
appearing behind a glass screen, trying to look welcoming. In its
place, an inviting looking curved and open desk, displaying
leaflets, postcards and information. Around the walls are large,
colour photographs of other attractions within the museum.
All this is designed to create a more open and inviting scene
inviting hesitant visitors to come in rather than pass by. If our
Easter attendance figures are anything to go by, it seems to be
working.We are well up on last year’s figures.
Beyond that, Brian has reorganised the yard to give a more
attractive display of the steam engines, cars and coaches that
has received favourable comment.We are very proud of our
team efforts and the results justify the pride. All in all, we are
looking forward to a good summer.
Eric Absolon
Curator
Teamwork
at Bygones
LAST time I contributed to the Holkham Newsletter was at
the height of the Foot and Mouth Crisis and I commented
that I felt as if I was at Camp Granada.Things have changed
a lot since then and the Bygones team has scaled new
heights. Eric Absolon, the Curator or Sally Harvey, Assistant
Curator usually keep you up-to-date on how the museum is
progressing, so I thought I’d tell you about the team.
First is Jill Barrett, the longest serving member of staff at
Bygones. I believe Jill has been here for some 100 years, and
had an easy time before I arrived, then she had to start
working for a living.Where would we be without Jill? Well,
with no tea and no sweets that’s for sure. She cleans the
rooms up and down stairs, cleans cars and artefacts. In fact,
she cleans everything, that’s why we keep moving! She paints
(as you can see), she does not stop and in the summer, Jill is
our cashier.
Then there is Sally.The biggest problem I have with Sally
is finding her. Is she in the office at the computer doing the
cataloguing, on the phone, or is she in the reserve collection,
This is a special year for St.Withburga’s because we are at
last able to get on with the repair of our wonderful set of
bells.We are unable to ring the bells in the proper way
because their framework of chestnut beams (they should have
been oak) is no longer strong enough to cope with the
momentum of heavy bells swinging in a full circle.The
heaviest bell weighs nearly a ton; so one big job is to install a
supporting steel framework to strengthen the structure.
The other task we have to do is to repair the headstocks
and bearings of the bells, which will involve taking them
down from the tower and to a bell foundry.
We are, however, able to ring the bells in the meantime
by means of a carillon (made on the Estate) which works by
rotating a drum like an enormous musical box.That in turn,
by a wonderful Heath Robinson set of wires and pulleys,
raises hammers, which strike the rim of each bell without
danger to the structure and according to a tune, determined
by the position of rods set into the carillon drum.
We have raised some of the cost of doing all this, with
particular support from the proceeds of the Holkham
Country Fair.We are delighted and very grateful that Lord
Leicester has agreed that the remainder of the cost will be
covered from Country Fair proceeds.We hope that this work
will be completed during the winter months of 2004/2005.
ABOVE: Jill Barrett, Sally Harvey and Eric Absolon in painting mode.
If all goes to plan, we hope that by the spring of next year
we will be looking for volunteers to form our own Holkham
team of bell-ringers. If anyone is interested, please talk to
Marilyn at the Estate Office, tel: (01328) 713101.
sorting that out, is she downstairs redesigning yet another
room, or is she running around chasing bugs?
This year we will as usual be holding a barbecue, on
Saturday, 3rd July. As an innovation, it will be at the Temple.
Then there is Eric. He cares passionately for the museum
and the collection. As you can see, he is not frightened to
don his overalls to do manual work as well.
Rex Vick is our wizard volunteer. Find something unusual
and he will invariably come up with a weird and wonderful
explanation as to what it is and explains things is such a way
that you are almost transported back in time.Then there is
me, what do I do? Just wait, I’m thinking . . oh yes, I drive
old cars around the Park, I play with steam engines, I clean, I
paint, I repair where necessary, I annoy Sally and Jill on a
regular basis, and eat all the sweets. Funnily enough, there
isn’t a photo of me working!
Brian Ayton
(Officially) Bygones Engineer
HOLKHAM
GOLF COURSE
THREE years ago, before Foot and Mouth curtailed this
activity, there was a vibrant golf syndicate of estate employees
who regularly played golf on the five-hole course in the Park.
We have been approached by a number of employees keen to
resurrect the club and play golf in the Park.Would anyone else
interested in playing please contact Jane Haynes, the Agent’s
p.a. in the Estate Office, tel: (01328) 713130, by the 15th July,
so that a new club can be formed.
Viscount Coke
ABOVE: St.Withburga’s Church in Holkham Park is in good shape.
The tickets (£9 for adults, £5 for children) are marvellous
value for money – they cover a full and delicious barbecue
supper and initial drinks.There will also be a raffle, which is
famous for the quality of its prizes.
Our annual fete will be at its usual location on the North
side of the Hall on Sunday 15th August, from 12noon.
We had an excellent concert in April in the Marble
Hall with four outstanding young classical guitarists, and
are planning a further concert in the autumn.There is
no doubt that being able to hold events like this in the
wonderful and historic surroundings of the Hall means that
we are able to attract lots of people who might otherwise,
and understandably, say that they have enough to do
supporting their own churches.
Finally, a reminder that St.Withburga’s is not simply an
Estate church — it is open to anyone who would like to
come.We have services every Sunday except when there are
five Sundays in the month — Matins on the first and third
Sundays at 10am and Communion on the second and fourth
Sundays at 10.30am.We would love to see more of you there.
Richard Worsley
Churchwarden
BELOW:The Temple, the new venue for this year’s barbecue in aid
of St.Withburga’s church.
The Hall
RESTORATION
WORK CONTINUES
THERE have been many events and concerts
in the house since I last contributed to the
Holkham Newsletter.
WE are continuing our restoration/maintenance programme
inside the house.
Heinz Liebrecht, who is 95, has continued to
organise the Society for the Performing Arts in
North Norfolk (SPANN) concerts, of which we
host three in the autumn and three in the spring
here in the Marble Hall.
The wonderful team of ladies, from the King’s Lynn and
District Decorative and Fine Arts Society (NADFAS) under
the expert tuition of Rachel Langley from the Blickling
Conservation Studio, have finished repairing all the cut velvet
settees and chairs in the South Dining Room.
Heinz always manages to find excellent quality
performers — the most sensational concert of
the latest season was an ensemble called Red
Priest, which is one of the success stories on the
international music scene today.
It is painstaking work, but they now look wonderful.The ladies
have just started work on the magnificent 17th century silk
and silver gilt embroidered coverlet, which covers the bed in
the Green State Bedroom.
Named after the flame-haired priest, Antonio
Vivaldi, this ensemble played Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons, an enthralling, edge of the seat
performance. Indeed, several times during the
performance Piers Adams, who is acknowledged
as the best recorder player in the world today,
played two recorders at the same time.
ABOVE:The
beautiful new
carpet in the
South Drawing
Room was woven
in Bulgaria.
RIGHT: Members
of the Red Priest
ensemble playing
Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons at a
recent concert in
the Marble Hall.
The Edinburgh Quartet, with Leslie Howard on the
piano, who has recorded all of Lizst’s piano music, was
another memorable evening.The third concert — Ivan
Klansky — who is one of today’s leading Czech pianists, gave
us a wonderful programme of Smetana and Chopin.We are
indebted to Heinz for bringing such wonderful music to the
North Norfolk Coast — often at considerable cost to himself
personally, as he insists on the highest standards.These lovely
evenings are much appreciated by all who attend.
For years, I have been looking for suitable old carpets for
some of the State Rooms to replace the threadbare ones.
FAMILY
ENGAGEMENT
Archie flew Sabina to Florence,
(the city where they had their
first date) and proposed to her
on Valentine’s Day this year.
The couple are to be married
at St.Withburga’s Church,
Holkham, on Saturday,
18th September.
ABOVE: Sabina and Archie
are to be married at St.
Withburga’s church in
Holkham Park.
The Countess of Leicester
Finally, last year we took the decision to have three new
carpets hand woven, in Bulgaria, to an 18th century design,
for the South Drawing Room, the Saloon and the South
Dining Room. David Bamford, of Hand Woven Carpets,
from Powys,Wales, organised this for us, and we are delighted
with the results.The carpets are kept down all the year
round, so that visitors to the house can enjoy them too,
unlike in many other houses where they are rolled up when
rooms are open to the public.
ARTIST Andrew Festing has completed his latest group
portrait of Holkham staff — this time depicting all those
who work in the house.
The picture is brilliant, the likenesses and composition
excellent. Just after it was finished it was exhibited at the
Mall Galleries in London. At the end of April, I took 12 of
the staff in the picture by train to London to see it.
Goodbye Mick
SADLY, Mick Thompson,
who has worked at Holkham
for 35 years, retires this
summer – we will miss his
wit and humour.
Thank you to all our wonderful cleaning staff who have
worked so hard to clean the house ready for opening. It is a
huge task to polish the floors, scour the stone floors, polish
brass fireplaces and the dozens of door handles — the house
now looks sparkling!
Finally, a big thank you to Peter Godwin, our Head
Gardener, whom I have discovered is an excellent flower
arranger, and he has helped me many times in the past year
to do the flowers in the Hall.
The Countess of Leicester
ABOVE: Andrew Festing’s portrait of the house staff. BELOW:
Those members of staff who went on a trip to London with
Lady Leicester, to see the portrait on exhibition at the Mall
Galleries. Here, pictured in Trafalgar Square.
The picture is now hanging in the Old Kitchen and
includes the cleaning staff, the Administrator and Deputy
Administrator, the cook and her dog, the carpenter, the
electrician, the librarian and archivist — 16 in total.
It has been an extremely difficult task to find the right size,
the right colour and the right price.
Lilias Guyon has been back several times to restore the
gilding on and below the dado and various other places
where the gold has been rubbed off in cleaning over the
years in the South Drawing Room, Saloon, South Dining
Room and the Statue Gallery.They all look marvellous.This
year we will be continuing the re-gilding in the Landscape
Room and North State Dining Room.
Picture by: Colin de Chair
LADY Leicester’s daughter,
Sabina de Chair, who is
currently working as a shoe
designer in New York, is to be
married to Archie Struthers
this autumn.
It is in a very poor condition at the moment, and is a real
labour of love, but I can see a great improvement already. Ian
Barrett, our carpenter, has built a special stitching table for
them to work on which should make the task a bit easier.
House staff go on
trip to London
ABOVE: Mick Thompson retires
after 35 years at Holkham.
The Hall Administrator,
Mike Daley, says, “His
contribution to the
maintenance of the house and
the support he has given me
is incalculable. I am extremely
glad to have known him and
he will be greatly missed.
Thanks Mick and goodbye.
Can you tell me where you
hid your radio please?”
We all had a very happy day, negotiated the underground
to Charing Cross, and walked up the Mall to Horseguards
and Buckingham Palace, and then back to the Mall
Galleries.
After a group photograph underneath the portrait, we
had a ride on the London Eye. A mini bus then drove us
around some more London sights and finally back to King’s
Cross station to catch our train back to Norfolk.
The Countess of Leicester
BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE HALL
SINCE I last wrote, the North Dining Room
lighting project has been completed. All the old
1950/60s lighting has been removed and replaced
by modern, low wattage dimmable lights.The old
system projected 3 kilowatts of heat at the
plaster ceiling, whereas the new lights only emit
1.4 kilowatts, which is a win, win situation if ever
there was one.The new lights will cause less
damage to the fabric in the room and make a
further saving on energy bills.
so much, that they might consider doing an
Antiques Roadshow here, which would be
brilliant publicity for us.
Mention should also be made of our two
stalwart “all weather” car park attendants.The
two Johns (Loose and Ramm) have produced
record results for car park ticket sales at Lady
Anne’s Drive, the entrance to Holkham Beach.
Rain and storm are not a deterrent to them
–— much to the surprise of some folk who
thought they would find the drive un-guarded.
At long last they have a hut that looks the part
and will give them much better accommodation
throughout the year. Many thanks John x 2 for
all your efforts past, present and future.
Our resident electrician, Lou Bailey, from Kings &
Barnhams, has also refurbished the chandelier in
the State Sitting Room.When he took it down, he ABOVE: BBC antiques expert,
Tim Wonnacott presenting
discovered two sets of initials inside the fitting.
‘Bargain Hunt Daytime’ from
One was dated 1921, which is presumably when
Holkham Hall.
the old AC system was put in place. The other
Our Easter and May Bank Holiday openings went pretty well,
dates from 1951, when the AC system was removed and a DC
with good numbers of visitors passing through the house.
installation carried out. I assume ‘LB woz ere’ was duly added to
the decoration before the chandelier went back up!
Welcome back to all our Room Stewards this year. Sadly, June
Doy is not able to return this season, which is a great shame.
Gary Raven continues to make excellent progress at college
Thanks for all your work June and I hope all goes well with you
where he’s aiming to establish a record time for his
in the future.
transformation from Houseman to Plumber. I am planning to get
him fitted with a satellite navigation tracking system just in case
You will also notice that we have a new guidebook this year,
Barry Turner from the Building Department tries to kidnap him.
which should last for the next five or six years. An awful lot of
work was done on this during the winter months and we are
Over the winter, Ian Barrett has done some excellent work on
very proud of the finished result. I took delivery of the first
the rowing boat on the lake, used by the house staff and the
thousand copies just before we opened at Easter. It really looks
gamekeepers. It was in a disgraceful state, but has now been fully
very good indeed and has proved popular with visitors to the
refurbished. It even has two oars of the same length, so no more
house.The new publication is in a larger format with more text
novelty random rowing on the lake.
and information to enhance the excellent pictures. I’m sure it
won’t take long to shift the 25,000 copies we’ve ordered.
During April, we had a visit from a television crew from BBC
Bristol who were here to film Tim Wonnacott presenting “Bargain
Mike Daley
Hunt – Daytime”. The series will be broadcast during
Hall Administrator
October/November this year. I’m hoping that they liked the Hall
Holkham Foods Ltd
AFTER the winter break a new management team has been
brought in to take the food and catering businesses on to the
next level of operation.
Ann Matthews is the new supervisor of the Stables Café
and the Holkham Centre tearooms, along with responsibility
for the operation of the mobile unit on Lady Anne’s drive.
Ann comes with a wealth of experience in running catering
operations from pubs and clubs to major function rooms. Her
enthusiasm and professionalism is already having a major
impact on the business after only 12 weeks.
Chris Wright joined the team at the beginning of April as
manager. Chris brings over 30 years’ experience of operations
in many areas of food industry, including meat processing,
dairy, frozen foods, dry food ingredients and has a passion for
quality products.
Holkham Foods is setting its sights high with new ranges
of products using ingredients from the Estate. Initially
introducing baked and smoked venison, beef sausages and
burgers. Soups are being developed using the skills of the
cooks in the Stables.
The most exciting prospect is the possibility of
introducing Holkham bottled table water, using water drawn
from the wells on the estate.
The Holkham Foods team is looking forward to a year of
change and growth.
Holkham Pottery
THE winter season proved to be more eventful than usual for
the gift shop staff, due to the extended opening hours at the
Holkham Centre.
However, trade in the shop, food hall and café gave such a
boost to business that we are planning to be open for longer in
the so called ‘close’ season this year too.
Both the Easter and early May Bank Holidays saw many
visitors come to Holkham and it was very busy at both the
Holkham Centre and the Pottery Shop. Easter also saw the
launch of the new Bridgewater/Holkham Pottery mugs.
Designed for us by Matthew Rice (Emma Bridgewater’s
husband), the brightly coloured mugs celebrate the county
of Norfolk and its heroes, as well as its famous seaside activities
such as sailing and shrimping.
The mugs, which are available in seven different designs and
two sizes (350ml and 200ml), are priced at £7.50 and £6.50
respectively.The full range is on sale at both of our gift shops.
The Pottery Shop is open every day, except Wednesdays,
until 25th October, from 10am until 5.30pm, while the
Holkham Centre is open seven days a week from 10am until
5.30pm until the end of October, when further winter
opening times will be publicised.
staff in Jill Watson,
Caroline Muncey,
Judy Howard and
Julie Gould, we also
say hello to Dianne
Johnson,Tricia Cox
and Isabella Day,
who have all settled
in very well already.
ABOVE: One of the new Holkham
Pottery and Bridgewater mugs.
The Holkham
Staff Induction Days, which were introduced last year, have
been well received by all the gift shop staff who have been
on them. Dianne, Isabella and Caroline went on the last one,
and Tricia Cox and Jane Bray went on the one in June. I went
on one of the first Induction Days last year, and although I
have been at Holkham for quite a while, I found it most
enlightening and enjoyable. Each Head of Department spoke
very well about their responsibilities, which helped us all to
understand more about how we all fit into Holkham as
a whole.
All of us in the Pottery Shop the Gallery,Tearooms, Post
Office and Gift Shop at Holkham Centre are looking forward
to the main summer season getting under way.
Sylvia Daley
Retail Manager
This season, as well as welcoming back regular gift shop
HOLKHAM ART GALLERY
His work was extremely popular last
year and attracted many visitors to
the gallery.
2003 was an extremely successful
year for the Art Gallery and many
complimentary comments were
received from visitors.
The Gallery opened for the 2004
season on 5th April and has been
further enhanced by additional lighting.
A number of new exhibitors have
joined the well-established group,
some of whom have displayed work
at the gallery for many years.The
range of work is more varied including
both traditional and more
contemporary pieces.
ABOVE: An example of the well-known artist,
Alwyn Crawshaw’s work. He will be exhibiting at
the gallery in August.
Several special exhibitions are planned
between July and November, starting with the distinctive
watercolours of the North Norfolk area by Katie Millard.
This exhibition is followed by a new collection of
stunning photographs of the Norfolk coast by
John Hansell.
An exhibition of work by Alwyn and
June Crawshaw starts on 27th August
and it will be their first major
exhibition in Norfolk since their very
successful exhibition in Tokyo. It will
cover a variety of subject matter in
watercolour, acrylic and oil, with a
strong Norfolk influence.Alwyn and
June are well known for their
television series, numerous books and
videos; they will be in the gallery the
first day of the exhibition.
Later in the season are two further exhibitions focusing on the
magic of beach huts and the wildlife of the area, both will feature
the work of various artists involving a wide variety of media
and styles.
Suzanne Pannell
Gallery Manager
Game Department
GARDENS
DEPARTMENT
AS the first pheasant chicks begin to hatch, the weather
has suddenly turned quite grim. However, it is early days
and hopefully the long, dry days of early summer will
return soon.
THE new turf is growing well on the lawn between the Stables Café
and the Pottery Shop at the Hall. It looks very smart when it is
striped out using our Honda mower with the back roller.
The cold, wet spring has actually helped us, as the weather
brought with it the much needed moisture we lacked last
year.This has in turn, boosted the insect population, which
are so vital for the young pheasant and partridge chicks to
feed on in the first two weeks of life.
The lavender, which lines the edge of the lawn in the courtyard, was
planted in mid March and at the time of writing, it is growing well.
We have put posts in at intervals and attached a small rope to try
to stop people from stepping over and damaging it.
When the weather has allowed, we have treated the lawns on the
terraces with moss killer.We have also scarified twice, to remove
the dead moss and thatch.Thatch is a layer of dead plant particles
and residual lawn cuttings that varies in thickness.These form a layer
that allows little air through and hinders the growth of the grass.A
thick layer of thatch reduces the oxygen exchange and is an obstacle
to the supply of water and nutrients.We will aerate the grass using a
slitter to get water and nutrients down to the roots instead of
making the roots come to the surface to get them, as this reduces
their ability to withstand another hot summer.
ABOVE:The Handkerchief tree in the Arboretum was
particularly attractive in May this year.
ready for the paint; then we used the Linseed paint and have given
them two coats with one more still to go.
We have also power washed all the wooden furniture for the café at
the Hall.This got rid of all the grime and old teak oil, before applying
a coat of Holkham Linseed wax; which will protect them while
bringing out the colour of the wood well.We are currently doing
the same with the patio furniture on the terraces for Lord and
Lady Leicester.
The Gardens staff have become adept at painting too, especially as
we gave the two new pavilions at Model Farm a few coats in April.
Firstly, we applied a coat of Holkham Linseed oil to get the wood
Peter Godwin
Head Gardener
Hector’s Housing Ltd
ONLY having been in charge at Hector’s Housing Ltd for a
matter of months, I can truly say that my feet have hardly
touched the ground. However, it was landing on the ground
a bit too hard that sidelined me for nearly four months with
a nasty foot injury.
I really felt for everyone at Hector’s whilst sitting at home
in front of a blazing fire, whilst watching blizzards, driving
rain and freezing temperatures, and wishing I could be
working on our new mill tower at Hindringham!
Former Project Manager, Jason Byard, resigned from his
position with Hector’s towards the end of March. After
helping to steer Hector’s Housing through several successful
major projects since the company started in 1997, Jason felt
the time was right to turn his energies to running his own
business and we wish him well.
Over the past six months the Upper Mill site at
Hindringham has been our main project, which, after a
difficult winter, is gradually coming to a successful
completion.The four properties, in terms of design and
overall quality, are creating a lot of interest and praise in the
private sector housing market, which is a great credit to the
skill, enthusiasm and application of the Hector’s team.The
Building Maintenance joinery shop and Windowcraft
departments have also made major contributions in terms
of joinery and joinery finishes.
Other projects on-going at the moment include a new
cottage-style house at Wighton, new aggregate bins for the
Building Maintenance Department and a pump house for
Holkham Farming Company at Holkham reservoir.
Hector’s continued emphasis on staff development and
personnel training has resulted in notable successes for Robin
Owen and Mark Fullwood in their chosen disciplines, with
Robin gaining Student of the Year for bricklaying and Mark
successfully completing his NVQ Level 2 in plumbing, both
at the College of West Anglia in King’s Lynn.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our
sometimes unsung heroes in our office at Longlands: Cherry,
who I expect to know everything I ask her (and invariably
does); Natalie, whose enthusiasm and willingness to help is a
great asset to Hector’s and Holkham Linseed Paints, and
Amanda, whose product knowledge and sales expertise in
Holkham Linseed Paints has certainly educated me in the
value of the products.
And, lastly, a special thanks to Lord Coke for appointing
me and, with his leadership, I am sure we can make a valid
contribution to the continued success of all that is good at
Holkham. I look forward to meeting as many Holkham
people as possible in the near future.
Clifford Jeffrey
Project Manager
Although it was warmer at this time last year, many of the
early broods of ducklings and pheasants perished, as there
weren’t enough insects around. However, if you keep your
eyes peeled when you are driving through the park, you will
notice a good number of pheasant chicks and lots of
ducklings whizzing about on the lake.
It is good to see many agri-environment schemes put in
place by the Estate and its tenants, coming to fruition.The
six metre headlands around many of the fields will act as a
wildlife sanctuary and corridor.These headlands should go
some way to reversing the decline of the insect population,
which, in the long term, will help much of our threatened
wildlife, not just game birds. Many types of wildflowers (often
called weeds) are now emerging in some of these headlands
that have been allowed to regenerate naturally, which shows
bio-diversity in action.
The keepers are also working hard to plant seed
bearing crops, which will not only help to feed our
pheasants and partridges, but also many little, grain eating
birds.We have already witnessed increases in the populations
of Yellowhammers, finches and buntings thanks to the
network of grain hoppers we have dotted about the Estate
for the game birds to feed from.
ABOVE: A game
crop featuring
phacelia and
mustard.
RIGHT: Some of
the keepers setting
up the rearing field.
Clockwise from left:
Richard Futter;
Julian Bond;
Stephen Herrieven,
Robert Heaton
and new keeper,
Chris Sharp.
Finally, I would like to welcome Chris Sharp, the new
gamekeeper on the Wells Beat, who joined us in mid-May.
He replaces Paul Pharoah, who left in March to go to a
reared-bird shoot in Oxfordshire. Chris and his fiancée Jess
have moved all the way from Caerhays Estate in Cornwall
and are already settling in well.
We also welcome back trainee gamekeeper Andrew Gyton,
who will be working with us for another year, assisting
Martin Joyce on the Burnham Thorpe beat.
Simon Lester
Headkeeper
WINDOWCRAFT DEPARTMENT
SINCE the last Newsletter, the
Windowcraft Department has been very
busy working on the south and west facing
windows at the Hall, also at nos 67 and 68
New Holkham Cottages, Longlands House
and Thurton Lodges (pictured left).The
lodges are located south of Norwich and
are owned by Norfolk County Council.
They are listed buildings and were
designed by the famous architect,
Sir John Soane.
We have also been painting new windows
and doors for the Pink Cottages at
Egmere Cottages and the Hector’s
Housing Ltd development at Hindringham.
In addition, we are renovating, restoring
and repainting the windows and doors at
The Triumphal Arch, a Grade I listed
building just beyound the South Gates to
the Park. It was built in 1739, by the first
Earl of Leicester and designed by
William Kent.
Wayne Barrett has been in hospital for an
operation and is now home and making
good progress.We all wish him well.
Maurice Bray
Windowcraft Department
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:The lodges at Thurton; the windows and doors
required extensive restoration work.
Building Maintenance
THERE have been a few changes at the Building
Maintenance Department during the past six months since
the last Newsletter was published.
Firstly, Margaret Grady, who has worked for the
department for many years, left to take up a new position in
Burnham Market and we all wish her well in her new job.
We would like to welcome Margaret’s replacement Dawn
Whitear, along with Trevor Parfitt, who joins as an additional
carpenter and used to work at Houghton Hall.
Our new joinery shop, run by Ron Teague and David
Eglen is very busy, having manufactured all the windows
and doors for the new houses at the Hector’s Housing site
at Hindringham.
They are also just about to start on an order for new
windows for Manor Farm House, Castle Acre.Terry Bird, the
farming tenant at Castle Acre, is refurbishing the house
internally, after we re-roofed the house and re-built the
chimney stacks for him earlier in the year.
Ron and David are also making new windows for the
Pink Cottages at Egmere, which are being completely
refurbished at the moment. Nos 13 &16 are both having new
oil central heating, new kitchens and showers fitted.They
will also be re-decorated internally and have new carpets
fitted throughout.
We completed the refurbishment of the Bygones Museum
entrance in good time before it re-opened at Easter.Work
there included a new lighting system, signage, re-designed
cash desk and re-decoration.
The Old Chapel, in Holkham village has been converted
into living accommodation by installing a new kitchen/living
room, shower room and one bedroom. It was also
redecorated and carpeted throughout, ready for its new
tenants to move into in May.
Work is complete at 73,The Street,Warham, which has
had a new kitchen fitted, as well as being fully re-decorated
and re-carpeted.
You will also notice that the car park attendants on Lady
Anne’s Drive have a smart new hut. It was built and erected
by Simon Neale Ltd, then painted with Holkham Linseed
Paints by the Building Maintenance painters.We choose
‘lichen’ for the exterior and ‘linseed blue’ for the internal
walls — and very smart it is too.
Future projects to keep an eye open for include the
proposed new toilet block at the beach end of Lady Anne’s
Drive and the extension to The Victoria Hotel.
Barry Turner
Building Maintenance Manager
HOLKHAM LINSEED PAINTS
HERE at the Holkham Linseed Paint headquarters in the
Clock Tower at Longlands, we are getting busier again after
a steady winter.
We managed to beat our annual forecast of total paint sales two
weeks before the year-end, achieving £71,142 net sales, which
was more than double the previous year’s sales.
Holkham Linseed Paints has picked up business from several
other estates across the country. The Historic Houses, Parks
and Gardens Event certainly played a key factor in this, and we
are attracting interest from more architects and specifiers every
day.We are also carefully expanding our network of retailers
with the help of the Holkham salesman, Stephen Foster.
In February, Lord Coke, Natalie Barrows and I went to Sweden
to see the new Linseed Emulsion Paint that the manufacturers,
Hans and Sonja Allbäck’s daughter, Malin, has been working on.
We hope to add it to our range of paints later this year or early
next.We plan to begin testing it soon with some trials in the
offices at Longlands. It is hoped that we will be able to use the
emulsion at the Triumphal Arch, which is currently being
renovated by the Estate, and will be let by The Victoria Hotel as
a unusual, romantic hideaway.
Both Lord Coke and I gave talks at the North Norfolk District
Council’s Green Event at Binham Village Hall on 23rd and 24th
April. Nearly 300 people attended the event and we were pleased
to see that our products featured on three stands other than our
own; which is an indication of the success of the business and
its ethos.
George Berek, our new paint packer is doing more and more
hours each week. George has also turned his hand to painting
up samples of all our colours for the “real paint” charts that we
hope to offer for sale soon.
I hope to be running more of our “Rediscovering Ancient
Wisdom” courses for architects, specifiers and painters in the
near future. If you would like to attend, please contact either
Natalie or me at the office, tel: (01328) 711348.
Amanda Taylor
Sales Manager
Castle Acre Fly Fishers’ Club
VISITORS to Norfolk are often surprised that there are at
least six excellent trout streams in the county, and that the
River Nar is one of the very few that retains large numbers of
wild trout in its upper reaches.
This partly explains why, for most of its 42km length, the
river valley was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI) in 1992.The river combines the characteristics of a
southern chalk stream with those of an East Anglian fen.
Holkham Estate owns 9.5km of double-bank fishing on the
Nar above and below Castle Acre.These are fishing rights that
originally went with the Priory lands that Lord Chief Justice
Coke acquired during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Until
1895, the Coke family entrusted their farm tenants with the
care and maintenance of the river and who, on occasions, had
to provide trout for the Holkham table and the Sheep
Shearing dinners.
In July 1821, an instruction from Blaikie, the Earl’s Land
Agent, to the tenant Joseph Priest at Newton Mill, stressed
that:“Trout are never good if not cooked the same day they
are killed . . .You will therefore send [them] over each
morning in the four remaining days.” Most of the trout were
netted in the Mill Pond, together with large numbers of dace,
which were then disposed of.
In 1896, the Castle Acre Fly Fishers’ Club was started and
given a seven-year lease of the fishery.The five members were
restricted to four days’ fishing and the farm tenants also
permitted to fish.The first AGM of the club was held in 1911
and a set of rules agreed; the last recorded meeting was in
1923, when there were seven members.
Today, the club has 20 members and can safely claim to be
one of the oldest established fly fishing clubs in the country.
The other claim to fame is that, since 1907, the fishery has not
been stocked with trout. From 1896 to 1907, 500 yearling
trout were supplied by a fish farm at Mundford.They were
sent, packed in cans with shrimps, by train to Massingham
station from whence water carts took them to the river.
The Environment Agency is now responsible for counting
the fish stocks by electro-fishing, which is usually done in two
places in March, before the weed is up. Apart from trout,
the only other fish counted are eels, a few dace and the
diminutive bullheads. A few sea trout find their way to
Narborough, but cannot ascend further; and very occasionally,
a grayling is caught.
The club has a duty to preserve the stock of wild trout,
which depend for their survival, on undisturbed gravel redds
on which to spawn, and a flow of pure water, which, on the
Nar, is provided by springs arising from the chalk strata.
The problem of siltation is a very real one; the earth is
washed down from the arable fields along the river banks,
which are often eroded by cattle.To accelerate the flow, many
groynes and deflectors have been put into the river; these are
made from willow and hazel hurdles, and also from faggots
taken from coppiced, medieval woodland at Swanton Novers.
Nearly all this work is done by the club members, several of
whom are well into their 70s!
Predators undoubtedly seriously reduce the fish stocks.
Herons, for which every dead one the club once paid 2/6d,
and cormorants are regular visitors, as are otters and mink.
Luckily, there are no pike in the upper reaches of
the river.
Despite these problems, the annual rod catches of trout
remain fairly constant with an average of 112 fish of more
than 10in being caught and killed. Several fish of around 2lbs
are caught each year, but are usually returned.
The largest fish recorded as having been caught was one of
31⁄2lbs, which an American, Dr George Holden, took in the
early 1930s from a pool in Prior Meadow. He was the guest of
the politician, Sir Neville Jodrell, who promptly sent the
whopper as a friendly gesture to his Labour opponent, who
happened to live in Castle Acre.We wonder whether this
would ever happen today!
Christopher Hanson-Smith
Hon Secretary and Treasurer
* Special thanks go to Mary-Anne Garry who kindly supplied much
of the historical information for this article.
The Victoria Hotel
WITH the busy summer season nearly upon us, life is getting
very busy at The Victoria.
However, the quieter winter and spring months gave us the
opportunity to complete a lot of staff training and develop some
new ideas. Lots of these innovations have now been put in place,
which we believe will help to make The Victoria even more
successful than previous years.
Pinewoods Holiday Park
ONE of the ironies I still find hard to understand is that the
team at Pinewoods often work harder in the winter than in
the summer when all our customers are here.
Part of the reason is that we continue to drive the business
forward and not rest on our laurels.We continually strive to
achieve our stated aim of making Pinewoods Holiday Park
the destination of choice for the caravan and camping
holidaymakers heading to North Norfolk looking for a topquality relaxing break in a beautiful, natural environment.
This year proved to be no exception as we embarked upon
more winter development. The biggest and most noticeable
was the Dunlin development of static holiday homes. This
involved the conversion of the remaining existing formal tent
pitches to a mix of premium and super static pitches
complete with piped gas as well as the normal services of
water, electricity and mains sewerage.
The development has given us an extra 39 holiday home
pitches taking the total now at Pinewoods up to 541. Of the
34 pitches available for rent, 33 caravans have been sold to
new and existing customers who were waiting to upgrade.
The five remaining caravans on Dunlin have been added to
our hire fleet, which now stands at 28, its highest number
ever, six of which are our luxury lodges on the Lapwing area
of the Park.
The holiday home hire fleet is an increasingly important
part of the business, but takes some managing, particularly on
Saturdays, change-over day, when our team of six caravan
cleaners sweep through the park in their three wheeled
Piaggios.Their job has recently been made even more
challenging, as we have now taken on 16 of our owners’
holiday homes, which we hire out when they are not using
them. Consequently, this year we will be experimenting with
a Friday changeover, which will suit the cleaning team and
hopefully some holiday-makers who want more choice.
This was the first year that this development work was
wholly contracted out, and the contractors, East Anglian
Stone, did an excellent and speedy job.This allowed the rest
of our staff, led by John Hingley and his maintenance team to
concentrate on other jobs like moving and connecting
caravans and attending to smaller, but no less important jobs.
We now have a professional group of staff at the Hotel.
Although lots of our staff have been with us a considerable
length of time, there have been some recent additions.
Last year, it quickly became apparent that our café was too
cramped for us to be able to ensure the speed and quality of
delivery of our product.Therefore, over the winter, a large
storeroom was built at the back, to provide new storage for
the shop, which freed up space to expand the kitchen and
washing-up area and provide more seating in the café.
The kitchen has been strengthened by the arrival of Rupert
Strydom from South Africa, along with his partner Tanya
Homann, who works in our restaurant.They both hope to be
with us for a couple of years.They are joined by Dorothea
Zborowska who will also be working in the restaurant.
Gratifyingly that work was completed in time for Easter.
The area to the front of the shop has been tidied up and the
concrete jungle replaced with a very smart brick weave paved
area and a 600 million-year-old granite rock, out of which a
trickle of water now permanently issues forth!
We have had to say goodbye to some members of staff and
we were all particularly sad to see Pia O’Shea leave.Although
Pia had only worked at the hotel for a short time, she had made
many friends and become one of our strongest members of staff.
We all wish her well on her travels. Elsewhere in the hotel,
Steven Loakes our Bar supervisor, has been promoted to
Duty Manager.
One more toilet and shower block, number seven, was
completely refurbished and like the other blocks, features
under-floor heating for the showers and waterless urinals. Also
new for this year is the introduction of water softeners, which
are effectively stopping the calcification of the shower heads
and therefore cut down on maintenance.
A new Children’s Playground costing £30,000 was
installed over the winter and judging from the racket I can
hear from my desk at Pinewoods, 25 yards away, it is a huge
success.Total investment in the Park over the winter
amounted to over £320,000.
The cleaning of the shower blocks has been handed over
to Norfolk County Services (who already do our grounds
maintenance), so that our own staff can concentrate on the
core business.
This year, we will be selling more of the Estate’s Holkham
Ice Cream from two more outlets at Pinewoods, after
successfully winning a court case against John Harber, whose
leases on the Refreshment Hut and the Ice Cream Van in the
Wells Beach Car Park came to an end.
Finally, a big thank you to all the Pinewoods staff, who
having worked hard throughout the winter on the
aforementioned projects, then work many weekends
throughout the summer season ensuring that we give our
customers the excellent service they have come to expect.
Viscount Coke
Managing Partner
Easter gave us an opportunity to test our new menu with
large numbers of customers. Everything worked very well and
the BBQ was a particular success over the holiday with its
business continuing to grow at weekends particularly when the
weather is good.We now have an awning covering the
courtyard where the BBQ is situated.This will help sustain a
level of business during periods of inclement British weather.
LEFT AND
BELOW:
Palmer’s Lodge,
situated in a
secluded spot
within Holkham
Park, is proving
popular with
guests.
Our terrace is also
now open and is
often the busiest
part of the hotel
at weekends.
On 9th, 10th
and 11th July, we
will be hosting
our annual food
and drink
festival.We will
have several
attractions over
this period,
including live
music, 25 real ales, a hog roast, lots of stalls
like the ‘chocolate deli’ and also an Indian head masseur! There
will also be plenty to do for children including a bouncy castle
and a chance for them to paint their own pottery.
We have continued to receive good Press coverage over the
past few months including an appearance on a Channel 4
programme ‘Perfect Getaway’, which subsequently generated a
lot of business for us.
Palmer’s Lodge in Holkham Park is also letting well and
attracting interest from the travel press.We hope that the
Triumphal Arch, which we will soon be renting from the Estate
and letting to guests, will be just as successful. Situated just
beyond the south gates of the Park, the Triumphal Arch is
currently being extensively refurbished, with a view to being
ready for its first guests in November.
Autumn will see work start on building a conservatory
adjoining the existing restaurant.This will give us a further 35
seats for diners and work should be completed by the middle of
December in time for the busy festive period.The rest of the
planned extension of the hotel will start in September 2005.
Watch this space for more details of the exciting plans.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the
Estate staff and locals who regularly visit The Victoria, for their
continued support and help since I became General Manager in
November last year. Some of the decisions we have made have
been hard and I appreciate change can be unsettling, but I am
happy that we continue to offer an excellent level of service to
our customers. Everyone at the hotel is looking forward to the
busy summer ahead.
Paul Brown
General Manager
* STOP PRESS:The Victoria has just been awarded a
second rosette by the AA on account of the excellent food and
improved restaurant service at the hotel. Congratulations to all
the staff on a great achievement.
and scrub growth from Abraham’s Bosom SSSI.
Holkham National Nature Reserve
We also erected four new benches along the backtrack
between Lady Anne’s Drive and the George Washington Hide
and erected bicycle racks at the Beach car park,Wells and the
north end of Lady Anne’s Drive.
ENCOURAGED by warm
temperatures of around 20C, many
visitors descended on the nature reserve
in the last weekend of April.
New recreation
field at Wighton
Following the departure of Dominic Harmer last autumn,
I am happy to report that English Nature has approved the
continuation of the permanent summer warden post.We
advertised nationally and received more than 80 applications.
By Sunday morning, Derek Jarvis
and I were both contemplating early
retirement, following a spate of incidents
that we suspect may have set the
standard for the coming season.
Picture by: Andrew Bloomfield
Among the lowlights were an all
terrain vehicle tearing up the fore dunes
at Holkham, several low flying planes
and micro-lights and uncontrolled dogs.
The worst incident, however, involved
unauthorised overnight campers,
including one group who thought it was
clever to set light to a fallen tree to make
a campfire. Luckily, the Fire Brigade
extinguished the resulting fire.
ABOVE: Pink feet geese grazing on sugar beet tops with Burnham Overy Mill and
The Christmas and New Year period Burnham Norton in the background.
also saw the usual large influx of visitors
following the dry hot summer and, the fact beet plants
to the nature reserve, but after the New Year it was relatively
produced far less leaf cover than is usual, this resulted in an
quiet until Easter. Birdwatchers made up a fair proportion of
open crop that allowed the geese easy access. Hopefully this is
visitors in between, with many attracted by the geese and
not the start of a new feeding trend but an aberration due to
other birds, especially a male American Wigeon that
last summer’s hot dry weather. If not then this may become a
frequented fields to the west of Lady Anne’s Drive from
serious issue for farmers and the conservation organisations.
January to March.
Other bird highlights included a Bittern seen regularly
near the Meales House, a flock of up to 200 Snow Buntings
and a few Shorelarks on the beach, up to 123 Little Egrets at
the Holkham Decoy and wintering Peregrines.
At the turn of the year, there were record numbers of
Pink footed Geese in Norfolk. Coordinated counts carried
out at several roost sites between the Snettisham Wash and
the Norfolk Broads located 112,000 birds: approximately one
third of the total world population.
The roost site at Bob Hall’s Sand held up to 50,000 birds
at times and there were some spectacular morning flights
over Wells and Warham as the geese left the roost to feed on
farmland.The number of Pink feet has risen steadily in
Norfolk in recent years and the county is justly famed as an
internationally important wintering area for these
birds. Despite the growing numbers, farmers have generally
tolerated the geese, as their feeding has been confined mostly
to beet tops left on the ground after harvesting.
Unfortunately, hints of a change in feeding behaviour
were noted last winter when Pink feet were observed feeding
on the crowns of unharvested sugar beet crops locally.
Theories as to why they attacked the beet crop include the
presence of a higher than usual sugar content in the beet
I am currently working on two interpretation projects
with the Holkham Estate.The first will involve a bid for
Heritage Lottery funds to construct a boardwalk and provide
interpretive facilities at Abraham’s Bosom SSSI. This site
includes grassland, scrub woodland and a saline lagoon within
its boundaries and lies next to the Pinewoods Holiday Park
and the Holkham NNR.
The project’s main aims are to improve access to the site
for all users, to create awareness and provide an educational
facility. It is hoped many of the Pinewoods Holiday Park
visitors will make use of the facility, which will also be
open to the wider public.There is wildlife interest all year
round here but the spring and summer flowers will be the
main attraction.
We are also working on a new booklet for the Holkham
NNR and this time around, four pages will be dedicated
to the heritage and wildlife interest of Holkham Park.
Holkham’s PR Advisor, Paula Minchin, and I recently
finished work on the new text and pictures and hope to see
the final proofs soon, with a view to publication during July.
We remained busy on the practical management
front throughout the year, completing our reed cutting
operations; we removed pine saplings from the dune grassland
In the event, I was pleased to see a local man, Andrew
Bloomfield, who was born on the Holkham Estate, secure the
post. Andrew brings with him a wealth of knowledge related to
wildlife and the Holkham area that will be of tremendous
benefit to English Nature
Ron Harold
Site Manager
WOODS
DEPARTMENT
MOST of our time has been taken up by coppicing old hedges
in readiness to plant new ones.We have been doing this at
several locations across the Estate, including the fields around the
back of Wells and the Warham marshes that run alongside the
River Stiffkey.
We have also planted a number of Sorbus Aria trees around the
new houses in Warham, as well as some young Beech, Ilex and
English Oak saplings in the Deer Park.
The Woods Dept has spent a lot of time working at Quarles, Five
Crossways, New Holkham Cross Roads and Deep Clump to clear
roadsides in a bid to improve vision for drivers and make those
junctions safer.
You will also have seen us out and about on the estate trying to
keep up with the usual round of grass cutting. In particular, we
have been mowing and
strimming the church yard
at St Withburga’s to make
sure it looks really smart by
the time Lady Leicester’s
daughter, Sabina, gets
married there in September.
Ian McNab
Head Forester
LEFT: Several varieties of
Sorbus Aria trees were
planted in the grounds of
the new houses at Warham,
recently built by Hector’s
Housing Ltd.
AS far back as Autumn 2001, residents in Wighton decided
that the time had come to create a new green area where
villagers could play, walk and have picnics.
All agreed that the best place for the new site was by
the hall, in the centre of the village. It was the obvious
choice because it was away from the road, a safe spot for
children to play in and accessible to all. Right from the
start the Holkham Estate, which owns the land, was
extremely supportive of the idea.
In March, the village secured over 3.5 acres of the field
on a 99-year lease.This was due to the generosity of
Jimmy Smith (who has farmed the field for many years),
the Countryside Agency (who gave the village a grant to
pay 70 per cent of the land valuation) and the Holkham
Estate, which agreed to waive the remaining 30 per cent of
costs — donating this to the village as a gift.
Already, the village children are able to skateboard, cycle
and play ball games on the hard surfacing which has been
installed behind the hall and work is currently underway
to construct a playground with attractive wooden play
equipment which will be fenced and turfed with proper
safety surfacing — and should be ready to use by
early summer.
In July, when the ground is firmer and drier, the
National Construction College at Bircham has offered
to level an area the size of a football pitch on the field
and provide all the machinery and manpower needed,
completely free of charge.Then the whole recreation field
will be fenced.
Finally, in the autumn, we will be grass seeding the
area, as well as planting hedges and trees to create picnic,
woodland and walking areas for everyone in the village
to enjoy.
The project will have taken well over three years to
complete but we hope that by summer 2005, it will be
finished and that many people from inside and outside the
village will enjoy this wonderful new amenity.
Sophie Trend
AS WARM AS TOAST
IT has been some months now since the new offices at the
Porter’s Lodge became available for the Finance Team.The
excellent working facilities and conditions that have now
been provided are just one of the reasons we will be able to
achieve our objectives.The Finance team, I know, are grateful
to Lord Leicester for providing this improvement.
Holkham tenant farmer
Stephen Temple tells us
about the new ecologically
friendly central heating system
at his farm in Wighton
This morning when I received my newspaper I opened,
not as perhaps you might expect the financial pages, but the
sports pages. I turned to the results column, studied the
football scores, reviewed the tables and learned that Norwich
City had won promotion. Hard though it is for a Suffolk lad
to say this they were consistent and deserved their reward.
LAST year, when we were in Spain looking at the tobacco
curing system near Plasencia, which uses my Barn Owl
instruments for temperature monitoring, I was intrigued to see
that they had a new fuel for tobacco curing.
Previously they had been using about one and a half articulated
tankers of Calor Gas per week, but were saving money by
burning olive pips from the oil press operated by the same
company in Cordoba, which cost about £40 per tonne
delivered to farm.
When the farmhouse at Copys Green Farm,Wighton
(the part of the farm that is not on the Holkham Estate) fell
vacant,I started looking for some sort of biomass fuel heating
so we could finally dispel some of the damp without breaking
the bank.
With wheat prices barely above olive pip prices, this was my
first thought, but my research was not very productive until I
came across the logpile.co.uk website.There appeared to be
plenty of stoves for wood pellets, a few for pellets and chips
but only one for grain, pellets and chips.
Further investigation showed that there was a model suitable
for the farmhouse, with about 40kw output, but it was quite
expensive.
I was then directed to the Clear Skies website (www.clearskies.org) where there are grants available for biomass and
Finance Department
ABOVE: Stephen Temple and his ground-breaking central
heating system which burns wood chips instead of oil.
alternative energy sources.The various approvals for equipment
and installers were not in place when I first checked, but as
soon as these were posted on the website, our grant
application was in the post.
Our heating engineers, Dempsey Heating, have installed 22
radiators connected up to the boiler.The suppliers, Foundation
Firewood, came on 1st October and commissioned the system
and we soon had all 22 radiators piping hot.
Of course, once we had committed to the system, wheat prices
rose (for which we are very thankful), so we looked around for
the other fuels that the system can use.
When I got to the office, several were in a celebratory
mood and there was good-natured banter directed at any
nearby Ipswich supporters (me) and wild talk of season
ticket renewals.
Now, try to imagine what would have happened
had the result been unavailable. Perhaps the reporter
did not have the time to file the story.What if the score was
wrongly displayed by the printers? What if the league table
had been inaccurately compiled and did not add up? Key
decisions such as whether to crack open the champagne,
buy a season ticket or stick pins in wax effigies of
Sunderland players could not be properly made.
The boiler manufacturers (a Danish company bought out by
Baxi) claim that the hopper needs filling only twice a week, and
the ash emptying once a week.
If we can get enough of these boilers in the area to justify a
chipper, then perhaps we can start to use the thinnings and
other wood which local tree surgeons have to dispose of to
land fill at the moment.
In environmental terms, the system is carbon neutral, as all
carbon dioxide emitted by the boiler has come from recently
grown plant material, which if committed to land fill, would
generate methane with worse consequences for global
warming than carbon dioxide.
LEFT: Stephen pours some woodchips into the system.
Since I joined, the Finance Department has been
actively addressing this type of issue in a business sense,
with our equivalent of football results.There are in
excess of 30 different entities on the Estate and all of them
require different sets of records and up to date reporting of
financial figures. Our aim is to ensure that management
reports and accounts are developed across all the major
businesses on the Estate and that they are timely and
accurate. As this is achieved decisions, commercial and
profit-enhancing decisions, as to how to run the Estate and
its businesses become more reliably informed.Those decisions
affect everyone’s jobs.
A major initiative is already in progress, underpinned by an
accounts function restructure, such that we expect by the late
summer for all significant entities on the Estate to have
regular and proper reporting.When the Finance Department
achieves that, we will have some bubbly and toast NCFC’s
and the department’s achievement. And no doubt
commiserate with the ‘Tractor Boys’!
Mike Wyard
Finance Director
Forthcoming Events
Saturday, 3rd July
We found that we could get wood chips, graded to suit the
boiler feed mechanism, for around £20 per tonne,
excluding VAT. Fortunately, our lorries are often passing the
wood chip depot, returning to the farm empty, so haulage is
not a major cost. If all goes as specified, the operating cost
should be about a quarter of that on oil.
In fact, with inaccurate or incomplete information there
would have been every possibility of wrong decisions
being made.
Friday, 9th, Saturday,
10th and Sunday, 11th July
PRIZE DRAW
A recent campaign to
encourage employees to
transfer from fortnightly
to four-weekly payroll
resulted in a selection
of those opting for
four-weekly winning
cash prizes.
St.Withburga’s Church barbecue at the
Temple in Holkham Park. Starts at 7pm
tickets priced at £9 per adult, £5 per
child available from Marilyn Franklin at
the Estate Office, tel: (01328) 713101
Food and Drink Festival at
The Victoria Hotel
Saturday, 17th July
Diva Opera – Lucia di Lammermoor
Sunday, 15th August
St.Withburga’s Church fete
Saturday, 21st August
Cleo Laine and John Dankworth live at
Holkham Nursery Gardens.Tickets
available priced at £25 each, contact
IML, tel: (01603) 660444. Gates open
6pm, concert starts 8pm.
Saturday, 2nd/3rd October
St.Withburga’s Church concert
Sunday, 3rd October
Big C Cycle ride in Park
Saturday, 30th October
Society for the Performing Arts in
Norfolk (SPANN) concert at the Hall
Saturday, 13th November
SPANN concert at the Hall
Saturday, 27th November
SPANN concert at the Hall
LEFT: Resident Agent,
Richard Gledson draws the
winning names, with the help
of Teresa Fowle.
Local celebrity Richard
Gledson happened to be
passing and drew the
lucky winners out of
the ‘hat’.
The winners were:
£250
£150
£100
£100
£50
£50
£50
£50
£50
Verena Beddoes (Victoria Hotel)
Richard Bailey (Game Department)
Julian Bond (Game Department)
Gillian Watson (Holkham Pottery)
Tonya Sizeland (Pinewoods Holiday Park)
Stephen Herrieven (Game Department)
Kenneth Rowe (Woods Department)
Brian Frary (Gardens)
Ann Ronnay (Pinewoods Holiday Park)
Holkham People
Welcome to:
GAME DEPARTMENT: CHRIS SHARP, the new gamekeeper on the Wells Beat and his
fiancée, JESS, a veterinary nurse, who join us all the way from Caerhays Estate in Cornwall.
PINEWOODS HOLIDAY PARK: PAUL WILLIN who is working in the new ice cream van,
plus JILL PAYNE and her three children JODY, BEN and JACK, who are working in the beach ice
cream kiosk and gift shop. Plus BEATA MROZIK, IAN HARDY, ANDREW GATES, ANDREA
GOLDING,TERRI FORD, HANNAH APPLETON and new receptionist MAGGIE LAW. Staff
welcomed back for this season to work in the café and the shop, include: ISOBELLE BROWN,
SAMANTHA BROWN, DAVID KING, HELENA COURT, SOPHIE MIDDLETON, MARIE
FOWLE and JANE EMERSON. Caravan cleaners, BEVERLEY FUTTER, PENNY RAMM, HELEN
SEAMAN, SARAH CLARKE and SARAH TUDDENHAM, along with JODY HARROD and
EMMA FUTTER on Reception. HECTOR’S HOUSING LTD: WILLIAM OWEN, father of
Robin, our trainee bricklayer, who joined us as a labourer. He is now driving our plant and
looking after its maintenance. Plus BARRY WHELLER and BEN JEFFREY who joined in April as
site operatives. HOLKHAM ESTATE OFFICE: JAYNE HAYNES who transferred from
Pinewoods Holiday Park in February, to become the Agent, Richard Gledson’s, PA, when
DENISE DURRANT moved to the Finance Dept, along with JAYNE COOPER and KAREN
GRIFFITHS, who have also joined the Finance Department. HOLKHAM LINSEED PAINTS:
GEORGE BEREK has become our part-time paint packer. BUILDING MAINTENANCE:
DAWN WHITEAR, who is the new department Administration Assistant and TREVOR
PARFITT, who joins as an additional carpenter and used to work at Houghton Hall.
HOLKHAM FOODS LTD: New Foods Manager, CHRIS WRIGHT, and ANN MATTHEWS,
who is in charge of the Stables and Holkham Centre cafés, plus all the new Holkham Foods
staff starting this season, including: SARAH BRUMMELL-BAILEY,VICKY CORKE, CHRISTIAN
COX, RITA CUMMINGS, MARTIN DACK, RACHEL EMMERSON, CHRISTIAN FRY, SUZANNE
HEPHER, EILEEN HEYHOE, ALI HOWLETT,WENDY MASON, KYLE MOHLE, RACHEL
SMITH, GARETH TATE and FAY and SALLY TAYLOR. THE VICTORIA HOTEL: Our new
multi-national staff at the hotel this season includes: five Swedes, two Czechs, one Irishman, one
Pole, one Englishman, two Hungarians, two Belorussians and two South Africans!
Farewell to:
MICK THOMPSON who retires in July after working on the Estate for 35 years. MARINA
COURT, who left the Reception at Pinewoods to work at a local insurance firm. LEIGH DAVIES,
plasterer, who left in January and PAUL LINGWOOD, plant driver and maintenance, who left
Hector’s Housing Ltd in March. JASON BYARD, one of the founder members of Hector’s
Housing Ltd, left us to set up his own business in March this year. MARGARET GRADY, who has
worked for Holkham Building Maintenance for many years, left to take up a new position in
Burnham Market. ERIC ABSOLON who has recently decided to retire as Curator of the
Bygones Museum and Assistant Curator, SALLY HARVEY, who has left, but will be coming back
to work on the cataloguing of all 5,000 plus items in the museum.VALERI LI, from the
housekeeping team at The Victoria Hotel. Plus French couple DAVID OLARTE and CAROLINE
CAMPAGNARO who worked at hotel, along with MATT FOX, pastry chef and PIA O’SHEA,
waitress. PAULA MINCHIN, who is now working as a freelance PR advisor for the Estate.
The Marketing Department is now being run by Promotions Manager, Laurane Herrieven.
Congratulations
to:
Lady Leicester’s daughter, SABINA DE CHAIR, who became engaged to ARCHIE STRUTHERS
on 14th February this year.The couple are to be married at St Withburga’s Church on Saturday,
18th September 2004.
Births:
NICKY BECK from the Woods Dept and his wife KAREN who gave birth to a baby girl, KELSIE,
on 2nd June. MARK BIRD, a Holkham Building Maintenance painter and his wife, REBECCA who
had a baby girl, GABRIELLE on 21st April.To Holkham Farming Company tractor driver KEVIN
BRAY and his wife ELISA, a baby girl, called Jasmine Leigh, born on 6th January.
Deaths:
PETER FLOWERDEW, aged 53. Peter worked for Holkham Pottery for many years.
His wife Julie also worked for the Pottery until they started a family.The funeral took place on
23rd January 2004. EVA ROWE, whose passing was unfortunately not recorded in the winter
Newsletter. Mrs Rowe died on 7th August 2003 at the age of 91, having lived at Holkham for
62 years. Eva worked for Dr Hicks in Wells for several years, before working at the Red House,
Holkham and then the tearooms at Holkham Hall. She was often seen riding her bicycle to
Wells and around the village, until she had her knee joints replaced. She is much missed
by all who knew her. MISS BARBARA MILLER BROWN who died in May and lived at No16,
Burnham Overy Town for 65 years, only leaving the property for three months in 1974 while
it was modernised.
Please note all contributions for the next Newsletter need to be submitted to the
Editor, Paula Minchin, by 1st November, 2004. Email: p.minchin@holkham.co.uk