As time moves on they are books which become more important…looking at life in Norfolk villages during  days gone by.

Every community has a story to tell and thanks to Ray Woolston we get to meet the people around Stalham and discover how they lived their lives in different times…the schools, the shops, the pubs and the places of work.

And of course the characters we tend to remember for the rest of our lives.

Across the county we have some excellent local historians and authors producing a range of books which illustrate these times so well through words and pictures, many of them postcards which would be sold in the village post offices.

One of them is former Norfolk printer Ray whose has written several books about Stalham and the surrounding area over the years which have helped good causes and proved so popular they sold out.

Beach Road, Bacton. Picture: submittedThe good news is that the two volumes of The Villages Around Stalham, Glimpses Back in Time, first published in 2018, have just been re-printed along with other books he has written over many years. 

The first volume of the two books covers the villages of Sutton, Catfield, Hickling, Ludham and Potter Heigham while the second one visits Wayford, Smallburgh, Dilham, Honing, East Ruston, Walcott, Bacton, Happisburgh, Sea Palling and Ingham.

Ray worked at the Wymondham printing company of Geo. Reeve Ltd., after serving an apprenticeship with William Clowes and since retiring he has produced a great collection of books which take us to some wonderful places.

Happisburgh Post Office on the right of the photograph and behind the postman at the top of the hill is The Hillhouse Hotel. Image: Submitted For example:

Ludham: There were at least eight public houses and an airfield, built in 1941, which was used as a satellite for the main fighter base at RAF Coltishall.

Dilham: The name is derived from the old English for a “homestead where dill is grown. Many fields of the herb Dill were grown commercially in medieval times.

Hickling: “My late uncle, Billy Nudd, lived in the cottage at Stubb Mill and my father and grandfather lived with them for a while. Billy was a Marshman and kept the dykes clear,” says Ray.

Sutton windmill with its sails intact and in full working order in the 1940s. Picture: SubmittedPotter Heigham: The great Sidney Grapes lived here and originally had a cycle shop and then a garage. He was loved for his Boy John Letters which were published in the Eastern Daily Press and it is famous for the Herbert Woods boatyard and Lathams department store.

Honing: The name is derived from the old English roughly translated Settlement of the people at the Hill. In 1883 there was a choice of three pubs all in the Street. At one time Honing was an important cog in the wheel when the railway was extended from Stalham to Melton Constable with up to 100 trains a day using a loop on the single track where trains could pass each other.

Sutton: The windmill was originally built in 1789 on the site of a former mill. It is the tallest windmill still standing in Norfolk and the rest of the country. The village did have three pubs, The Windmill, The Catherine Wheel and the White Horse.

Dear old Sidney Grapes, author of The  Boy John Letters in the EDP, and his garage at Potter Heigham which started as a bicycle shop and then moved on to cars. Picture: Submitted*The Villages Around Stalham – Glimpses of the Past Volumes 1 & 2, priced at £9.95,  are available from Forrests Newsagents, High Street, Stalham or by mail from Ray at raywoolston@hotmail.com

Ray’s other books on Stalham Then and Now: Stalham Glimpses of the Past: Stalham’s Forgotten Railway and A Look Back at the Old Railway Stations between Stalham and Great Yarmouth are also back on sale.