Derek James

Born in 1871 he began his working life as stable boy in Norwich before taking over the company and going on to be a leading businessman, Sheriff and then Lord Mayor of Norwich.

It was 80 years ago when people in Norwich watched in horror as an American Liberator named Lady Jane hit the top of a church and then crashed into the old Corporation Depot killing the nine-man crew.

It was twenty years since he died and now more than ten million pounds of his money has been handed out to help many others across the region …his name was Geoffrey Watling and we have much to thank him for.

This is a book about trains and the railways with a difference…one which is told with honesty and humour and we get to meet some great Norfolk characters.

So many soldiers return from bloody battlefields across the world and rarely speak about what happened to them and their comrades.

ON DEATH

It will be an emotional and moving exhibition honouring and remembering soldiers who lost their lives during the First World War and one which illustrates the strong community spirit in one Norfolk village.

Our very own King of the Blues, one of the best-loved and most popular musicians in Norwich, Norfolk and further afield  has died this week at the age of 91.

For many years Chris Wright would pass Alderman Leach School in Great Yarmouth (now East Norfolk College) most working days and wonder just who he was? “I had not heard of him (most aldermen have been men) in my 70 years,” he said.

Bylaugh Hall, near Dereham, stood for 50 years as an imposing collapsing roofless ruin, overgrown, unloved and forgotten by all except those who stumbled across it by chance.