QUICK TOUR QUICK TOUR NORDELPH COMMUNITY WEBSITE: Spring 2008
Our apologies to those regular readers who have been looking for the website's reappearance since January! Pressure of work meant that we were unable to bring you the new material until now. Do remember that we maintain an e-mailing list of visitors who get a message whenever the site is significantly updated -- or in this case, seriously delayed. Just ask for this facility on info@nordelph.org.
WHITE EASTER
The Summer of 2007 wasn't one of the best -- in fact, all in all it was pretty miserable. But you couldn't have told that at Easter last year. Easter 2007 promised an idyllic Summer. That didn't happen, and that leaves us a little unsure as to how to interpret the weather this Easter.
Residents of Nordelph woke on Easter Sunday to 8cm of the sort of weather more normally associated with Christmas. While it's tempting to see this as a picturesque decoration of the countryside, as the pictures below indicate, travelling for those who absolutely had to was far from easy. And travel wasn't helped by the flooding of the Ouse Washes at Welney!
Of course, there was a significant difference between Easters in 2007 and 2008. This year, Easter has fallen almost as early as it's possible for it to be. And if, somehow, you managed to miss all of the explanations in the press as to how Easter is determined, then you can check out the Nordelph website Date of Easter page!
You can hardly fail to spot that our usual heading has been replaced this month. But this isn't an attempt to demonstrate our facility with German -- in fact, the translation in the heading has been achieved without any human interference at all.Back in December 2007, we were made aware that one of our visitors had used an automatic computer translation system to read the site in German. You can read the translation and also our critique of how good it is.
Remember that you don't have to read these pages now. You can wait until you've completed the home page and then use our THIS MONTH button to visit all the new pages in sequence. The item about machine translation can be accessed in future by going to Nordelph Future and selecting Computer Translation from the index.
CHRISTMAS PAST
In our last update, just befor Christmas, we provided you with the website's first ever Advent Calendar. As well as a 'door' to open every day from the beginning of December until Christmas, we added a slight competitive element. Behind each door was a picture -- from somewhere on the website. All except for one. One of the images was a new one, and we invited you to browse the doors and see if you could spot the newcomer.
You would have found the new image on December 20th. Now it is part of the website, because we've added it to our Favourite Images section where you'll find a full description of the picture -- and why we chose it!
NEW YEAR PAST
We planned on making our January update (the one that didn't happen) one focused on the holiday season just past. In particular, we planned items on hangover cures for those who had celebrated too well, and a report on one of our correspondent's New Year Resolution -- one that had actually lasted for a whole year!
It seems a pity to let the fact that we're late spoil these contributions, so you'll find them as part of this upodate. And in the future, you can access these pages through our Features master page.
Something WIKI this way comes
Many users of this website will have encountered the 'do-it-yourself' encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. This is designed as an open source of knowledge that anyone can contribute to -- and significantly, anyone can edit. The idea of such a collaborative 'wiki' (the word is Hawaiian in origin) is not limited to encyclopaedias. Since the beginning of this year, there's been one much closer to home!
The Barroway Drove village website has launched a wiki-based history site that can be found at history.barrowaydrove.org.
But this isn't just about our neighbours -- they've set up a portion of this site for Nordelph, and are inviting us to contribute (and to edit) this account. You don't have to register yourself in order to comment or post, except if you want to add photos.
As we write, there's not much there -- hardly surprising, as most of us are only just finding out about this addition to the Barroway Drove site. Perhaps sadly, most of the existing categories (shops, pubs, places of worship) are firmly history!
Nordelph Church again
We understand that the Diocese of Ely have indicated that they intend to submit a revised planning application for the development of the church site. This, of course, is a continuation of the battle joined last year! Do not think that the energy you expended then was enough. You may feel, like most villagers, that the development of this site is not about how many houses, and how many bedrooms, but about the loss of an iconic and very visible community asset. You may find our summary page on the development useful!
Phil Adams from Outwell has been in touch about the church too -- his initial comment was
"It looks recoverable to me. Some underpinning, repointing etc. and it would make a fabulous
house. Why doesn't Ely sell it for one dwelling to be done up and rescued from its current
sorry
state, preserving its outline across the Fen?"
Although not himself a regular churchgoer, Phil is the person that trims Outwell churchyard --
"caring for such a green space gives me a sense of place and community".
Even just a glance as you pass by the churchyard en route for Wisbech suggests that Outwell
is well looked after!
Phil pursued his first comment with the Diocese's Land Agents (Jolliffe's)
and came back to us
with this:
"
According to Jolliffe the cost of undrpinning was ~£300k (due to shrinking peat bed) so that
is why they are persuing demolition. If not this would have made a good conversion project
(for me at least with the outside kept the same, the inside modernised but with as much kept
full height etc). They are soon to resubmit another housing project overcoming the previous
objections. Whether this was still for 5 dwellings was not stated."
Nordelph School
The function of the website as a centre for 'reuniting' people once resident here has been very much to the fore these past months. David Neave, now from Middlesborough started us off with this message:
Hi there, I was having a look at Friends Reunited trying to find Nordelph School only to find it not listed. I then decided to google Nordelph and to my astonishment found two remarkable websites.
I have spent hours going through the photos trying to remember the faces from my era.
I havn't been able to find any mention of the hub of the village with regards to employment but this surely must have been Fred Hartleys estate. The estate at Nordelph if I remember rightly consisted of three main areas and the Farm foremen were Sid Hensby, Harry Bell and Archie(Dave) Neave, My dad. We lived at Fen Farm from 1944 to 1959. The last 6 months or so that I lived in Nordelph I spent with Bill & Glad Covill in Creek View.
Doe's anyone remember the Coronation Party(1953) held in the "big shed" off Silt Road and I seem to remember something for the Festival of Britain in 1951.
Don't tell anybody but I think it might be me featured in the Pageant.
Later in our correspondence, David produced some more nostalgia:
If I remember rightly there used to be a pub on the village side of the bridge next to Gipps shop(many a 1/2d bag of broken crisps bought from there) it may have been called the Bridge. It was run by Doug & Miriam Boot.
David didn't lose sight of his original mission, to pursue those who had attended Nordelph School. He's added it to Friends Reunited (www.friendsreunited.co.uk). As he says, 'at present I'm the only one entered, but with a bit of publicity on the Nordelph website, we can get the ball rolling'
And more ...
We also heard from two people (not believed to be connected in any way) from Dorset.
In December, Sue Mayer contacted us with this message
I have just discovered your excellent site.
I was very excited when I found the article about Tom Boltz's Lyon ancestors.
Tom amd my mother are 6th cousins! I can take Tom back 4 generations on his Lyon branch. Please would you pass on my email address to Tom.
I would love to contact him directly about our common Lyon ancestors.
This we were delighted to do, and the pair have been in contact ever since.
We also heard from Paul Crabbe at the beginning of March. He wrote:
I am the grandson of Mr and Mrs Alcock.
Bessy Alcock is Richard Giles's Aunty and my Mum painted his picture!!
I used to stay with Grandma and Grandad frequently and Nordelph was very much part of my
formative years.
I would be happy to type some memories for you and also ask my Mum to do the same.
My Dad's from Downham and he may have stories too.
Finally ...
We have been rather remiss at posting reports and minutes of the Parish Council over the past months.
In part, this is because your webmaster is no longer a Parish Councillor, so we are not guaranteed a regular report (is there any councillor willing to volunteer?)
However, we have now brought the collection up to date with the posting of minutes from July, September and November 2007.
The minutes from January 2008 are not in place as we update the site, but will be added shortly after the update.
Don't forget that you can visit all the pages mentioned above (except for those like the Barroway Drove history site and Friends Reunited that do not form part of the Nordelph site) by repeatedly clicking on the 'THIS MONTH button.
THIS MONTH
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