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Bircham
Bircham maps
Historic maps of Bircham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Bircham maps
Bircham photos
We have no photos of Bircham, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Great Bircham| Houghton| Dersingham| Sandringham| Ingoldisthorpe| Snettisham| Great Massingham| Heacham| Ringstead| North Creake| Hunstanton
Bircham area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Bircham and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Bircham
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Norfolk memories
Middleton Family
Hi - My family history research finds that my mother Isobella Stephenson was born in Houghton in 1917. Her family may have been in the pub buisness, but her father Harry John Middleton worked for the railways. They eventually ended up in Barnsley where I was born. Any information on this family would be of help to me,
Regards Allan Broadhead
Evacuation From London to Harpley
I remember Harpley as a four-year-old, when it had no running water, electricity or gas. I was evacuated there when first born, in 1939 during the war years and stayed in a cottage opposite to the village pub. At that time we had to cross the road to draw drinking water from the well. Washing and bathing water was supplied by rainwater tanks kept at the back of the cottage. There was a large bungalow bath hung on the side of the cottage which was used by the adults for bath days. The couple who looked after us used to place every receptacle possible on top of the stove to heat the water for the bath. Washing clothes was a considerable chore, and always carried out on a Monday. I remember that once washed they were put through a mangle and then hung up to dry if the weather permitted. Ironing was carried out by using flat irons heated on top of the wood/coal-burning stove, and when hot, fitted with... Read more
Leaving Home
My memory of Syderstone is in October of 1951. I left my home in Leicester as the bride if a young man who was in the USAF. He had been my High School pen-friend and was stationed at RAF Sculthorpe. I left my home for Norfolk one week after my wedding but unfortunately my husband had been unable to find us a house to rent. In desperation we rented a room at the local pub in Syderstone. I can't recall the name of the pub, wish that I could. We were given a room upstairs and we were tucked up in bed when another couple walked through our room. We hadn't been told that the room adjoining had no entrance except through our bedroom and that it was rented out also. Two days later we found rented rooms in a house in Wells-next-the-Sea. It was a large house called St. Heliers and was situated across from the library. Mr & Mrs. Riches owned the house and lived there... Read more
Memories From My Father Tom Ebert Who Was Evacuated to Dersingham From Poplar During WW2
My first recollection of Dersingham was as a seven year old boy in 1941.
My mother, sister and I were evacuated from the East End of London during the blitz and arrived, after a long train journey, at the Station Hotel one late afternoon which was owned then by a Mr and Mrs Parminter. After some tea and sandwiches we were billeted on a retired couple, a Mr and Mrs Bush who lived in White Horse Drive, long before the council houses were built opposite.
The official procedure then was that anybody who had room to spare in their houses had to take in evacuees. No ifs or buts - if you had a spare room or two you ended up with evacuees. No doubt those and such as those who could drop a word in the right place never had to open their doors, but that's another story. This draconian ruling, as you can imagine, caused resentment amongst those people who had to take in these unwanted lodgers. I... Read more
Dersingham 1954 C
We lived in the village shop Virginia Stores owned by Peatling & Cawdron. My dad won the Vernons Football Pools in 1955 a great sum of £505.6s, my sister and I had new bikes, and mum and dad went for a holiday to Blackpool! with her new fur coat. We moved to Brancaster after that when they bought the pub there.
I remember going to Sandringham with the school to sing carols at Christmas and winning prizes at the flower show for handwriting and needlework,
walking through the woods picking chestnuts and ducking when the Royal family rode past on horseback, the Queen Mother coming to the school and watching out for her driving an old shooting break around the village and
running through the church yard at dusk frightened silly by the bats that swooped around but not daring to be scared in front of our friends.
Kennedy
It's said everyone remembers where they were when President Kennedy was shot, I certainly do. I was at this spot coming from Snettisham when it came on the car radio. The picture of the church with the old barns is great as I was a boarder at the old vicarage further up the road, walked past the Manor Hotel (now gone after a fire) and showed school films in the village hall near the pond. Walked miles around the country lanes, especially the then main road to Heacham through Snettisham.
Park House Farm
My wife and I spent one year ( circa 1953 ) living in an apartment at Park House Farm where Tony Warner raised sugar beets and pigs. The Manor House was built on a Roman foundation which then formed the basement of the building. I was stationed at Sculthorpe AFB in Fakenham. I joined the local rifle team in Snettisham sponsored by the Queen's husband, Prince Philip. Their residence, Sandringham, was within walking distance. When our team won a major match, Prince Phillip gave me a basket of fruit and invited me to go shooting with him. While living there the ploughman dug up a golden torque that now resides in the British Museum. I did some digging in the field in back of the Manor House myself and found a few Saxon odds and ends but I didn't go deep enough. A few years later an RAF officer went over the same area with a metal detector and found the Snettisham Treasure. Great town, great experience. My... Read more
