Dersingham & District News

Posted by Stella Gooch

Dersingham’s March Community Lunch was held in the lovely St Cecilia’s Church (Dersinghams Roman Catholic Church). It was the first time I had been inside the main church building and it was set out beautifully for such an occasion. The ambience of the whole environment was added to by the lovely lighting in the form of lit globes suspended from the ceiling.

Of course, as the day turned out to be so filled with sunshine, the only thing that could have made the lunch more enjoyable was for it to be hosted outdoors to take advantage of such a glorious day.

E H Priors, the high quality butchers (I can personally vouch for that assertion too!) recently established alongside Dersingham’s new surgery buildings, were the hands on hosts of today’s lunch. Not only did they provide a wonderful serving of hot roast pork, new potatoes with salad trimmings but they did all the work themselves. Mr and Mrs Prior Senior (Tilly and Dennis) joined myself and Cllr Luke Loades (Rounce & Evans Letting Agents) for lunch whilst the rest of the family team got to grips with all the catering and serving for some 80 people! I must not forget to mention that their fruit pie and cream was delicious too and those that opted for the cheesecake no doubt enjoyed that as well.

Bob Tipling welcomed all lunch guests and introduced four Borough Councillor candidates who were attending: Julie Collings, John Dobson, Tony Bubb and Kate Sayer. Bob also introduced the new local police officer: Karen Faulkener and representatives of the West Norfolk Voluntary and Community Action group (WNVCA), Sue Gardiner and Marie Connell. It transpired that Sue and Marie were attending the lunch in order to raise awareness of the help and assistance available for older residents with regard to the imminent digital switch on.

Following Bob’s introductions, lunch host Clifford Prior personally welcomed guests and said that it was the first time Priors had been able to provide lunch for the Dersingham Community Lunch since their arrival in Dersingham some 16 months earlier. Mr Prior went on to say that the family were delighted with the reception they had received from the local community. Here’s hoping this is not the last time that Priors get to feed the Dersingham Community Lunch!!

During the course of the lunch, Marie Connell was asked to explain to us about the role of WNVCA and volunteering in general. It was the role of WNVCA to source and match volunteer workers to local organisations and provide technical equipment as needed for events and ALL FOR FREE. WNVCA also provided meeting and interview rooms at low cost and produced a regular email newsletter promoting the community minded organisations and distributed the newsletter across some 250 organisations.

Marie said that WNVCA recently moved their operation to the North Lynn Industrial Estate and invited everyone to come and visit them there to discuss the digital switch over or volunteer needs/issues. She went on to say that the Hunstanton Community Action event at Hunstanton Town Hall was scheduled for 8 April and that there were still a few stands left for organisations wishing to promote what they are about to the wider community. So don’t delay get in touch with WNVCS now. Check out their website at: www.westnorfolkvca.org.

Marie finished with a personal announcement that she had been a vegetarian for 20 years but that the pork she had eaten at lunch was wonderful! This was met with a unified roar of approval from the lunch guests.

Following lunch, Bob Tipling formally took the floor and announced the sad death of Len Matthews of St Cecilia’s Church on 14 March. He advised that the funeral had taken place on 23 March.

In the course of his talk, we learned how Bob was apparently known fondly as “Bobby”in his younger years. Young Bobby gained the eleven plus following his infant and junior school career. He was accepted by Harrogate Grammar School and chose to leave at the age of 15.

This led to a job in the retail trade and ultimately a hotel based career lasting some 25 years. Bob was employed at many major hotels from as far afield as Aberdeen in Scotland and Grays in Essex. A change of career in the 1970s saw Bob entering local government with Leicester City Council. There he stayed from some 20 years, retiring early in 1997. It was at this time that Bob and Margaret Tipling relocated to Dersingham – a plan which had been on the table for some 10-15 years as they had enjoyed many holidays in the area.

Soon enough, Bob was getting into involved in Dersingham life as he began to attend Parish Council meetings and this led to co-option on to the Council. He then found himself wearing the hat of “Editor of the Dersingham Village Voice”. Dersingham’s newsletter began life with Editor Peter Merrish in October 1997 with just 16 pages. Peter stood down following issue no 2 on leaving the village and the task was passed to Teresa Southam who continued to produce the Village Voice until issue no 23. At that time the newsletter contained 24 pages and had a village circulation of 2,000 and these were delivered via the free Citizen newspaper at a cost of 25 pounds per thousand.

Bob also paid tribute to his able supporters on the Village Voice, Tony Bubb (graphics and advertising support) and Stella Caunt (layout artist and IT support) who helped compile the newsletter whilst he shopped round for contributors and conducted personal interviews. As the magazine expanded, it soon became 80 pages in length and reported good, bad and sad moments of village life. Shortly after the death of Stella Caunt, Bob handed over the task of Editor to Tony Bubb. Bob’s final Village Voice was the 80th publication in the series.

Bob saluted Tony’s good work at the Village Voice since that time and commented that a chat with Jonathan James of Budgens led to Bob firstly gaining a job and secondly becoming the organiser of Dersingham Community Lunches and the rest – as they say – is history. The success of these lunches have brought truly brought the community together and offers a fantastic opportunity for everyone to meet and share all that is Dersingham.

Bob talked eloquently about Dersingham Community Lunches Past, Present & the Future! He reminded us that he was taking more a back seat in relation to the Community Lunches and had become President of the Community Lunches. As a result of this, he said that Suzy Daniels (covering the role of Treasurer) and Steve Sergeant (taking the role of Events Organiser) had joined him in the running of future Community Lunches and Bob also introduced a fourth member of the team as Lyndsay Shaw (who was helping keep it all together).

Bob confirmed that future lunches would incur a cost of £1 per attendee in order to help offset the cost of operating the lunches and the guests agreed this was appropriate as the lunch could not continue to be free of charge on an on-going basis. In addition, it was agreed that a Christmas Dersingham Community Dinner would be of interest among the village and Sandringham Visitor’s Centre was a possible venue.

The proceeds of the raffle at this lunch allowed a donation to the Scouts & Guides of £133 (after £25 room hire costs).