Melton Mowbray - Rural Capital of Food and Two-Headed Beasties

"Is it true they eat their first born?" asked a passenger to the bus driver on the way to the rural capital of food – Melton Mowbray. I was on the no.19 bus from Nottingham and the pair were making banter about the driver being a Melton local who enjoyed his job because it meant he could get away from the place, whereas the passenger was buying a ticket to get there.

Melton was the original place where the town was 'painted red' by drunken revellers, and if you have any doubts about Melton's tourism credentials, then they should be confirmed by knowing that a very well known hotel chain has built somewhere for you to stay just a stone’s throw away from the cattle market. 

The 'food capital' is Melton Mowbray's tourism tag and it was on Tuesday's market day that I caught my bus there.

The livestock market is an unusual experience to the outsider. The auction chant and bidding is a bizarre and interesting form of communication to the outsider, and all sorts of animals are sold here from small birds, to rabbits, chickens, doves, turkeys, geese, sheep, calves and cattle.

If you don't fancy going home with a crate of fowl then you can buy a Hambleton Bakery loaf or a piece of locally made Stilton cheese. Melton is one of the few places in England where this cheese is produced.

I tried some of the latter when I had lunch at Miss B's cafe. While I was there I overheard that this lovely place is going to close, but there's also a Miss B's deli in town that's going to remain open, so I imagine they will be selling the Stilton platter there too.

Dickinson and Morris are the most well known pork pie makers here. Their shop is one of the popular tourist stopping points. If you don't eat meat, go and look at the pie shop sculpture in the front window.

In Derek Jones’s butcher's I bought a pie dolly, so that I can have a go at making one of my own 'hand raised' pies at home.

Here are some of the other interesting and quirky things you might see as you walk around Melton Mowbray:

The Regal Cinema: How great to see a local cinema still operating in a small town. The inside is just as lovely as the outside and it has a very big screen.

The bread ‘trap’ at Egerton Lodge residential home: This small opening was originally used to hand out pieces of bread to the poor. A plaque above the gate says that it used to be part of a building which is ‘now’ occupied by Woolworths. I think the sign needs updating…

I found this sculpture in the memorial gardens outside Egerton Lodge:

Anne of Cleves pub: So named because the building was 'gifted to Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII as part of their divorce settlement' (from the pub’s website). Better than a beheading I'll say...

One thing you mustn't miss on your trip to Melton, however, is a visit to the Carnegie Museum.

The displays about the local cheese trade are interesting, but the most remarkable exhibit is that of the ‘two-headed calf’. 

Born in 1900 the ‘two calves in one skin’ didn't live for long, but after taxidermy became a fund-raiser at Melton cattle market for the Red Cross in both World Wars. You probably won't find any two-headed calves at the livestock market today but you can buy a souvenir postcard of Melton's most famous calf at the museum to send to your friends and relatives back home... 

A Visit to Great Yarmouth

Seaside towns have long been the place for unusual or eccentric attractions. The types of exhibits and collections that were also part of the travelling fairground. Take for example, the infamous Rector of Stiffkey – the defrocked clergyman who ended up being mauled by a lion in a sideshow at Skegness.

Madame Tussauds at Blackpool has kept up to date for its holidaymakers by including likenesses of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. The Louis Tussauds Waxworks at Great Yarmouth, however, was looking more than tired by the time of its closure in 2013, with its replicas of Kojak, Mr Blobby and Samantha Fox.

The House of Wax, Great Yarmouth before it closed

 

The House of Wax in 2016 - now closed

If you are visiting Great Yarmouth then I would highly recommend visiting the Time and Tide Museum. Converted from an old herring smoke house, this place has a reconstruction of an old Yarmouth row (a narrow pedestrian lane with houses and shops), a seaside gallery, and information on the area's fishing industry.

The Hippodrome Museum is also open to visitors after performances at the circus.

Before you leave Great Yarmouth, you must make sure that you pay a visit to The David Howkins Museum of Memories. Admissions here go to charity, and at the time of my visit (2016) only cost £3 for an adult, and £1 for children. The contents of the museum are eclectic. Some its exhibits look like small personal collections – such as the cluster of Murano Glass clowns (familiar tourist souvenirs from the latter half of the twentieth century), and some Royal memorabilia. There are also some dolls houses (not antiques), and rooms full of teddies and dolls.

A fairground Aunt Sally - see if you can knock the clay pipe from her face...

Of particular interest however, are the Stamp Room and the Joseph Merrick display. The latter includes a bust of Merrick, which is a replica of a plaster cast taken of his head, kept in the London Hospital where he spent the last few years of his life. Visitors can buy a booklet about the ‘Elephant Man’ at the museum. The curator is keen to point out that the ‘true’ story of the Elephant Man is that the showman Tom Norman was Merrick’s colleague and friend, and that, contrary to the David Lynch feature film, Merrick tired of the medical inspections instigated by the film’s ‘hero’, Frederick Treve. Joseph Merrick’s skeleton has still not been buried, and it has recently been mooted that his remains should be returned to his original birthplace, Leicester (in a similar vein to Richard III’s).

The member of staff on duty at the Museum of Memories was very eager for me to go to the first floor to see the Stamp Room. This is a room with furniture and artifacts completely covered in postage stamps. This display was created by Albert Schafer who spent over 30 years fulfilling this self-imposed challenge.

The museum is housed in an impressive building that used to be the local gas showroom. You can walk a grand staircase – lit by a huge stained glass window – leading up to the former gas offices on the first floor, which now house the Stamp Room and toys. As you leave, you can buy a genuine seaside postcard from the 1950s as a souvenir.

The Museum of Memories is memorably eccentric and unique.

For more information on the museum look here

Cromer Official Guide, 1965 (Part 3)

Where to Stay

I've been reading about Cromer in the 1960s. In my previous two blog posts I revealed how to travel there by train or coach, and what attractions would be there to tempt visitors to the North Norfolk coast.

In this post I'll take a look into the accommodation.

The Cromer Official Guide from 1965 gives us lots of information about the hotels, guest houses, apartments and caravan parks that were in the town at the time. Some are still thriving today. We can also get an idea about the latest facilities that landlords and landladies mentioned in their advertisements to entice the holidaymaker and reassure them that their establishment was the place to stay!

The Grand (see advertisement above)

'Cromer's finest hotel', This was an imposing structure built in the late 1800s and overlooking the sea. At the time this guide was published, the hotel’s days were numbered. It was demolished 5 years later after a fire.

Hotel de Paris and The Regency

The Hotel de Paris is a beautiful Art Nouveau building directly overlooking the pier. This hotel is now popular with coach parties. It features heavily in the 2012 film In Love With Alma Cogan, which was shot on location in Cromer. In 1965 it advertised itself as 'the leading Cromer hotel'. The Regency is the building adjacent to the Hotel de Paris. The ground floor (formerly the Dolphin pub) is now home to the Craft Burger restaurant.

The Red Lion and the Cambridge

The Red Lion Hotel offered free golf to its guests in 1965 and had hot and cold water in all rooms, as well as central heating.

Its next door neighbour, The Cambridge had an unrivalled position facing the sea, and recommended that its guests book early! Like several of the hotels at Cromer, it offered to book beach huts and tents for its customers.

The advertisement for Bedford House shows an ‘actual view from lounge and bedroom windows’ and offered ‘interior sprung mattresses'. Its ‘moderate terms’ were from 7 and a half guineas.

The advert for El Turista on Cabbell Road also proudly displays the view from the hotel, as well as a photograph of its dining room set ready for a ‘first class’ meal. Interior sprung mattresses and an attractive television lounge were on offer here, as well as a bar.

For luxury and comfort, however, the Colne House Hotel was hard to beat. The advertisement for the Colne boasts two tennis courts, croquet, a maple sprung dance floor and film shows!

If you have holidayed in Cromer recently, it is possible that you may have stayed in one of the following establishments that are still open today:

The Grove, Virginia Court, or the nearby Northrepp's Cottage.

Royal Links Caravan Park

In 1965, a Caravan Park was advertised near to Happy Valley and the Royal Links golf course. There is no caravan park here any more. They have been replaced by some red brick holiday homes at Cromer Country Club.

Perhaps you are the type of holidaymaker who prefers to stay in a holiday flat, rather than a hotel or caravan, such as the Furness or Seafield Holiday Flats? The latter offered a baby-sitting service in 1965.

If you were staying in a flat or caravan and had forgotten to take a portable radio with you, then you could have hired one from John B. Postle’s shop in Mount Street. Postle’s electrical shop is now on Church Street, as is 'K’ Hardware, which also featured in the brochure from the mid ‘60s (see above).

It is quite clear to see from The Cromer Official Guide, that this was ‘a lively little town’ ... [and still is].

As the guide points out:

‘This is a town of character, with the history written all over it of a rise from an ancient and tiny fishing town to a fashionable Victorian and now to a twentieth century seaside resort’ (page 6). 

Quotes and images from Cromer Official Guide, 1965, published by the Cromer Advertising Association, Urban District Council.