Sheringham Potty Festival

Subject: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou (haven't done my cookie thing)
Date: 02 Jul 16 - 09:18 AM

We've just got back from Sheringham. The Morris dance festival was as fabulous as ever, and this year there are 40 sides taking part! Glad to see it's flourishing. Saw many familiar faces. Husband in African outfit, and lots of lovely Morris folk posed for photos with him.
How friendly and approachable Morris people are!
My best moment was a performance of Speed The Plough, my favourite Cotswold dance.
Pity the Sheringham Shantymen aren't singing until this evening. They used to sing during the lunch hour.
Sadly, I'm not too strong nowadays, and had to give in and come home after a light lunch. But it was magical; I'm still humming the tunes!

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Jul 16 - 11:46 AM

Glad you enjoyed the festival, Eliza. I haven't been to that part of Norfolk for some years though, many years ago most of my mother's side of the family originally came from places like Langham, Binham, etc. Great part of the world!

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 02 Jul 16 - 12:24 PM

Thank you Will. Yes, it is super here in Norfolk. We live about 30 minutes away from Sheringham. I've lived here for forty years (another forty and I may be considered almost a native)

I wonder if anyone knows Moss Ambrose of Leeds Morris? We always look for him (he's their 'Fool' and always drags my husband in for a bit of a dance) As he wasn't there this year, we hope he's well?

I was also very pleased to see quite a few youngsters/children dancing in the various sides.

Eliza

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 04:36 AM

Slight, but not enormous, drift, about the amenities of that delightful coastal town. There used to be a good, v professional, annual Sheringham Drama Festival at the Little Theatre there every July-Aug, run by a Yorks lady called Freda. I reviewed it for The Guardian for several years in the late·1980s to early·90s. Looking up the theatre on Wikipedia, I find this festival still continues. Anyone been lately? How it faring? Did/Do you ever go, Eliza, in your 40 years there? I'm like that fellow in Bob Russell's lyric for Duke Ellington, the one who "Don't get around much any more", what with old age & breathlessness & such. But interested to know how things I used to delight in are going.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Will Fly
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 05:24 AM

Well, I'm going to set this nice little thread just a bit further adrift because, by coincidence, I recorded a guitar solo version of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" very recently - and you can see it here:

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Who knows where this thread will end - six degrees of separation and all that! It's obviously going a little potty...

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 05:57 AM

Sadly, I've never been inside the Little Theatre MGM, though of course, we've walked past it a thousand times! I've been to the Cromer Pier Summer Shows. One I liked had a 'whistling lady' called Dotty. And 'George And His Guitar' So old-fashioned but brilliant.

Isn't it blinking terrible when you're so decrepit you run out of oof after an hour or two? My husband offered quite seriously to carry me on his back (African fashion) but I just giggled.
Oh, I really love it when threads drift. Isn't that just how normal conversation between friends goes?
We thought that Tesco would ruin Sheringham, but the little shops were still trading quite well, and the supermarket itself is quite out of view, tucked away near the railway line.
I've asked Joe if he can do some technology and post a couple of photos for me on this thread, but I'm not sure if he can.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 06:03 AM

My goodness Will, you play superbly! (And I do like that cushion with the butterflies on.)

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Will Fly
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 07:07 AM

Thanks Eliza - one does one's best - glad you liked it. And the cushion.

The cushion is one of a set of four bought by Mrs. M. I'm not a fan of cushions, as it happens, but I bow to the Boss! :-)

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou sans cookie
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 08:05 AM

Hahaha! Men aren't a bit interested in cushions are they?
I'm afraid I like throws too. And crocheted little mats. And Toby jugs.
You can tell I'm ancient...

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 01:38 PM

I like cushions. & throws. I am very interior·dec-minded. An agreeable environment is one of the amenities of life. Like good potty festivals & drama festivals & all. My paternal grandmother was a wonderful crochet-er and there is still lots of her beautiful work around the house.
Must be nice to be able to play like Will!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 03:05 PM

My Irish auntie Lily used to crochet those squares for blankets ceaselessly, without even looking. She always had a cigarette stuck to her lip and could talk at the same time. The ash used to get longer and longer while we watched fascinated. Eventually it would drop onto the wool. Her blankets stank of ciggies. She said it kept the moths away!

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 04:48 PM

We get down to Norfolk from time to time , having friends at Dereham . Just a little down the road from sheringham is cley next sea, ans blakeney where you can walk out on a long spit or take boat trip and see seals. One day going down that way I took an obscure country lane and we were surprised to come across a lovely village called glandford, if I remember right , which had a charming little shell museum.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 05:03 PM

But mind you don't fall asleep at the wheel as you drive thru Little Snoring & Gt Snoring...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 03 Jul 16 - 05:40 PM

Ah Pete, we live a stone's throw from Dereham (in a small village)
Glandford has a super wildflower garden centre. In our last house I created a nice wildflower'dell' using plants from there.

Michael, my husband cleans a holiday barn in Bale (very near to the Snorings)

I was sad at the Potty Festival to see how few of the side called Kemp's Men are left. I've followed them for donkey's years, but many of them were nearly as old as me! Quite a few Morris sides appeared to have joined forces, which is a good idea if numbers are diminishing. I also didn't get a glimpse of the Witchmen, (my all-time favourite) maybe they were appearing later. In the past, I've stayed all day and far into the evening for the singing, then gone back again on the Sunday for more punishment. Nowadays I can only stay out for a couple of hours then have to get home for a rest. I used also to drag my long-suffering husband off to Wittlesea for the Straw Bear Festival in the bitter cold of January. But that's a bit too much for me now.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 12:36 PM

Why it is called a "potty festival"?

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 02:24 PM

Catching lobsters in lobster-pots is a local industry; so the local Men danced under the name of The Lobster Potties [pun surely intended]: whence, I have always taken it, the name of the festival.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 03:17 PM

Okay. Thanks, MGM.

I looked at Sheringham on Google Maps and didn't see much of a harbor.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 03:36 PM

"The town has no harbour, so the lifeboat has to be launched by tractor, and the fishing boats are hauled up the beach." Wikipedia

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 06:56 PM

Very nice MGM Lion to learn about faraway places.

Dory Beach Lending

Nearby is where I pulled my older brother out just in time, can still feel that slippy green stuff under my bare feet. I was 7

Aggressive Tidal Pool

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou sans cookie
Date: 05 Jul 16 - 03:21 AM

Wow! That tidal pool looks vicious pauperback. The currents in the sea around the Norfolk coast are particularly treacherous. The sea wall at Sheringham has a super set of paintings showing the lifeboat through the ages. Men used to row the thing through gigantic waves, wearing simple lifejackets of cork. Brave blokes. The lifeboat stations at both Sheringham and Cromer have a long history of saving lives. Both boats (nowadays of the 'unsinkable' type) are launched from slipways, as neither town has a harbour.

I have to say, we both hate the sea. I get horribly seasick even on the Thames, and my husband is terrified of oceans (he can't swim)

A man from Sheringham is called a Shannock.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 05 Jul 16 - 04:08 AM

Pacific City's local motto was - Pacific City, a drinking town with a fishing problem. Now it's mostly brew pubs and surfers.

That pool has been roped off.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Jul 16 - 06:52 AM

A drift, but may be helpful, Eliza. I didn't learn to swim till I was 60; since when it has given me much pleasure and healthful exercise. Never too late...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 05 Jul 16 - 08:33 AM

I love swimming Michael. You're quite right, it's very good as it doesn't strain the body.
Last year on holiday in Tunisia, I swam up and down the pool lots. My husband ventured to actually stand in the water in the (very) shallow end up to his knees and walk about a bit. He seems to find large expanses of water very scary!

I'm still hoping someone knows if Moss Ambrose is still with Leeds Morris. We did miss him last weekend at Sheringham. He was always so good at involving the public to join in, and his style of Morris dancing is beautiful, one of the best, most elegant dancers I've seen.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 09:47 PM

While I was in Switzerland, Senoufou sent me a couple of photos for posting, but I didn't have what I needed to post them while traveling - and I forgot for a while when I came back. Here, finally, they are. Senoufou, can you explain? I will display them in this thread for a while, and then change them into links.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 03:14 AM

Here are two photos of my husband in his Ivorian outfit at the Potty Festival. It was so heartwarming just how many sides wanted to pose with him; people were so friendly and welcoming.
He didn't 'dance' this time as he's rather shy, but usually Moss Ambrose (Leeds Morris) spots him and drags him into the dance!
Thank you so much Joe for posting these pics.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 05:57 PM

Senoufou, as I heard a young man exclaimed on seeing a student at the local collage walking down the street: "that's a 'true' African"

Ken

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 06:28 PM

The young man was our foster son. I took his meaning to be -

That is who I should have been, not who I am.

He is married now with children and has stayed out of prison,

Thank God.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 03:35 AM

How lovely pauperback. I'm so glad he's kept to the right path, you must be proud.
When I look at my photos, I'm very struck by the friendly and kindly expressions on the faces of the Morris dancers. It's always the same at these festivals, people are so open and welcoming. It makes me proud of our old Morris traditions. If only the world could be the same, no racism and no hostility...
My husband always tells the Border Morris folk that he's lucky, he doesn't need to black up. He's sent these pics to his friends in Cote d'Ivoire, and they're very puzzled by the black faces. The Straw Bear at Wittlesea many years ago was a tremendous surprise to my husband. He had no idea we had these strange customs. He actually asked if there was anyone inside the straw costume! I don't know how he figured it walked along if not.

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 07:14 AM

Senoufou, it not all a bed of roses. Nice pics. Nothing like that whereabouts but nice to learn of odd<\i> English customs. *GRIN*

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 07:24 AM

Senoufou, it not all a bed of roses. Nice pics. Nothing like that hereabouts but nice to learn of odd English customs. *GRIN*

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 09:13 PM

From a movie called Wattstax...you should check it out

Subject: RE: Sheringham Potty Festival
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 04:13 AM

For anyone interested, the outfit my husband's wearing is made from 'bazin', a thick cotton which is starched then beaten with big round hammers to make it shine. He has three of these, and at the moment is back in Ivory Coast visiting his old mum and dad. He's taken all his bazin outfits with him, to have them re-hammered! His brother-in-law is going to make him two new ones as well. He also wears a boo-boo, which is a long white robe like a full-length nightshirt, and a little white hat. His numerous sisters wear 'pagnes' or wrap-around long skirts, with loose baggy tops, in lurid colours and designs. I adore these clothes, they're so comfortable. But as I look an absolute twit in them, I don't dare wear such things.