On this week: September 15-21, 1984 in Docking, Hunstanton, King’s Lynn, Sandringham, Wiggenhall St Peter and Wissington

In our weekly On This Week column, we look through the pages of the Lynn News from 40 years ago…

Delight has been the reaction throughout West Norfolk at the birth of Sandringham-born Princess Diana’s second son, Prince Harry at the weekend [September 15]. The news reached his great-grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, in West Norfolk when the Prince of Wales telephoned her soon after the birth. She was “absolutely delighted” hearing about the birth of the prince, her fifth great-grandchild. His full name is Henry Charles Albert David. Church bells were rung at Castle Rising and Sandringham, and a message congratulating the Princess on the birth of her second son was sent by the mayor, Bryan Seaman, on behalf of the people of Lynn and West Norfolk.

Plans to spend more than £15,000 to maintain the ruins of Wiggenhall St Peter’s Church have been met with anger by St Germans parishioners. Their neighbouring parish church – which is still in use – is in need of £100,000 worth of repairs over the next few years. St Germans residents also point out that the 15th century church at Wiggenhall St Peter has not been used for three years and before that it was only used once a year, on St Peter’s Day. Norfolk County Council has agreed to give £1,400 towards the upkeep of the ruins, but an estimated £15,445 is needed for repairs to the tower, nave and chancel walls.

“Things ain’t what they used to be” – that’s how many Docking residents feel about their village. The loss of many shops and services such as the railway station has led many people to believe that their village has lost its vitality. A recent survey on the village concluded that people spoke warmly of Docking as a pleasant place to live, but there were problems, mainly of poor accessibility and lack of employment within the village.

Residents of Lynn’s Saddlebow Road are calling for a ban on heavy lorries following the second accident involving a lorry there within a fortnight. After a fuel tanker and two cars were involved in a collision in that road, local people said it was lucky that no-one was seriously hurt. That crash came just a few days after a lorry crashed into the wall outside St Michael’s Infants School only a few hundred yards away. A petition has been set up calling for all but essential heavy traffic to be banned from the road.

Lynn’s young BMX fans are not to have a £7,000 track provided for them by West Norfolk Council. The leisure and tourism committee has decided to offer the BMX club £1,000 – and invite members to contribute to the scheme themselves. Councillors were told that the BMX club had 200 members, but had only £200 left in the kitty after losing their site at Clenchwarton and there were fears that the two-year-old club would have to fold.

An organisation has been formed in the area to help people suffering from terminal illness. The North West Norfolk Home Hospice Support Group, based in the Hunstanton, Heacham and Dersingham area will be officially launched at a harvest festival service at St Mary’s Church, Old Hunstanton. During the service a cheque for more than £1,750 will be handed to get the group under way, money from a recent festival at the church together with a donation from Hunstanton Lions Club.

Architects from all over the world have crossed the stark steel and glass threshold of Smithdon High School since its opening in 1954. The building led a new era of architecture disarmingly named New Brutalism and, because it was a forerunner, it became a famous and listed building. But 30 years on, the hard lesson is that children and staff have had to live and work inside this experimental building with its floor to ceiling glass walls and it has not always been easy.

Dig that beet! It’s sugar time in West Norfolk and this year’s crop should be good enough to keep farmers sweet. Local roads will soon be rumbling under the weight of hundreds of farm lorries as the 1984 sugar beet campaign begins. As the huge task of harvesting 100,000 acres of the crop in West Norfolk gets underway, sugar supremos are hoping for bumper results. British Sugar’s Lynn factory will open its weighbridge on September 24 and the giant Wissington factory near Downham on the following day.