Follow @wisbechevenmore

APOLOGIES TO MY SMALL, BUT LOYAL AND DISCERNING READERS, for a long absence. Holidays and other writing commitments are my excuse. I return with a quiz called SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW WISBECH? Technology at Communityforum Towers does not extend to this being interactive online, so I suggest you take a pencil and paper, and then you can check your answers via another link at the end. Some of the photos have appeared earlier in this blog.

  QUESTION 1. Where is this plaque to be found?

QUESTION 2. "I see Dead People..." but where..?

 QUESTION 3. "They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.." A little way out of town, but where..?

QUESTION 4. Again, a short drive away, but an hidden eighteenth century gem.

QUESTION 5. What was this built for, and where is it?

 QUESTION 6. Where is this date mark?

QUESTION 7. What was this, and where is it to be found?

QUESTION 8. Where are these signs?

QUESTION 9. This photo has been doctored to avoid being too obvious, but where can you see it?

QUESTION 10.  What was this, and where is it?

QUESTION 11. Where is this old chapel?

QUESTION 12. Where is this old house?

QUESTION 13. A short drive out of town, but what was this and where does it stand? 

QUESTION 14. Where is this?

QUESTION 15. Where is this?

QUESTION 16. A sign of former glory - where?

QUESTION 17. From the start of the Great War. Where is this plaque?

QUESTION 18. The gate to an abandoned garden. Where is it?

QUESTION 19. Photoshopped to cover the sign, but where is it?

QUESTION 20. All that remains of....what?

                              YOU CAN FIND THE ANSWERS HERE 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81263176@N05/7448611802/lightbox/ 

                                   PICKWICK'S OFSTED RATINGS 

20 - 17   You are true Wizbekistani, or a cheating toe-rag
16-12     Enough knowledge to be a Town Councillor (or then again.....)
11-8       You need to get out more
7-4        Does your white stick need polishing?
3 -0       Do you enjoy life in Spalding?  

Follow @wisbechevenmore

FEW WORDS TONIGHT - just a portrait of some Wisbech folk who have been out and about during these last days of sun and fun. If anyone has been photographed here, and would rather the picture wasn't published, then get in touch, and I will remove the photo.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

 

Follow @wisbechevenmore

Streets Of Shame, and Roads of Ruin

PICKWICK WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGISE for the confusion caused by his putting a 'trailer' picture on our cousin Facebook page, Wisbech…Oh Dear. The picture showed two provocatively dressed ladies trying to drum up business at the kerbside. If this led web surfers into thinking that tonight's blog update was about vice and illicit sex on the streets of PE13, then it has to be said that the ploy was absolutely intentional, and was a cheap and shabby trick to try and drum up more traffic. Just for the record, here's the picture again, and no, it wasn't taken in Wisbech. It just demonstrates the depths to which Pickwick is prepared to sink to get more readers.

BUT NO! Tonight we look at the appalling state of some of the roads in  Wisbech. Pot - holes that will rip your tyres off. Yawning chasms that will have you queueing round the block at Kwik-Fit to have your suspension replaced. Crevasses that will send your wheel covers cartwheeling off into the bushes. Why are the roads in such a dire state? Well, I suppose it's because there is no money to repair them. No money?, you say. Well, the last time I checked on what I pay to the government for the privilege of swerving round on these hazardous tracks humorously called roads, it looked like this. Every time I put fuel in the car, most of the money goes to the government. Each year I pay nearly £200 in tax for a little piece of embossed paper which is sellotaped inside my windscreen. I realise that central government is not responsible for maintaining roads, but I believe that the government of the day writes a cheque to local authorities so that they can keep roads safe and in good repair.

I REALISE that the awful roads of Wisbech are not unique in the UK. But they are unique to me, as I live here, and expect to be supported by local authority personnel and politicians whose wages I contribute to. Here follows a little photo-essay on some of the choicer spots in this fair borough. All the pics were taken when I was on a bike-ride. And don't get me started on what some of these chasms do to cycles and cyclists. Yes, I ride on the pavement whenever possible, much to the disgust of pedestrians, but that's an argument for another day. 

A SECTION OF HIGHWAY which we can proudly call put up for comparison with anything in the Third World, is a short stretch, no more than 200 yards, between the Town Bridge and the end of Old Market. This is getting rapidly worse, while traffic can no longer go beside the river due to the flood defence work.

CHAPEL ROAD JUNCTION

OLD MARKET

TOWN BRIDGE JUNCTION

TOWN BRIDGE JUNCTION

SOUTH BRINK AND CROMWELL ROAD have been excavated more times than The Valley Of The Kings, and there is no sign that the Highway Engineering Consultants are becoming any more adept at their trade. I am old enough to remember Steamrollers, and their diesel successors. Road repairs didn't simply consist of dumping a bit of tarmac into a hole, slapping it with the back of a shovel, and then popping off for a McDonald's somewhere. Roads used to be levelled, graded, rolled, and cambered properly. But that was then.

SOUTH BRINK

CROMWELL ROAD

CROMWELL ROAD

PART OF THE PROBLEM IS THE ENDLESS UNCO-ORDINATED AND RANDOM TRENCHES driven across the highway by a motley collection of 'Service Providers', including Telecoms, Power, Drainage, and Water, No-one seems to talk to anyone else. There is no-one with an overview. No-one seems to plan, no-one seems to be able to pull projects together. The result is the haphazard mess of humps, ditches and trenches which crop up in the most unlikely places.

RAILWAY ROAD

 ONE OF THE GAPS IN MY EDUCATION was that I was never privileged to quaff a pint of foaming ale in that most curious of Wisbech watering holes, The Flower Pot. Friends told me it had a lurid reputation, but at least no-one had met their death by stabbing or violent assault within its walls, unlike several other venues of choice in PE13. Currently, the road outside it leave much to be desired.

OUTSIDE 'THE FLOWER POT'

MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE is this completely unexplained, unexplainable and unfillable crater at the top of a quiet, secluded suburban street. maybe the street name is something to do with it…? A stray cluster bomb from a passing V-Bomber, perhaps…?

BEFORE ANYONE CHIPS IN TO SUGGEST that we only have to visit the Cambs County Council Highways website and report the fault…I have been there, done that…..and got the meaningless brush-off. I reported the traffic chaos caused by the mismatched signage and road markings as drivers approach Freedom Bridge roundabout from Churchill Road. Within 48 hours, the report was annotated online as 'Case Closed', despite nothing whatsoever having been done to resolve the issue. So please, please, pretty please DO NOT point me in that direction.

Follow @wisbechevenmore

TODAY'S UPDATE is to thank everyone who has responded to my request for unwanted guitars. The Fenland Citizen and the Wisbech Standard were good enough to publish my letter, and I have spent the last few days motoring around Fenland picking up instruments from some really generous people.

I have been busy re-stringing,polishing, adjusting and repairing where necessary, and we now have enough instruments not only to run the classes at the Rosmini Centre, but to loan instruments out to youngsters so that they can practice between lessons.

I made this point in my letters to the papers, but will emphasise it again now. These lessons are open to any young person, no matter what their personal circumstances are, or where in the world they come from. All we are asking is that they are willing to learn and work hard at acquiring a valuable musical skill.

THE INSTRUMENTS WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN range from cheap, cheerful but playable guitars, to a really beautiful Brazilian Di Giorgio from the 1970s with a wonderful bookmatched back. For the uninitiated, this is where a piece of wood is split down the middle, and the two halves opened out beside each other so that the grain gives a mirror-image appearance. How lovely is this just to look at, never mind the warmth of the sound?

The gentleman who gave us this guitar also provided a real 'lump in the throat moment'. He had been a musician all his life, but as he showed me his hands, gnarled and lumpy with arthritis, he said, "I can't play it any more, but I'd be delighted if someone else could."

IF ANYONE HAS ANY FURTHER HELP TO OFFER, or wants their child to be considered for lessons, these are the contacts. The Youth Worker at the Centre is Daina Zagurskiene, and her email is dainazagurskiene.rcw@gmail.com

The Centre phone number is 01945 474 422

 

Follow @wisbechevenmore

THIS IS A LONG-DELAYED PHOTO-ESSAY from those glorious warm March days when we all thought that Spring had sprung, and there was a clear run-in to the long summer days of pavements you could fry an egg on, nose-to-tail traffic trying to get to the coast, and endless nights in the garden with cold beer, swifts wheeling in the dusk sky, and the smell of meat on the barbecue. This is written on a dank, cold, and utterly vile April night with disastrous weather yet to come, and summer so far out of sight that it may never happen. 

A DAY WITH NAN

ANOTHER WINTER SURVIVED

"BEEN THERE, DONE THAT"

FOUR GENERATIONS

THE BOYS ARE IN TOWN

THE DARK END OF THE STREET

TOWN GIRLS

WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD

Follow @wisbechevenmore
WISBECH IS HAUNTED BY THE GHOSTS OF DEAD PUBS. Here a few where the buildings still survive. There are as many again that have been demolished. The text is taken from Arthur Oldham's book, 'The Inns and Taverns of Wisbech.

THE BIRD IN HAND, North Brink."Thomas Bulman was there in 1846, and kept it until October 16th 1866. Mr Bulman was a retail coal merchant, and every year three or four 'billy-boys' came up the river and were unloaded there, the coal being stored at the back of the inn.The inn was the background of a tragedy in 1852, when on June 4th an inquest was held within its walls into the death of a Mr Wright, of Leverington, aged 77, who was in a conversation with a Mr Whitley of Barton Lane, and whilst so engaged fell to the ground and shortly afterwards expired. A verdict of 'Died By The Visitation Of God' was returned. In 1867, the landlord, Thomas Thacker was charged with assaulting his step-daughter, Fanny Webster. It was a brutal assault, and he was fined twenty-eight shillings."

THE BIRD IN HAND

THE BRIDGE, Norwich Road. "It was kept in 1850 by George Barnes. There was also a side entrance from Wellington Terrace, on the canal"

THE BRIDGE

THE ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, North Street. "In 1846 it was occupied by Edward Shacklock. In June 1869, a very rough looking character named Joseph Stafford, a labourer, lodging at the Elephant and castle, was brought up, charged with being found on the enclosed premises of Mr John Curtis, with felonious intent."

THE ELEPHANT AND CASTLE

THE ENGINEERS TAVERN, Victoria Street. "This tavern dates from the early days of the Great Eastern Railway. The Conservative Club, now at Hill Street is said to have commenced in The Engineers Tavern."

THE ENGINEERS TAVERN

THE FERRY HOUSE, or FERRY BOAT, Norfolk Street. "The river in Wisbech, in olden times took a very different course from that taken by it now. It was known as 'The Ferry House' as far back as 1874, and alternatively has been called 'The Ferry Boat up to the present time."

THE FERRY BOAT

THE RAILWAY TAVERN, Victoria Road. "Situated near Wisbech East Passenger Station, it has done a steady trade since Job Whitlock was landlord in 1860. There were originally two small cottages on the site of the present tavern. At the rear of the premises can still be seen the remnants of a skittle alley. William Bennett, the present tenant, has been at the Tavern since October 1924."

THE RAILWAY TAVERN

THE RUTLAND ARMS, Lynn Road. "From here, in 1845, departed passengers and goods by packet boat for Ely, every Saturday, returning on Thursdays. On a Friday in 1880, a Coroner's Inquest was held in the building, into the death of Henry Elget, who had hanged himself in the hayloft."

THE RUTLAND ARMS

THE SHIP, Market Place."Thomas Thompson was landlord in 1792. William Hides became landlord in December 1853. In April 1858 he respectfully informed his friends, and the general public, that he had, at considerable expense, engaged for one evening only, on Monday April 12th, 'A Galaxy of Novel, Curious, Comic, Musical and Ventriloquist Talent entitled HOFFMAN'S UNIQUE ENTERTAINMENT, which was patronised by Roralty, Nobility, Clergy and Gentry, comprising Hoffman's Organo-phonic Band, or Human Voice Orchestra."

THE SHIP

THE UNICORN, West Street. "It has been occupied for a long while, the earliest tenant known was the widow of William Terry, who kept the inn in 1792."

THE UNICORN

THE VINE, Old Market. "This was one of four most important coaching inns in the town. In 1816, Mr J.C. Curwin, a leading solicitor and Town Clerk of Wisbech was accustomed to spend convivial evenings at 'The Vine'. On a certain Saturday night he joined others in drinking many shilling glasses of punch. He lost consciousness (his wisdom having left him long before) and on awakening, he made the painful discovery that his queue, or pigtail, had been shorn from his head. Rewards were offered, but failed to discover the perpetrator of the outrage, and the offender escaped detection."

THE VINE

HERE ARE TWO LINKS TO  WEBSITES LISTING MORE OF THE 'LOST' PUBS 
http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/cambridgeshire/wisbech.html 

http://deadpubs.co.uk/Cambridgeshire/Wisbech/index.shtml