While the rest of the country was suffering the adverse effects of Storm Bert, Santon Downham as usual had to be different.
Sky News (and the BBC) reported
“Particularly mild air within the system has allowed temperatures to climb, we’ve already reached above 18C in Santon Downham in Suffolk today, which looks to be a record for this date, 24 November.”
The Beeb quoted 19C and our own weather station read 18.4C. A bit of a change from -4.7C on the 21st!!!
In October 2024 we were sent a copy of a painting by Frederick Waters Watts (1800-1870).
Ivan Cane sent us this image in the hope we might be of help identifying it.
He is trying to look at all of the pictures of staunches and name/identify them this is of a staunch on the Little Ouse, which has turned up in a few places on canal websites.
It has been suggested that the picture in question could be of Santon Staunch with the lock house and St Helens Church in the background.
He is attempting to see if it could be a pre 1820’s picture.
However, no staunch pictures show such a primitive structure as in this painting by. This could be for one of two reasons, first, artistic licence (Constable was good with that when painting River Stour lock lintels!) to simplify things. Second – and this is the more exciting, and hopeful outcome, that this was a painting of the first staunch at Santon, i.e. pre-1820. Although there are records that Little Ouse Staunches were built in the eighteenth century, there is no record of their construction, nor pictures/drawings so this could be a picture of such a structure.
One aspect that may be of use is that of the house ,also in the picture. (map attached from 1881) . What was this house – and of more importance – when was it built? The map may suggest that it was related to the navigation.
Many postcards are “variable” in their accuracy e.g. a couple are labelled Brandon – but they are of different staunches – one of which is believed to be Santon.
If you have any thoughts/clues to this mystery please contact us.
The end of September saw Breckland Club running it’s first ever Oktoberfest.
Thanks to everyone who attended and helped make it such a great success.
In what is hoped will become an annual event the Oktoberfest saw both new faces and old enjoying a large selection of German (and Belgian) beers.
Put a note in your diary for next year and keep an eye on this website and the clubs facebook page.
Thanks to the relevant TENs license the Club was able to welcome non-club members to the event. They obviously enjoyed it as over 25 new members signed up.
The opening weekend also featured a bouncy castle and a German style BBQ. (thanks Dot and Eleen and all who help out).
Some really entered into the spirit of the event and turned up in full Bavarian costume.
Contrary to popular belief the annual Munich Oktoberfest doesn’t really occur just in Obtober but in fact runs for three weeks and ends on the 1st Sunday in October.
Our beers were
Apologies to those who were drinking the Kriek/Cherry beer – we got the ABV wrong – it should have been 5.8% not 5%!!.
A German style Oktoberfest is coming to Santon Downham.
Breckland Club are running an Octokberfest from Friday 27th September to Sunday 13th of October
A selection of German beers (and some Belgian) will be available and a German style BBQ will take place on the Saturday (Sept 28th) ~ 4pm.
Normal Club opening hours apply during Oktoberfest.
| Friday | 5:30–10 pm |
| Saturday | 2–10 pm |
| Sunday | 12–6 pm |
ALL WELCOME – The Breckland Club is a members only club and events are normally only open to members and their guests. However Oktoberfest 2024 is open to all. Please enquire at the bar if you’d like to become a member.
Car Boots are resuming in Santon Downham from May
These are being run by the village hall
for further details please contact the village hall
The main road between Brandon and Thetford is closed overnight tetween 7pm and 5am (7ht to 8th of Feb)
Access only may be allowed (i.e. to Santon Downham) but long diversions seem to be in place for through traffic.
Details can be found here
10:30 to 12:00 at the Village Hall
The dates for the 2024 Coffee Mornings are as follows
Wednesday
24th January
7th February
21st February
6th March
20th March
3rd April
17th April –LAST OF THE YEAR
Yes it was cold last night.
No surprises as my garden weather station had recorded an overnight low of -6.6C.
It wasn’t till much later in the day that Dan Holley was able to say the official weatherstation confirmed it (they even agreed with my numbers).
One of the main roads in/out of Santon Downham will be closed from the 8th to the 17th of November.
Details can be found here
The closure is at the corner by the Forestry Commission and the details/diversion shows their will be no direct access either to or from the river/bridge side of Santon Downham i.e no access to/from the A134.
A number of historic press clippings from local and regional papers have been added to site.
Links have been added to relevant sections on the Timeline, The Church and Downham Hall together with the full list on the In The Press page.
More will be added in the near future.