The Mardler

A local parish magazine covering the villages of Thorpe Abbotts and Brockdish. Coming out every two months I will publish here the All Saints' contribution.

What’s up in the Churchyard

Text Box: March is now well on us and there has been much to enjoy to date. The snowdrops put on a magnificent display and have now set seed has have the Winter Aconites having giving us a splash of yellow during deepest January.

As spring begins to make its presence felt a new crop of players take the stage. Lesser Celandine are beginning to appear in the shady parts of the churchyard and will be with us for the next couple of months. Also yellow and a welcome harbinger of spring are the primroses and their partners, cowslips. Both are present not only at All Saints, but on many a road bank as well, with the display starting with the primroses followed on about 2 weeks later by the cowslips. Most populations of primroses are generally very much of mixed descent as they hybridize very easily and in addition produce a variety of odd forms or “sports” well away from gardens where hydridization is likely. The garden writer and botanist, John Parkinson, writing in 1629 described no less than 21 forms of primrose (including cowslips and their rarer cousins the oxslips), “all of which kinds” he remarks “have been founde wilde”. New wild forms are still occurring, indeed in 1982 Blooms of Bressingham put on the market a delightful pale pink double primrose which had been discovered in the wild.

Also abundant at the moment are the daffodils, providing a strong splash of yellow. Whilst none of the wild species are to be found, along with large clumps of garden varieties, there are both individual plants and small clumps of a small double form. I have been unable to find a name for it but have seen it about elsewhere for instance on the back road to Dickleburgh. I am told that in the past daffodils were grown commercially in the area so this is probably where these came from.

At the end of last year we cut all the species rich areas as short as we could get in order to allow the spring flowing species the chance to get away before the grass. This appears to have worked very well indeed with the meadow saxifrage which is present in quite large numbers looking in fine fettle and I hope will put on a good display this year. An increasingly rare plant in the wild the meadow saxifrage is now largely confined to churchyards with its stronghold in East Anglia. May is the time to see it at its best so a visit perhaps in the later half of the mouth will see it at its best along with Star of Bethlehem which is widespread on the north side of the church.

Six Things you did not know about primroses

Primroses are pollinated at night by moths attracted by the bright petal colours.
Hundreds of years ago, these plants were grown for their medicinal and sweetening qualities, for example, it was believed that stem juice rubbed onto the face removed spots and freckles!
It was alleged that if children ate the flowers they would see the fairy folk!
It was lucky to bring 13 Primroses indoors but unlucky to bring in only 1. Indeed, to bring indoors less than a handful would surely endanger one's ducklings!!
If you keep chickens and see a single primrose, dance round it three times in order to avert ill omens - otherwise a single Primrose will lead to bad egg laying.
Romans used the plant to treat malaria.

Church News

January saw the village hall well filled for our annual quiz. Masterminded by Simon (with a great deal of help) and compared by our quiz master Kelvin a thoroughly entertaining evening was had by all. The result was uncertain right to the wire. The end of full time saw the two strong teams from Brockdish tied for first place. Ever resourceful Simon had a full set of question to try and divide them. However competitive to the last we ended up 8 points apiece!!! Oh,….. the phrase “don’t panic Mr Mannering” came to mind as two tables of ace quizers glared at the mastermind. Ever resourceful and the consequence of a misspend youth in the military inspiration struck and a bag of pound coins was waved in the general direction of each table merely requiring a guess as to how much the it contained. Well, to cut a longish story short, the family Croxton took the honours and the 6 bottles of wine back to Brockdish, Stan’s team meanwhile got the chocolate. Now then Jan, we await the return of that particular favour at some stage during the 08 Brockdish quiz season!!!!

There is always two ends of a results table, the inscribed wooden spoons stayed in Thorpe Abbotts. As always the PCC had done a wonderful job with the food with all very well fed at half time. Fred meanwhile manned the bar between rounds.

The Mothering Sunday Service at All Saints attracted a good crowd with Trevor in fine form for the combined service. We were blessed with a lovely day and all returned home with a polyanthus for Mum or a bag of apples if you were quick.

For the near future not a great deal on the cards over the summer but we will be putting on a Flower Festival over the weekend 16-17 August. The theme will be “The Saints”, very much masterminded by Chris and Linda I have no doubt it will be fabulous event and one very much for the diary.

Simon