April's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast (try the Slide Show)

su 6 ap 08

1896  The Olympic games were revived by Pierre de Coubertin

Sorry to keep banging on about this but the SNYB were sounding pretty damn

good in rehearsal yesterday for tonight's concert.  More pics here.

fr 4 ap 08

1981  Oxford won the Boat Race with the first woman cox - Susan Brown

Oh poo!  We now have to be in a large town near Chelmsford this Sunday so we can't use our two tickets for the South Norfolk Youth Band concert this Sunday.  Tell you what we'll put them on the notice board in the Framlingham Solar for someone else to use and enjoy.

They may be a bit chaotic at the moment but live weather reports from near the water tower on the Saxmundham road.

we 2 ap 08

1967  Secret diarist Adrian Mole was born

Lots of reasons to see the South Norfolk Youth Band including there's lots of players, it's great to see young people enjoying music making, they've got a broad repertoire and this concert includes the Band and Bugles of the Rifles but the main reason is it's a very enjoyable experience.  They're playing at Fram College this Sunday and you can win two tickets here.

mo 31 mr 08

1889  The Eiffel Tower was completed

The Brewer saw a plumber's white van parked by Andy Tiernan's in Framlingham last week.  The Brewer knew it was a plumber's van because it had the large grey plastic pipe on top for moving copper pipe about ...

... written on the side of the plastic pipe was www.snakedelivery.com

Written in the dirt on the back our favourite white van graffito is This vehicle is powered by Olivia Newton John's knicker elastic.

sa 22 mr 08

1982  Lt Colonel Jean Blackwood became the first woman to command a British Army unit

Free Easter egg hunt at the Framlingham Railway tomorrow, here's a good one from the Suffolk cops Pimp My Scooter, and perhaps we forgot to say we do web design?

th 20 mr 08

1987  Towser, a tortoiseshell cat employed by the Glenturret Distillery, died having killed an estimated 28,899 mice in her lifetime

A Framlingham woman has been charged with stealing a dog.

tu 18 mr 08

1965  Aleksei Leonov took the first walk in space

Hear Framlingham Amateur Dramatic Society on Radio Suffolk around 3:30 this afternoon.

March's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast

mo 17 mr 08

1949  Clothes rationing ended in the UK

Framlingham Castle was getting a final brush up this morning for the press morning to show off its makeover; new exhibits, new audio guides for both groanies and sprogs, new games for all the family to take out on the grass, gone is the sentry box just inside the gate; and Lord Bruce-Lockhart fulfilling his first public duty as English Heritage's chairman; expect to see it on Anglia tv.

fr 14 mr 08

1952  Television first transmitted in Scotland

Vlad the Imp has been the victim of credit card fraud, not necessarily related but remember a skimmer was found on the Framlingham Barclays cash dispenser last month?

th 13 mr 08

1781  Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus

Wednesday the box office for Framlingham Amateur Dramatic Society's spring production, the comedy Situation Comedy, opens at the Framlingham Volunteer Centre.  Not only are the thesps rehearsing like mad to ensure a funny show but several company members will be on the Luke Deal Show on Radio Suffolk around 3:30pm Tuesday.  (Take your own biscuits people, it is the BBC.)

we 12 mr 08

1935  The 30mph speed limit for built-up areas was introduced

The Lion's Den may have closed (yes they're digging up Castle Street again) but unlike Hacheston Framlingham isn't losing a shop as the former LD will almost certainly become an ice cream parlour.  Kate was extremely pleased at this prospect but not impressed by this summer's Maverick Festival as she doesn't like that sort of music.  Give it a try is our advice.

mo 10 mr 08

1956  Peter Twiss became the first man to fly at more than 1000mph

This nicely produced booklet from Churches Together lists the services in and around Framlingham this Easter, though it does assume you know when Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday are:)  Interestingly, well to us at least, St Michael's in Fram is having a Taizé service like Ashfield did recently.

February's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast

fr 29 fe 08

1956  Muffin the Mule made his tv debut

Hannah Norris who runs the Lion's Den at the junction of Church and Castle Street, Framlingham gave birth to a little boy last week.  Rather sensibly she has decided to ease her load and tomorrow (and Sunday if there's enough interest) there will be a giant Closing Down sale at the Lion's Den.

tu 26 fe 08

1935  RADAR was first demonstrated

The Framlingham Crown still doesn't have any gas but reubens' kitchen at the back is all electric, so a virtually full house (just three seats left unfilled) for the Arts Framlingham lunch got a good looking meal.  The guest speaker Tom Corby was Court Correspondent from 1985 till 1992 (Court Correspondent is an appointment created by Queen Victoria).  We're sworn to secrecy about his talk so you'll just have to ask someone who was there.

sa 23 fe 08

2000  Sir Stanley Matthews died

After two days with out gas the Framlingham Crown is open again but with fan heaters.  They will be fully functioning again sometime Tuesday and no matter what the Arts Fram lunch with ex-royal correspondent Tom Corby will go ahead in reubens.

th 21 fe 08

1741  Inventor of the seed drill Jethro Tull died

Cadet Sergeant Major David Bird attends Framlingham College and has been made Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk Lord Tollemache’s 2008 Cadet.  Despite the uniform David hopes to study agricultural engineering after A levels.

fr 15 fe 08

1971  British money went decimal

Valentine's in Framlingham manifested itself as complimentary kir royale (that's champagne with posh Ribena ... no, no, it's much nicer than it sounds ... look at how popular Aspall's Blush is) with live music in reubens and a rose for every lady in Off The Square.

Stealing fishing stuff from sheds seems very popular at the mo, this time it's Knodishall.

fr 8 fe 08

1990  George de Mestral, the man who invented Velcro, died

Last night's music quiz in the Framlingham White Horse was very jolly and well supported with ten assorted sized teams and a very close finish; Can You Repeat The Question 62, The Inlaws 62.5, The Rave Ons 63.  As will no doubt be said many times if the Sailing/Ship dispute had been resolved differently there would have been a tie breaker.

With excellent (if slightly over chilled for our taste) Badger beer at £2 a pint (we noticed an off duty biker mixing it with brown ale) surprisingly the quiz didn't get over rowdy and disturb the wii tennis doubles going on in the back bar, or the Bowls Club dinner in the restaurant.

More pics here.

su 3 fe 08

1962  Fidel Castro excommunicated

Expected that the memorial service yesterday for Dr Norton would be well attended but it was so well attended that not everyone could get into St Michael's, Framlingham.  We listened on the speakers outside and in his preamble the rector Graham Owen said donations could still be made in Dr Norton's memory to Kidney Research UK.  Dr Norton's widow Hilary has several times viewed the book of condolences and been comforted by the messages.  The book will continue to be available in St Michael's for some time and you can also share your thoughts on our board.

January's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast

we 30 ja 08

1969  On the roof of Apple Records the Beatles gave their last public performance

Though there are some eight weeks to go before FADS (Fram AmDram) present Situation Comedy they are already rehearsing without the book.  Essentially a farce the one liners were coming so fast we couldn't store them.  One character's appalling home made wine is a running joke "My word this is strong, did you say it's claret?" "No, I said it's carrot" and "I think you've had enough Doris, you're starting to look attractive."

There are loads of props, loads of costumes, loads of costume changes and the wardrobe mistress could really use a helper.  In fact any extra pairs of backstage hands very welcome, more info here.

If you don't mind the the gentle hum of a nuclear reactor Sizewell beach is a very agreeable spot, well thought out car park that never seems to be full,

 pleasant little café, plenty of beach and acres of sky.  So a pity this vandalism has occurred.

tu 29 ja 08

1985  Scottish comedian Chic Murray died

Nick Jenkins has a possible explanation why a Douglas motorbike from the Framlingham garage Potters (as was) ends up in Belgium ...

fr 25 ja 08

1839  WH Fox-Talbot produced a photographic negative

Yesterday evening Anglia TV weather persons Wendy Hurrell and David Hughes spoke to the Framlingham College Geographic Soc and their guests.

su 20 ja 08

1971  The first ever UK postal strike began

Though the River Ore flows through Framlingham it's little more than a stream so you wouldn't think it would prompt much interest in sailing but 15 year old Fram College boy James Bolingbroke along with fellow Mersea youth team member Matt Heathcote are the new National RS Feva Inland Champions.

we 16 ja 08

1969  As a political protest Czech student Jan Palach set fire to himself, he died three days later

The Fram First Responders have now got a co-op number so you can donate.

tu 15 ja 08

1919  The Boston Molasses Disaster killed 21

Everybody liked Dr Norton.   My Dr Norton story is him reaching over and squeezing my swollen finger after the nurse had removed a fiddly little splinter from under the nail.  The squeezing caused yellow stuff to come out.  "That's puss" I said a little surprised.  "Yes", he said smiling and nodding happily.  He was a doctor and that's what doctors do, help you heal.

Dr Stephen Norton died this weekend far too soon after just over a year of semi-retirement.  There is book of condolences in St Michael's Church, Framlingham or you can share on the bulletin board.

sa 12 ja 08

1864  The Lancashire County Cricket Club was founded

The Church of St Michael the Archangel, Framlingham now has its own web site.  Rumours that Sundays the rector won't let the congregation out until they've each bought a copy of Our Town in Sound are unconfirmed.

su 6 ja 08

1958  Chuck Berry recorded Sweet Little Sixteen

The new year in Framlingham has been greeted with the traditional digging up of the roads and the blocking of the pavements.  Apparently,

the sewers are being relined ... no doubt with Laura Ashley wallpaper.

tu 1 ja 08

1660  Samuel Pepys began his diary

how he felt badly misrepresented on the bulletin board.   At the bells Auld Lang Syne was played on the juke box and pleasingly people sang and linked arms; outside a barn owl startled by the fireworks, bells and general carrying on flew out of the churchyard and up Double Street.  Back in The Crown apparently there was a conga line ... oh well, another year in Fram ... more pics here.

sa 15 de 07

1939  Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia

sa 24 no 07

1927  Sir Harry Lauder was given the freedom of Edinburgh

A busy Saturday morning in Fram with a very active Stall on the Wall at the United Free and a busier than usual for the St John's Christmas Sale, must have been the sign.

we 24 oc 07

1980  The British Leyland MG car plant at Abingdon closed after 50 years of production

Tragedy!  Sara Allin, with her husband Pete before he sadly died early last year, has for over two years made the Munch-Box Café in Fram an oasis of sociability.  Assuming the solicitors did finally get their bums in gear then

today was her last day and expect the café to be closed tomorrow whilst new owners local couple Jackie and Andy Rae sort themselves out.  We're certainly going to miss Sara's cottage pie and sympathetic ear and we're also sure we won't be the only one.

sa 06 oc 07

1889  The Moulin Rouge opened in Paris

We suppose it makes sense.  There was a postal delivery here in the industrial south of Framlingham this morning but the letter box by the Fen Meadow is taped up?

tu 02 oc 07

1901  The Royal Navy launched it's first submarine Holland 1

fr 28 se 07

1865  Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became Britain's first registered woman doctor

At Off The Square today their coffee morning is expected to raise some £200 for Macmillan Cancer Support with busy office workers donating the fiver and taking a coffee to go ... and very good coffee it is too!

sa 22 se 07

1955  The UK's first commercial tv station went on air

We were sitting with good company the other week out the back of the Fram Station and it was getting late.  There was the pleasant silence associated with virtually no traffic.  We heard shhhhhhhhh BOMP!  A cyclist coming off?  We went out to look but no sign of anything.  Next morning The Brewer looked out of his window onto the Fen Meadow and realised this

had made the noise.  (The shhhhhhhhh was the rustling as the branch fell through the leaves.)

we 19 se 07

1975  Fawlty Towers was first shown on tv

We've inherited a bulletin board from framlingham.com

su 16 se 07

Mexican Independence Day

mo 10 se 07

1960  Blackpool v Bolton Wanderers was the first English Football League match to be televised

The pavement outside Leo's Deli!   A pavement artist who left his medication at home?   Demented boy scouts marking a trail?  Anyway why we're in Fram rumour has it the market may be getting a pie stall.

th 06 se 07

1817  Drury Lane became the first British theatre to be entirely lighted by gas

Last week Framlingham College and Brandeston Hall hosted their second Summer International Sports Academies.  Over 150 young East Anglian wannabes were coached by the likes of England under 19s rugby coach Tosh Askew and hockey writers’ player of the year Barry Middleton.

sa 25 au 07

1609  Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope

Nip down to Reubens in Framlingham now and you too can get your feet massaged at the Complementary Health Fayre.

mo 20 au

1980  Italian Reinhold Messner completed the first solo ascent of Everest

Disappointingly at the Suffolk Police versus the Framlingham White Horse football match yesterday none of the cops were from the the Fram station;  though I did recognise one face from the Gayla year before last but then stationed at Leiston apparently.  There was some confusion about the start time and we could only stay for a few minutes after kick off ... but the police were already down 1-0 and from what we hear it got worse.

su 19 au 07

1987  Michael Ryan shot and killed 14 in Hungerford including his mother

The weather's not helping Fram Legion's boot sale this morning but they've already got people signed up for next month's associated garage sale trail and the weather seems to be relenting for The Cops versus The White Horse football match at noon.

sa 04 au 07

1892  Lizzie Borden was alleged to have killed her father and stepmother with an axe

Remember last year when some Fram College jokers put the college ghost on eBay for charity?  (As we recall there was a bit of a fuss about who actually owned the ghost.)  Anyway one of 'em, Giles Peters, is now www.diabetichampers.co.uk ... we keep misreading that as diabetic champers, can't be bad.

su 29 jl 07

1948  Two years of bread rationing came to an end In the UK

Fifteen guest beers out the back of The Station, Framlingham serving much better than last year's beer festival as this year the cooling is more than a wet towel; and a shuttle service of clean glasses from the pub.  Moose Finger (oh alright Mood Swings) are very enjoyable and seemingly indefatigable ... though The Girl from Ipanema got a bit of a hammering ... there you are they're doing it again.  Ends tonight.

sa 28 jl 07

1982  Icelandic singer and actress Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir born

Last chance Fishtergo!  Darren is on his hols after today but will be back on Framlingham market Saturday 11th August.  (He's going to one of those Spanish islands beginning with an M but we can't quite remember which.)  Don't forget to send a card Darren!

fr 20 jl 07

1969  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon

Hannah Norris recently(ish) opened 2 Castle St, Framlingham as antique and curiosity shop The Lion's Den.  It's always been a private house in our time though our younger person advisor twenty something Lorna says she can remember it as a china shop.  The nameplate shown in this circa 1921 postcard might say Cooper and Son? but we're pretty certain it's the Lion's Den because Hannah's husband is Leo!

tu 17 jl 07

1841  Punch first published

Gossip has it that what was the china shop next to the Number 10 Teashop in Fram is going to be a boutique clothes shop and do you remember Dan behind the bar in The Crown?  Definitely not gossip that he's now managing the Ipswich Station Hotel.

th 12 jl 07

1910  Co-founder of Rolls-Royce, Charles Stewart Rolls became the first Briton to be killed in a plane crash

Over excited by four consecutive days in a large town near Chelmsford we got the date of last night's Hopkins Homes self-love in wrong, but then there wasn't anything new to learn.

Now here's an unusual bandit, the Suffolk police are running two five day film making courses for mid-teenagers!

mo 9 jl 07

1991 South Africa was readmitted to the Olympic movement after 30 years of exclusion

Tomorrow 4-8pm in the United Free Church, Framlingham Hopkins Homes will be telling you how nice, caring, and rather clever they all are.  Expect some committed to pre-application community engagements and possibly a few passionate abouts but don't expect any free drinks.

we 4 jl 07

1862  Lewis Carroll on a picnic with Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell first recounted Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Everybody wanted to know what the red carpet was for outside the Framlingham Crown, indeed Linda from the stationers sent a runner to find out, and now you all know it was for the twins Gemima and Alice's eleventh birthday party complete with stretch limo that had been delayed by the traffic for the Rod Stewart concert in Ipswich.

su 1 jl 07

1903  The first stage of the first Tour de France

Yesterday afternoon Helena Stevens arrived back in Framlingham having left some twenty two hours earlier and completing a fifty mile pretty much non-stop walk (just a couple of 15 minute breaks).  Helena's two daughters Rachel and Lucy joined her for the last three miles and Helena reported that around about Leiston she kept falling asleep while walking, she'd seen loads of deer, yes she did very much want a cup of tea and no she didn't want to take her boots off because her feet were covered in blisters and she wouldn't get her boots back on.  It is hoped that Helena's impressive display of determination, she did look exhausted, will raise some £400-500 for the Out of School Club.

th 28 ju 07

2001 Comic actress Joan Sims died

This bus outside the Framlingham Station seems a bit lost, Fram Stationers don't know when they'll have more of Paul Briscoe's book as it's being reprinted and it's the National Hot Rod Association press day at Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich tomorrow ... open to the public? according to our hot rod driving acquaintance!

we 27 ju 07

1743  At Dettingen George II was the last British monarch to command their army in the field

Paul Briscoe's childhood experience must be unique ... as an English child he was fostered in Germany during the second world war.  When we arrived halfway through his book signing in Fram yesterday (part of Arts Framlingham) he'd already sold out of books and people were nipping up to Fram Stationers to get a copy to be signed, then Fram Stationers sold out!

sa 16 ju 07

To ensure the horsebox bringing the Suffolk Punch this morning could get on to the hill there were no waiting cones out.

In the afternoon, skulking round the back of Theatre Antiques in Framlingham we bumped into the new (well last year sometime) steward at the Con Club.

How's it going?

Very well indeed, mind you they were measuring the boards for the windows a while back.

Yes, took us a while to work it out too, when you shut something down you board up the windows ... but then David is from the north east and we don't mean Lowestoft.

fr 15 ju 07

At the official opening of Reubens bar & grill this morning chairman of Framlingham Town Council Stephanie Bennell said nice things about the management and then invited us to applaud them, mind you Chairman Bennell got cake afterwards whilst the rest of us had to make do with champagne and canapés.