Photograph and text from a local newspaper
CARBROOKE’s village history has been set down in print by a former local farming couple. It is a spin-off from a one-off history exhibition held in the village almost a year-and a-half ago.
A modest little display planned to help Methodist Church funds captured Carbrooke’s imagination and snowballed into a big exhibition. The villagers pleaded with organisers Stanley and Dorothy Saunders to go a step further and capture it all in a book.
Four hundred copies of “Carbrooke in the Past” are the result of months of research and writing.
Stanley Saunders draws on his personal memories from 35 years as a farmer at Carbrooke – the third generation to till the local land. “I can remember two dozen farms all farmed individually -now there are just two major farmers. Once there was a farm worker to every 25 acres – now itis 200 acres,” he said.
Dorothy Saunders’ father also farmed in the village for 30 years. She has delved back into the more distant history including Carbrooke’s heyday as a Norfolk headquarters for crusading medieval knights. Only traces remain now of the “commandarie” that was an important base for the fighting monks for 400 years until the 1500s.”Like all villages Carbrooke used to be self-sufficient, with its own bootmaker, butcher and baker. Now we have lost virtually everything,” she said.
The couple moved to Churchill Close, Watton, eight years ago on retirement, but keep contact with Carbrooke through its churches -he as a Methodist, and she as an Anglican.
Profits from the book will be split between the two. It will be launched at a Methodist Church coffee morning on Saturday and be available in Watton bookshops.