The Norfolk Coast Path and the Scandalous Tale of the Vicar of Stiffkey.

The Norfolk Coast Path is one of the loveliest long distance paths in England . It takes you along 46 miles of salt marshes , creeks and long , sandlike beaches . Inspired by my daughter and her acquaintance doing it in less than 4 Day , we thought we would have a go . The first day pop off quite well and the views were marvelous .

The salt marshes were a haze of ocean lavender , Limonium vulgare .

The beaches were so bid on a hot day .

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Onday two our good intentions did n’t last longer than 2 miles . It was so very hot . So we decide to take a sauceboat misstep and see the seals basking on Blakeney Point . This is the largest seal of approval colony in England and there are both Common and Grey Seals . They are quite unconcerned by the boatfuls of nosy people .

I go for they think back their Lord’s Day cream . I felt like take on a foliage out of their book , but we bestirred ourselves to have a crab louse lunch and go and have a look at some of the pretty small town with their flint- built houses . In Stiffkey we see the Great Hall build up by Sir Nicholas Bacon in 1576 for his son . He was the The Keeper of the Great Seal for Queen Elizabeth 1 and he intend to build a anteroom with 10 towers . In the end only 6 towers were built and some of them are ruined .

The village of Stiffkey has a nice public house called the Red Lion and it was here that the Pianist suggested that we have a smell at the church building , and had I ever discover the story of the Vicar of Stiffkey ? Looking at old churches and hearing a good story ; this is a winning combination for me .

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Apparently , this story was something of acause célèbrein the 1930s , but now nobody has heard about it . Apart from the Pianist , of course , who has a brain as big as satellite and like Mr Toad of Toad Hall , know ‘ everything there is to be knowed . ’

The Vicar of Stiffkey , Harold James Davidson was born in 1875 . He spent some prison term as an player before he became a vicar . The aliveness of Stiffkey was a secure one with a beautiful Georgian Rectory , 60 acres of glebe terra firma and a stipend of £ 503 per annum , which was very good for the fourth dimension , 1906 . His special obsession was keep open fallen women and with a village of only 300 souls there was not much reach for this work in Stiffkey , so he took the caravan to London each week and spent his time there , only rush back in time for the Sunday service . He served as a naval chaplain during the first World War . When he came home he was disturbed to chance his wife had fallen a bit herself and was 6 month pregnant after becoming too well-disposed with the boarder . But he forgave her and they had several more children . After the war he resumed his weekly visit to London and styled himself the Prostitutes ’ Padre . He lick tirelessly with woman who had decrease and pretty girl who seemed to him likely to fall . His cash in hand suffer because he give them money and took them for dinner party or for teatime at the Lyons Cafe . He was barred from some cafes because he was a bit of a pain with his importunate pursuit of girl who needed saving . Sometimes , his work call for him to Paris . Despite his neglect of the parish , the villager all liked him and nickname him ‘ small Jimmy ’ because of his minuscule height . They were probably hold when as many as 20 young girl were live at the Vicarage whilst they were being saved . This went on for some years until the gossip reached the ears of the tabloid newspapers . He was make annoyance in some quarter because of his neglect of his parochial duties . The last straw was when he was late for an Armistice Day service . finally , in 1932 he was engage by a church court for ‘ immoral behaviour ’ and he was publicly disgraced and defrocked . The case , with all its details was much enjoyed by the tabloids . Of course , he had been neglecting his parish , but some of the grounds given was rigged and although incredibly outlandish and very uninitiate , he probably was n’t as bad as he was made out to be . His behaviour was probably in the weasly , modern terminal figure , more ‘ inappropriate’than immoral .

No longer a vicar and with a family to support , Davidson proceed back to act for a while . But then he had the thought that he would raise money by declaim his innocence in public . He decided the dependable place for this was on the Golden Mile in Blackpool alongside the bearded lady from Russia , the three - legged boy and the dog - face humans . He sat in a barrel with a little chimney for his cigar smoke and charged the great unwashed twopence a peep into his cask . He presumably saw himself as a modern day Diogenes , although I suppose the classical reference point would have not been obvious to the frequenters of the Golden Mile . He then tried being freeze in a glass case followed by posture in an oven being poke on the buttocks now and again by a mechanically skillful demon . For his last show he moved to Skegness as he was tired of ‘ the blatant vulgarity of Blackpool ’ . Here he would passionately affirm his innocence and his appalling treatment , in front of a coop with two lions . He would then go into the Leo the Lion ’ coop and run on with his harangue in there . One day , possibly because he accidentally trod on the lion ’s stern , or perchance because he was prey up with the blah , Freddy the Lion assail Davidson . He had no tooth , but he pick up Davidson and mangle him , or give him a jolly good gumming . The gang thought it was part of the act and cheered . The Leo the Lion tamer rescued him but he died later in infirmary . His funeral at Stiffkey church pull in a crowd of 3000 people , so at last he had the hearing he craved . Friends and well wishers pay the funeral expenses and for this keystone .

The inscription on the cross is a Robert Louis Stevenson quote : ‘ For on faith in man and true erotic love of man all searching after truth must be constitute ’ . So that is the deplorable tale of the gloriously eccentric vicar of Stifkey .

As as this is a horticulture web log and there have been no plants , I will show you what I came home with . On the way home , we bar at the wonderful nursery at West Acre . There are unusual flora here at very reasonable terms . The angelic Pianist sit down in the elevator car and read whilst I enjoy myself .

Helenium‘Fuego ’

Crocosmia‘Golden Ballerina ’

Delphinium elatum‘Sweet Sensation ’

41 Responses toThe Norfolk Coast Path and the Scandalous Tale of the Vicar of Stiffkey.

I could n’t help but think that , had the vicar been born just a century later on , he could have made his way more safely using crowdfunding . Of course , that would have been far less entertaining ! Your pianist is ready to hand with account – alas , my scientist is short on story and long on complicated explanation as to why things go the way of life they do .

The Norfolk Coast Path and the Scandalous Tale of the Vicar of Stiffkey.