JULY.
11.—Lord Stanley, on his appointment as Foreign Secretary in the new Conservative Administration, was re-elected without opposition member of Parliament for the borough of King’s Lynn.
16.—A meeting was held at the Rampant Horse Hotel, Norwich, to consider what steps should be taken to prevent the intended closing of Victoria Station, under the Great Eastern Railway (Additional Powers) Bill. A memorial was addressed to the Town Council, calling attention to the fact that this was the fourth attempt made by the company to close the terminus, and that by the Act of Parliament which sanctioned the amalgamation of the Eastern Union with the Eastern Counties Railway a special clause was inserted for the sufficient maintenance of the station. On these grounds the Corporation were asked to oppose the Bill. At a meeting of the Town Council on the 17th, a letter was read from the company, in which they offered, in consideration of being permitted to close the station, to contribute £1,000 towards the improvement of Foundry Bridge. The Council were not prepared to accede to the proposition. When the Company’s Bill was before the Committee of the House of Commons, in March, 1867, the clause providing for the abandonment of the station was disallowed.
19.—St. Giles’ church, Norwich, was re-opened, after extensive restoration. A new chancel had also been built, and a new organ, costing £350, erected. The scheme included the widening of the street by the giving up of a portion of the churchyard. The restoration was carried out, under the direction of Mr. R. M. Phipson, by Mr. J. W. Lacey, conjointly with Messrs. Atkins and Hawes. The total cost of the work was about £4,000, of which £1,000 was given by the rector (the Rev. W. N. Ripley).
25.—The National Archery meeting commenced at Crown Point, Norwich, and was continued on the 26th and 27th. The show of the Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural Society was held in the grounds on the 26th (when the band of the 1st Life Guards was present), and a ball was given at St. Andrew’s Hall in the evening.
28.—Died at Bramerton, in his 76th year, Mr. William Wilde, Coroner for Norwich. “In Mr. Wilde the city has lost an active and intelligent public officer and a useful citizen, and the Liberal party a most efficient agent. To his shrewdness, accurate judgment, and devotion to their interests, the Liberals of Norwich and elsewhere have been indebted for many a triumph.” Mr. Wilde was a member of the Court of Guardians, and for some time its chairman, and a member of the Festival Committee. He had been Coroner for thirty years.
31.—A new lifeboat, named the Leicester, was launched at Gorleston. It was purchased by a fund amounting to £900 inaugurated by the Mayoress of Leicester (Mrs. Hodges), and was lodged in a new lifeboat house built at the cost of £250.
AUGUST.
5.—Died at his seat at Honingham, the Right Hon. and Rev. Lord Bayning. His lordship was the second son of Mr. Charles Townshend, who was created Baron Bayning in 1797, and succeeded his brother, Charles Frederick, as third Baron on August 2nd, 1823, when he assumed, by sign manual (in lieu of his patronymic, Townshend), the name of his maternal grandfather, William Powlett. Born on June 8th, 1797, he married, on August 9th, 1842, Emma, only daughter of Mr. W. H. Fellowes, of Ramsey Abbey, Huntingdon, by whom he had one son, who died twelve months previously to his lordship’s death, and the barony thus became extinct. Lord Bayning was educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1818, and was appointed rector of Brome, Suffolk, in 1821, and rural dean in the diocese of Norwich in 1844. He resigned the rectory of Brome in 1847, and was appointed to the rectory of Honingham with the vicarage of East Tuddenham in 1851. His lordship was High Steward of Norwich Cathedral, Vice-President of the Norwich Diocesan Association for the Propagation of the Gospel, of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum, of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, and of the Institution for the Indigent Blind, and he was a trustee of the Norwich Savings Rank, &c. For some years he was treasurer and a most active promoter of the Diocesan Church Building Society.
6.—At a special meeting of the Norwich Town Council, Mr. Edward S. Bignold was elected Coroner, in place of Mr. Wilde. In order to take the office, he resigned his seat in the Town Council, and was permitted to retire without paying the customary fine.