Voices of Hickling: Stories of the Greyhound Inn (page 3)
Stalham Players were used as extras, and again the village tomtoms said an actress from Eastenders would be appearing in the film. Great excitement ensued, but it turned out to be the old lady who played Doris
Bertie the Miniature Schnauzer joined us in 1999 and proved a popular addition although very unsociable pub dog, unless you had a chip for him (salt licked off otherwise he wouldn’t eat it).
In 2000 we bought Maryland Cottage next door, there was only one thing to call it - Bertie’s Bed and Breakfast. The business was successful for many years, but the financial crash of 2008 meant there were too many beds in the village, so with regret we sold up and concentrated on the Greyhound. Bertie kept us amused for a few more years but we lost him in 2012.
The Greyhound has always been at the heart of the village and on arrival, we set the ball rolling with the 50th year VE Day celebration and 24 hour Darts Marathon which was started by the England Darts Team(who were at a darts tournament at Hemsby- Martin Adams, Andy Taylor etc).
We have carried on the tradition with street parties for Royal Weddings( the Wet Tshirt competition is still talked about) and the Queens Birthdays and Anniversary’s. For these events we were the official Beacon in the village organised by Bruno Peake the Royal Pageant Master. A group of us went to the church, rang the bells, a hearty rendition of God Save The Queen, and then back to the Greyhound to light the beacon (at our allotted time) with a flaming arrow, and a champagne toast to the Queen. That’s how we roll at the Greyhound.
Photo by Martin Johns
We live in a very generous village and have had many charity events including Bake Off, Advent Sleep Outs, Firewalking, Yard Sales, Race Nights, Music Quizzes, raffles, auctions - and if there is anything else that people hold dear that we have forgotten, then we apologise.