The Rector Of Stiffkey and another famous resident

The Independent today has a nice piece which is balanced and very fair regarding the famous Rector Of Stiffkey.

I won't repeat the whole story as you can read it HERE.

As someone who undertook responsibility for leaflets distribution for 18 months to Stiffkey until a new volunteer was found, I got to know the village well and had certain locals that I could always ave a little chat with about the world and local issues. As the Independent article makes clear, you won't find a true local Stiffkey resident with a bad word to say against the Rector. His crime was, according to my sources, that he failed to pamper and fawn over the local big wigs and he treated poor people with as much respect as the rich. This alienated him from the those who had the ear of the Bishop of Norwich, and led to the Rector's downfall.

Stiffkey is, in itself, an interesting little village of only about 150 houses but with lots of intrigue.

Other locals told me plenty about another famous resident, an author of note called Henry Williamson. His membership of the British Union of Fascists was well known, and although wikipedia states he was arrested just the once during the war, locals told me he had the police at his house on a regular basis. It was claimed by one gentleman who had live in Stiffkey all his life that Williamson had radio equipment confiscated by the police and was constantly being told to "black out" properly as he had a glass panel in part of his roof that never seemed to get blacked out at night. When a neighbour compained to Williamson about the fat they could get bombed, his reply was simply "Don't worry. We won't get bombed here".

Stiifkey, a few miles east of Well on the North Norfolk Coast is well worth a drive through.