Something for the (Heritage) Weekend..?

Fancy getting to grips with gas, plumbing the depths of the Victorian loo or taking a sedate saunter round a stateley pile - all free gratis and for nothing? Griff reckons this weekend's Heritage Open Days event could be for you...

The annual history-fest - England’s biggest and most popular voluntary cultural event - glories in England’s architecture and culture by allowing visitors free access to the weird & whacky properties that are either not usually open, or would normally charge an entrance fee.

This year's offering - officially launched by Griff Rhys Jones and Baroness Andrews in uber trendy Brighton - also includes tours, events and activities that focus on local architecture and culture.

Co-ordinated via English Heritage, but organised by volunteers - usually property owners or managers - for local people, the event attracted around 1 million visitors last year.

Sites up for grabs for gratis this year include follies, contemporary buildings, churches, factories, tunnels, temples, offices, private homes, industrial sites, castles, windmills, town halls - guided walks, concerts, re-enactments and trails.

For full details of what's on in the Norfolk area click here to visit English Heritage's website.

To whet your appetite - look out for: Fish 'n' Ships in Great Yarmouth; Charles Darwin Visits King's Lynn; Trials at The Old Courtroom in Norwich and Civil War re-enactors setting off canons at Greenland Fishery..!

Here come the Pearls - a Ladies' Nite 1950s Style

Sheringham Little Theatre is calling all local 'Desperate Housewives' for a ladies' night with a difference next week...

Not so long ago housewives had a number of very good reasons to be desperate. Not only did they have to look after their families in an age of depression, war and austerity, but they did so without the consumer durables that we now consider essential.

With humour frequently in its sights, Archive Film: Housewife’s Choice (U) is a programme of films from the BFI National Archive that explores the lives of British housewives from the 1920s to the 1950s. The programme includes documentaries, cinemagazines, propaganda films and adverts. It also features films by two of the women who helped to shape the British documentary movement of the 1930s and 40s – Ruby Grierson (1904-40) and Kay Mander (1915).

The film will be introduced by film historian Stewart Orr.

Event Date: Fri 14th Nov 2008, 8.00pm Tickets £5.00

Reader's Wives - 50s Style...(what our grannies really got up to)

To get you in the party mood, here's a 'Good Wife's Guide' appetiser from Housekeeping Monthly, published 13th May 1955, to give you some handy tips on how to (really) please your man...:

1. Over the cooler months of the year prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

2. Prepare yourself. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

3. Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash hands and faces, comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

4. Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment, without you. Instead try to understand his world of strain and pressure.

5. Don’t complain even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

6. Listen to him. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

7. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

8. Don’t ask questions about his actions or question his judgement or integrity. Remember, he is master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

9. Remember: A good wife always knows her place...