Kray twins’ art under the hammer and school’s goodbye to headteacher: Memories from 1992 and 2012

In our regular On This Week column, we look back through the pages of the Lynn News from July 14 – 20, 2012, as well as a picture from July 1992…A ward of Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital is being closed with the loss of 24 beds – and the news comes at a time when there is anger over directors receiving bonuses. The hospital has confirmed Newton Ward, a rehabilitation and discharge ward, will be closed next month and staff will be redeployed to other areas. The hospital will be left with 497 beds after Newton ward closes. A hospital spokesman said the closure move was part of a continuing review and improvement of services. It has also emerged that some of the directors of the hospital, which in March was deemed to be in significant breach of its authorisation by watchdog Monitor, have been awarded extra pay, coming at a time when staff were missing out on inflationary increases.Paintings created in prison by the notorious Kray twins have gone under the hammer in a West Norfolk auction. Collectors from across the world focused on Fakenham Racecourse as they tried to buy a painting or photograph album once owned by the London East End gangland bosses Ronnie and Reggie Kray. Fakenham auctioneers James and Son were in charge of the sale and made £17,000 for the owner. The twins were jailed in 1969 for life for two separate murders.

Tesco has announced plans to increase the size of its Hunstanton store by 50 per cent, a move which will create around 75 new full and part time jobs for local people. The retail giant held a two-day public exhibition in the resort’s town hall, showing its plans to expand the Southend Road store, and said that the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive”. At the same time, Tesco is also celebrating getting planning consent to build a new supermarket in Swaffham, after Breckland Council’s planning committee agreed to allow a store to be built on a three-acre site on the EcoTech Business Park, off Castle Acre Road. It is hoped the store will open around September 2013 and it will create 150 new full and part-time jobs in the town.Homes and gardens were left flooded after the recent torrential storms. At Thornham, organisers of the Music in the Field Festival had to cancel the fundraising concert after the village playing field and a number of roads were left under water. An estimated 4ins of rain lashed down on the village which resulted in the A149 High Street being flooded. One resident said: “Living near a coastal area people are worried about flooding from the sea, but now we are more likely to be flooded by heavy rain.”Residents are being asked to share their thoughts on a multi-million pound bid to redevelop Lynn’s historic town hall. After missing out on a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of just over £3million, West Norfolk Council has been encouraged to submit a revised bid. Among the proposed improvements are upgrades to the Gaol House Museum, which would provide increased access to the site’s ground floor and the historic halls on the first floor. Plans to extract millions of tonnes of silica sand from land next to Roydon Common look set to be dropped amid new environmental concerns. Norfolk County Council officials have confirmed they are set to recommend that the site – on the edge of a key site of scientific interest – is removed from the list of areas contained in the county’s minerals and waste strategy. The 80-hectare site adjacent to the common had been allocated for the quarrying of up to 5.8 million tonnes of silica sand, a product used in glassmaking. Natural England had raised concerns over the proposal and the news from County Hall has been welcomed by the local community.A multi-million pound investment in new tracks to move freight trains off the main route between Lynn and London has been welcomed by rail campaigners and politicians. Some £3.8million of European money is to be spent on two new freight loops to the east of Ely, to be used by freight trains travelling between Peterborough and Ipswich. These new tracks will help to reduce delays to passenger services on the single track section of the current route from Lynn.Special New Testament Bibles celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this year have been distributed to thousands of children, pensioners and churchgoers in the Gaywood area. Donations and a collection from the congregation at St Faith’s Church realised £3,250, which was enough for 6,500 copies of the limited edition paperback Bibles to be ordered from the Church of England website. The Bibles will be given out over the Diamond Jubilee period.