On this week: November 8-14, 1994

In our weekly On This Week feature, we look back to events happening in 1994…A mixture of events is beginning to take shape to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War next year. A steering committee led by Borough Mayor, Bryan Howling, has been putting together a provisional programme based on ideas put forward at a public open meeting held in the town hall in early October. The celebrations will centre on VE Day (Monday, May 8) and VJ Day August 15). Among the possible events during May will be a big outdoor party in the Tuesday Market Place which voluntary organisations will be asked to organise, with an RAF-led parade and fly-past by aircraft from RAF Marham. In August it is planned to hold a civic service with the unveiling of a permanent memorial in the Tower Gardens, followed by a children’s parade of flags and a Sunset Ceremony on the Tuesday Market Place.Lynn became transformed into 19th century London when the BBC’s long-awaited adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit hit the nation’s television screens this week. Filming of the £4 million six-part drama serial in April brought some of the UK’s top actors to Lynn, including Paul Schofield and Sir John Mills. In the first feature-length part of the dramatisation screened on BBC2, parts of the old town around King’s Staithe Lane, King’s Staithe Square, Queen Street and Nelson Street were shown. They had been converted during shooting of the series to represent the busy streets of London in the 1830s.

Former Lynn MP Lord Whaddon described this week how a business deal with disgraced bank BCCI lost him a fortune. Mr Derek Page was the town’s Labour MP from 1964 to 1970, and acted as an adviser to the Bank of Credit and Commerce International for several years from 1982. Earning about £25,000 a year towards the end of his contract, he invested most of the money with BCCI – which collapsed in 1991. He added: “The bulk of what they paid me went up in smoke. Being a decent chap and a fool, I thought that since they were paying me it was only right I should leave the money in their bank.”A massive lottery louse-up left hundreds of potential punters fuming. Last-minute hiccups meant stores in Lynn, Hunstanton, Downham, Swaffham and Fakenham were all unable to sell National Lottery tickets on the launch date, after a huge nation-wide build-up to the big day. North West Norfolk MP, Henry Bellingham, said he was going to write to lottery organiser Camelot about the fiasco and added: “They should get their act together as we should have expected a better distribution of tickets on Day One.”Protestors made a last-minute plea to save a Lynn landmark, just hours before demolition was due to begin. About 20 people fixed banners to a fence surrounding the doomed 140ft chimney on the Boal Quay, which is all that remains of Paul’s Mill. And they made a further stand against West Norfolk Council’s demolition decision by collecting more than 200 petition signatures from early-morning passers-by in just two hours. But the protest proved futile as the council refused to call off work which will see the chimney pulled down brick by brick. A new group for people suffering with heart problems has been launched. The Lynn Heart Support Group has got off the ground with the help of the British Heart Foundation and will hold its first meeting next week. Health promotion specialist Miss Sian Kendrick-Jones said: “The group will be a link when people leave hospital after a heart problem and are on a rehabilitation programme. The group is there to continue the support they need.”An attempt to save East Winch Women’s Institute from closure has been launched by the group’s president, Mrs Jean Brasnett. Members had agreed that meetings should end in December because no one could be found to take on committee jobs. Mrs Brasnett, of Hall Farm, East Winch, is hoping that an influx of fresh faces will save the WI, formed in 1967, but now down to just 13 members.Mean thieves have helped themselves to money donated towards patients’ welfare from a collection box at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Lynn Hospitals’ League of Friends chairman, Mrs Pat Roome, described the theft as “sick”. Recently the League agreed to provide £20,000 for a laparoscope, used for keyhole surgery during gall bladder operations; other funds agreed are £6,644 for 20 wheelchairs at the hospital, £6,000 towards a bereavement room and £800 for chairs in the children’s ward.