During the war years he was evacuated to a farm in Kessingland, Suffolk. He often recalled riding the farm shire horses to and from their ploughing duties.

In 1951/52 he served his National Service at RAF Hendon as an aircraft electrician. He worked on many aircraft including the Avro Lancaster. Chasing wires in the airframe was made particularly challenging as he was colour blind.

In 1952 he married his beloved Patricia, and they went on to have three lovely daughters: Lea, Diane and Dawn.

After a period working in a family business in London, he decided he wanted to work for himself, and in 1964 he made the brave decision to move his family to Southend, where he opened a newsagent and souvenir shop on the seafront.

In 1971 he exchanged the frenetic seaside life for tranquil semi-retirement in Norfolk: Les and Pat purchased Riches Stores in Market Place, Reepham (lately Very Nice Things; now Norfolk Print & Design).

While running a busy, award-winning supermarket and raising a family, he managed to find the time to volunteer for the local fire brigade and also served as a parish councillor for a short time.

Les and Pat retired from Riches Stores in 1988. Les, however, was itching to keep working so in 1990 he purchased the lease for the Reepham Fish Bar on Back Street. He finally retired in 2000, and with Pat they enjoyed seeing their family grow and develop.

Les spent his time scanning the world on his radio transmitter, building and crashing radio-controlled aircraft, and freshwater fishing, while Pat concentrated on playing her electric organ and writing novels.

After Pat passed away in 2014, Les spent his remaining years watching his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren flourish.

Les passed away on 10 July 2025, surrounded by his loving family. He leaves behind his three daughters; six grandchildren: James, Jade, George, Eve, Thomas and Amy; and eight great-grandchildren: Rex, Herbie, Evelyn, Betty, Alfie, Jude, Matilda and Phoebe.

His funeral will be held at St Faiths Crematorium on Monday 4 August at 9.30 am. It is his wish that attendees should not wear black. Please do not send flowers; donations can be made in his memory to Children in Need.

Paul Smith

Pictures: Top: Les and Pat Harrison outside Riches Stores, Market Place, Reepham. Bottom: Family involvement in the fire service (left to right): Les Harrison; two of his daughters, Lea Smith and Dawn Leeder; and Phillip Leeder, former Reepham Fire Station manager. Photos: submitted

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A presentation entitled “Reepham Caring for the Wounded in WWI” will be held on Friday 22 November at 7 pm in the Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham.

The Bircham Centre and the Town Hall played a key role during the First World War, together forming a Red Cross Hospital caring for wounded soldiers.

The presentation will look at the care Reepham provided and some of the key people who helped deliver that care.

The evening will start with wine and cheese, before telling some of the stories and showing some of the documents and records held by the Reepham Archive.

Tickets are £5 (cash only), including wine and cheese, and can be bought from the Bircham Centre office, Monday to Friday mornings, or on the door on the evening.

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Featuring 13 photographs capturing the town’s history over the past century, the calendar also includes modern-day images of each scene, mostly taken by local photographer John Tym.

The calendar can be purchased (price £8) from Johnson’s of Reepham, Robertson’s Family Butchers, Bircham Centre Charity Shop, Reepham Archive and St Mary’s Reepham.

To order by post, please send a cheque for £9.50 (UK only, includes postage and packaging) made out to “Reepham Community Press”, Homerton House, 74 Cawston Road, Reepham, Norfolk NR10 4LT. Please include your full address and a telephone number.

To pay by bank transfer, please contact us for our account details.

Please also contact us for further details of airmailed copies to Europe and elsewhere.

Further information HERE.

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Filmed in January 2021 by Piers Warren. (To be repeated later in the year when the lockdown has eased.)

To watch, click HERE

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Featuring 13 nostalgic photographs capturing the town’s history over the past century, the calendar also includes modern-day images of each scene, mostly taken by local photographer John Tym.

The calendar can be purchased from Johnson’s Newsagents, Robertson’s Family Butchers, Bircham Centre Charity Shop, Reepham Archive and St Mary’s Reepham.

To order by post, please send a cheque for £9.50 (UK only, includes postage and packaging) made out to “Reepham Community Press”, Homerton House, 74 Cawston Road, Reepham, Norfolk NR10 4LT. Please contact us for further details of airmailed copies to Europe and elsewhere.

Further information HERE

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Inspired by an inherited wartime diary describing his father’s and grandfather’s experience of the deportation Gulag, the installation features video, sound recordings, poems and photographs taken during the trip undertaken in 2013 by Mr Palka and a team of artists/researchers.

The multi-media installation – Bark & Butterflies – will be held from Monday 28 – Thursday 31 January, 9 am – 5 pm daily, free admission. (The title refers to stories of the need for exiles to eat birch bark and butterflies to survive.)

It has been shown at galleries and events across Europe, including the Kresy-Siberia Foundation Conference, Warsaw, Poland; Kunst am Spreeknie Festival, Berlin, Germany; Klangland Sonic Art Festival, Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany; and the Coventry Peace Festival, Coventry, UK.

There will also be a free, illustrated talk by Adrian Palka on the Second World War Polish exile to the Gulag, held in the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library on Thursday 31 January at 7 pm. Tickets are available from the Norfolk Polish Heritage Group.

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Running from 9–16 November the Broadland Remembers event includes a free exhibition and other activities to highlight the efforts made by the people of Broadland during the war and how the conflict affected the local community.

The exhibition will open to the public from 11 am – 6 pm daily. Other planned activities throughout the week (all starting at 10 30 am) include talks from local historian Neil Storey (13, 14 and 16 November), a reading of Sister Poppy At The Front by Reepham-based author Brenda Gostling (12 November) and a wartime poetry workshop with Norfolk poet Sue Burge (15 November).

In addition, as part of Battle’s Over – the national tribute put together by pageant master Bruno Peek – a Beacon of Light will be lit at 7 pm on Sunday 11 November at various locations across the district to signify the light of peace that emerged from the darkness of four years of war.

Broadland Remembers will also support Lord Dannatt’s There But Not There campaign and will see a Tommy silhouette statue hosted at Whitwell Station, as well as others at different locations across Broadland.

Cllr Shaun Vincent, leader of Broadland District Council, said: “With Broadland Remembers we hope to create a fitting tribute to all of those affected by World War One in Broadland and beyond.

“We are also glad to add our support to Lord Dannatt’s There But Not There campaign and believe the presence of the Tommy silhouettes will add poignancy to our celebrations.”

For more information telephone: 01603 430496 or email: visit@broadland.co.uk

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To be held in New Frost Hall, Claypit Road, Foulsham, the event will feature copies of newspaper clippings and articles, as well as photos of the village and the people who have lived there over the past 100 years.

Admission is £1 per person on each day (under 16s free) and there will be refreshments and a tombola, with all proceeds to the archive group and New Frost Hall.

It is planned to have a photographer at the open weekend to take photos of current residents, especially any multi-generational families whose grandparents/great-grandparents were Foulsham born and bred.

There will be a limited number of memory sticks for sale, downloaded with some of the archive collection. Residents are also welcome to bring their own (new and still sealed) USB onto which, for a donation, archive material can be downloaded. Foulsham Archive can also arrange to have photos printed and posted.

The archive group is looking to add to its collection and welcomes any photos or documents relating to the village that could be copied. Any recently digitised photos that are views of Foulsham or were taken at social events would also be of interest.

The group is particularly looking for material relating to the First and Second World Wars as another weekend is being planned in November to commemorate the end of WW1.

• For details of the Foulsham Archive Group, contact Andrew McNair 01362 683372 or admacnair@aol.com, or for information about the open weekend, contact Jacqui Logan 01362 683620 or jacquilogan@btinternet.com

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Featuring 13 nostalgic photographs capturing the town’s history over the past century, the calendar also includes modern-day images of each scene, mostly taken by local photographer John Tym.

The calendar costs just £8 and can be purchased from Johnson’s Newsagents, Reepham Library, Bircham Centre charity shop, Robertson’s Family Butchers and Kerri’s Farmhouse Pine.

To order by post, please send a cheque for £9.50 (UK only, includes postage and packaging) made out to “Reepham Community Press”, Homerton House, 74 Cawston Road, Reepham, Norfolk NR10 4LT. Please contact us for further details of airmailed copies to Europe and elsewhere.

Further information HERE

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The remains of a round-towered St Mary’s church in Kerdiston could be threatened by Vattenfall’s Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas wind farm projects, whose planned onshore cable route skirts around the northwest edge of Reepham before crossing the Marriott’s Way near Brick Kiln Farm on Kerdiston Road.

Cropmarks of the medieval church of St Mary’s are visible on aerial photographs from 2006, which were “discovered” by the late Trevor Ashwin and his wife Imogen as part of a series of guided walks and archaeological events in and around Reepham in 2014.

According to Norfolk Heritage Explorer: “The cropmarks show the church had a round tower to the west and an apsidal eastern end, which later became square. A possible smaller side chapel is visible to the south and a possible enclosure to the north.”

This field had long been thought to be the site of the church, which was marked on historic maps, and had previously been known as Chapel Hill Close (near Old Hall Farm). The church had probably been downgraded to a chapel and abandoned by the 14th century.

The tithe map of 1844 identifies the field name as Chapel Yards, which was later also known as the Chapel Close (not to be confused with Chapel Close off Smuggler’s Lane, Reepham).

The site of the Kerdiston church (grid reference TG 0855 2397) is located 160 metres south of Giant’s Moat and 60 metres north of a second probable medieval moat. Domesday records that William de Warrenne held “half a church” with his lands in Kerdiston.

Giant’s Moat is thought to be the site of the manor house of the de Kerdistons, who were prominent in the area by the 14th century and were buried in either Langley Abbey near Loddon or St Mary’s Reepham, suggesting that the church at Kerdiston, which was probably associated with the hall, had already been abandoned by then. (It is suggested that the stones from the former church were used in nearby buildings.)

Following concerns from a local resident about the proposed positioning of the wind farm projects’ underground cable corridor close to the site of the church, Reepham Town Council has written to Vattenfall, suggesting that any cable-laying work and the associated movement of heavy vehicles in the area “could damage the fragile remains of the church and its possible graveyard.

“The work could, of course, provide an opportunity for a geophysical survey and, if necessary, an excavation, which would provide valuable information about the church.”

A spokesperson for Vattenfall said: “We are aware of the site of St Mary’s chapel, and are assessing the area carefully along with Norfolk County Council Historic Environment Service and Historic England. We would like to thank local people for highlighting their interest in this heritage asset.

“We recognise that local people are the local experts, which is why we have engaged so much with them since last year, and will continue to do so. It is with local feedback that we are able to maximise the considerable benefits of Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas, and minimise their impacts.”

See our earlier stories:

• Energy firms reveal underground cable routes
• Another offshore wind farm cable route to affect Reepham

Top: Before his death in December 2016, Trevor Ashwin digitally enhanced this version of the Google Earth image of the previously unknown round-towered church at Kerdiston – Reepham’s fourth medieval church. Below: Ordnance Survey map from 1958, which clearly shows the site of St Mary’s Chapel in Kerdiston.

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