Discovering Wisbech issue 058, February 2023

Welcome

Two years ago, I wrote, “Keep safe and think of those sunny days to come – things will improve, and that begins when you have to stay indoors with your loved one to celebrate Valentine’s Day!”

During that awful lockdown, we were forced to change so many of our regular habits and routines. Now, things have improved and, although it can be wonderful being together, indoors, for Valentine’s Day, it’s still lovely to be taken out for a gorgeous candle-lit romantic meal (don’t you think, Chris?)

It was a very sad start to 2023 for my sister Paula and I when we lost our Mum, Sue, on New Year’s Day. She had just turned eighty and had bravely lived with several challenging health issues for many years. A multitude of fabulous memories of our times together remain.

And, finally, the French author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, wrote, “Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction”.

Claire x

First of all, I hope you all managed to survive ‘Blue Monday’ – the name given to the third Monday of January when everyone is said to feel down in the dumps... and not the old New Order hit.

The day is said to be the most depressing one of the year, but actually it started off as a PR stunt designed by companies to promote their feel-good products and services.

Certainly, at first glance there’s not much to celebrate at present with many people suffering from seasonal colds, flu or COVID, coupled with the wintry weather and harsh economic situation.

However, I reckon it’s time to look forward to brighter times around the corner. Daylight hours are gradually growing and there are more and more events coming on-stream.

I think the best thing to do is to keep warm, hunker down at home or meet up with friends and look forward to Spring!

Paula Kirtland: 07903 776211 marketing.discoveringmagazines@gmail.com

Discovering Wisbech is published by a local team and is not associated with any other business. Care is taken to ensure that the content and information is correct at the time of going to press; however, we cannot take any responsibility for loss, damage or omission caused by any errors. Permission must be granted to reproduce, copy or scan anything from this publication. For a copy of our contributors’ guidelines please email info@ discoveringmagazines.co.uk.

Preparing beds before sowing begins in spring is one of the most important jobs this month. In doing so, you'll help to aerate, drain, and warm the soil.

When digging over, be sure to incorporate plenty of homemade compost or composted manure. Alternatively, give beds a dressing of organic matter, then cover in plastic for a few weeks to reduce weeds and warm the soil. If you have clay soil, spread a mix of organic matter and grit over the surface and dig it in to open the structure. Take care walking on compacted soil; lay wooden planks to walk on, or even consider creating raised beds. It is possible to sow crops such as broad beans along with early peas (under cloches), parsnips and garlic, but only do so if the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. A good idea for sowing peas is to use lengths of plastic guttering: half fill them with good quality seed compost and sow the seeds about 2inches apart, cover with compost, water, and keep in a light spot under cover. Once the seedlings have grown to about 3 inches, make a shallow drill and slide the contents of the guttering into the drill. Make sure they are firmly bedded and water in. Other crops that can be sown outdoors (watch the weather and make a judgement) are turnips, rhubarb crowns and grape vines. Make sure that you have got all your seed potatoes by the end of the month and that

they are spread out in a seed tray, or in egg boxes, in a light, cool room where they can “chit” (sprout shoots) before being planted out. If the “chits” look pale and spindly, the room is probably too warm or too dark.

Other jobs for February include:

• Make sure winter cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli are netted against hungry pigeons.

• Prune autumn raspberry canes by cutting right down to the ground and then mulch.

• Feed and mulch fruit trees and bushes.

• Rake your compost heap with a fork to aerate it, add water if it seems dry and then re-cover it to keep it warm.

• As they are still dormant, bare-rooted fruit trees can still be planted.

• Force rhubarb – cover with a bucket when you see the crown start to shoot.

• Sow seeds indoors e.g., tomatoes, leeks, lettuce, Brussels, sprouting broccoli, spinach. The main problem at this time of year is a general lack of light, so a cheap solution to prevent leggy, drawn seedlings is to cover a piece of cardboard with aluminium foil and place it to the north side of the seed tray, thus reflecting extra light onto the seeds.

Why you need a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a way of telling the world who you trust to look after you and your affairs if you aren’t able to make decisions about your own affairs.

There are two different types of Lasting Power of Attorney, one that covers your financial affairs and the other that deals with medical and welfare decisions. We can all probably see the necessity to give someone else the power to manage our finances if we aren’t able to do so. It means that bills will be paid, benefits and income can be managed and if necessary, property could even be sold to pay for care.

But the benefits of an LPA for health and welfare aren’t as immediately obvious to the majority of people.

It seems that the general view is that an LPA for health and welfare is only useful when someone is gravely ill. The assumption is that the medical staff will discuss the decisions that need to be made around life sustaining treatment with the family. The question that often comes up is “Why do I need to give someone specific permission to have that conversation?”

Lifelong Care

An LPA for Health and Welfare does not just cover the last months, weeks, or days of our lives. It can enable our chosen attorney to make decisions for us when we aren’t able to about where we live, what we eat, who we see, even what non-urgent medical treatment we receive if we can’t make those decisions for ourselves. For instance, if you lose capacity and can no longer live safely in your own home a decision will need to be made about where you will live. The local authority might become involved in this process and if specialist care is needed, they might propose that you be placed in a care home far away from your family

and friends. If you have appointed an attorney, they can challenge this decision on the basis that it may not be in your best interests. They can point out that you would benefit from regular visits from those that you are close to, visits which might not be able to take place if you were moved a long way from your home.

Choosing the best treatments for you

You may also have strong feelings on the type of medical treatments you do not want to receive. You might prefer to try alternative therapies rather than mainstream medical treatments. Again, your attorney can discuss these options with the medical staff to ensure that you get the treatment that you would prefer.

If you have strong feelings about the type of care or medical treatment that you would want then appointing an attorney is the best way to ensure that decisions can continue to be made as you would choose, when you can’t make them yourself.

If you’d like to talk to us in more detail about Lasting Powers of Attorney, please email Cath Collins at cathcollins@vinelaw.co.uk or call on (01945) 898090.

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Wisbech St Mary-based Fenland Timber, which has been supplying domestic and commercial customers throughout Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire since 2016, has been rebranded with the company name being changed to Frankham’s & Sons Ltd and trading as Frankham’s Timber & Building Supplies.

Owner Sam Frankham (36) said he has been thinking about rebranding the business for some time and wanted to get the new name in place for the beginning of the year. He said: “My customers often say they’re going to see Sam Frankham so I think it will future proof the business and give people something to talk about which is good advertising for us.

“It also gives me the chance to branch out into other areas and I have already rebranded the onsite tool shop as Frankham’s Hardware & Tools.”

The company is a timber yard and landscape merchants where people can get whatever they need to complete a job, with sheds and fencing being the most popular types of work.

Sam, who is helped in the business by his wife Maryann and four permanent employees, said the business supplies a wide variety of services and timber products to choose from, much of which is sourced locally, with new lines added all the time. Check out Frankham’s Timber & Building Supplies at Units 1-3 Sandbank Barns, Sandbank, Wisbech St Mary, Cambridgeshire PE13 4SE. Tel: 01945

The business officially opened in May 2019. Tom Westbrook, the man behind the company, had more than twenty-five years’ experience in the trade before embarking on this new challenge. Tom explains: “I’ve always dreamed of running my own business and still to this day feel overwhelmed by the support received from local customers.”

Tom loves running his own business and especially enjoys meeting people and helping with any job big or small. From repairing draughty letter boxes, changing locks, hinges, and glass to replacing a house full of windows or fitting a stylish new door he is always happy to provide a free no obligation quote.

Tom has always been a big believer in repairing wherever possible. Often to the surprise of many customers, Tom can complete lots of different aspects of repair work, saving them the expense of buying new.

Tom and his wife Suzanne are very grateful to the customers that have supported their growing business over the last two-and-a-half years. They are looking to the future and excited about what the future holds for the developing business.

If you would like further information about how Westbrook Window Repairs can help please call them on 01354 653445 and follow them on Facebook.

KEEP YOUR PC HAPPY AND HEALTHY

While it’s the beginning of the year, many of us will be thinking about the positive changes we need to make to our lives, such as losing weight, drinking less alcohol, stopping smoking etc. But what about keeping your relationship with your PC happy and healthy?

Strengthen your digital security

First on the list is to take the time now to start changing your passwords FOR EVERYTHING, making sure you have a different one for every account. Use a mixture of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols to create unique passwords. Two factor authentication adds an extra layer of security. This is usually a combination of something you know and something you have. The thing you know is often a pin number. The thing you have might be a unique token generated each time you log in. This is used in addition to your username and password. Most importantly, make sure you have informed your email provider if you have changed your mobile phone number (make sure they have your mobile number NOT a landline) or alternatively email address as these are used if your account is hacked, or you have forgotten your password.

Make back-ups of your photos, videos, and music

If your device gets lost, damaged or stolen, you run the risk of never being able to retrieve the

irreplaceable documents stored on it. To save music, photos and documents, discs, memory sticks and removeable hard drives will suffice. However, it is worth using some sort of cloud storage. Do remember though that if you want to make your back-ups one hundred percent fail-safe, it is important to have both physical and online copies saved.

Get rid of desktop clutter

Keeping screenshots, images and shortcuts to files on your desktop can make finding things almost impossible. To get the initial abundance of apps out the way, create a folder on your desktop named ‘Old Desktop’ and transfer all your clutter into it. Your desktop will immediately look cleaner and more manageable. From there, you can go through the folder in your own time and put all the files in their rightful place, perhaps even sort out other folders whilst you are at it.

Upgrade your PC

If your PC still runs on coal, or even worse, Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 (which died on January 10th, 2023), now is the time to upgrade to Windows 10 or even better 11. As we’ve mentioned time and time again, continuing to use Windows 8 or older on the public internet is very much like going out in public with a virus and coughing on people. And sadly, we all know where that can lead...

PHILIP AT DIAMOND BYTE

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE OUR ARTICLE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA BACKUP – WWW.DIAMONDBYTE.CO.UK

FENLAND FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

By Bridget Hunter

Our aims are to support and help our members interested in family history no matter where the family originated. In addition, our team of researchers are willing to attend local events with a display matching the theme of the event being held. If you are holding an event please get in touch and we can give added interest by attending and matching our family history stand to your theme. If Wi-Fi is available, we can offer family research to visitors. We often get requests to look up a record or to photograph a grave for distant members. Not all records are online, but we may be able to provide the information members are looking for.

INTERESTING INFORMATION

Newspaper reports are often a great source for family historians. In the past, funerals were reported in great detail giving names and the relationships of those attending. I was delighted to find this report; it was the funeral of my nineteen-year-old uncle Kenneth Smith, who was killed whilst motor cycling on May 11th, 1929. The immediate mourners were Mr and Mrs M K Smith (father and mother), M. K. Smith (brother), Miss K Smith (sister), Mrs Spence, Miss A Saggers, Mrs Dearman and Mrs Jackson (aunts), Mr D Smith (uncle), Mr B Dearman, Mrs Jackson, and Miss Spence (cousins). There were forty-two floral tokens including wreaths.

COMPUTER RESEARCH SESSIONS

Our research sessions are becoming very popular, our researchers are kept quite busy and find many different stories which always add to our knowledge. Our research sessions are held twice a month. Our first monthly research session is in

Wisbech Library on the FIRST TUESDAY of each month from 10am-12noon. Our researchers are able to help visitors with their family research and show them all the wonderful research resources available in the library. Our other session is on the SECOND MONDAY of each month from 11am2.30pm in the restaurant at Baytree Garden Centre in Hilgay near Downham Market. We offer help with family research to any visitors at the Garden Centre. Our team is also willing to attend local events as an added attraction. If Wi-Fi is available, we can offer family research to visitors.

MONTHLY MEETINGS

Meetings are held on the FOURTH Thursday of the month, except August and December. In Wisbech Library from 7pm-9pm. Everyone welcome. Members free, visitors a £2 donation. On Thursday, February 23rd our speaker will be Jonathan FARMER with a talk about military history. At our March meeting on Thursday, March 23rd we will be sharing ideas and ways of keeping and display members' family trees and information.

SPEAKERS

Our speakers are available to attend other groups and clubs to give talks in the local area. Talks include the following: ‘The Fun of Family History’, about a long journey by land, air, and sea to find her roots; ‘My Naughty Great Aunt Eliza’, unravelling a story of lies and deceit; ’The Ups & Downs of Being a Magistrate’, a real-life experience; and ‘The Sad Tale of The Blacksmith's Family’, the story of a great, great grandfather; and ‘The Angels of St Clement's Church’, a tour and talk about the angels in the Outwell Church.

For further information on any of the above please phone me on (01945) 587723.

VAT Penalty Changes

Keith Day

If you are VAT-registered then a new regime has started for VAT periods beginning on or after January 1 this year. The changes affect penalties for missing both filing and payment deadlines and replace the current VAT default surcharge system.

The changes serve to stress the importance of being up-to-date with returns, awareness of overall tax liabilities and the need for regular communication with accountants or HM Revenue & Customs to minimise the impact of both penalties and interest charges.

Penalties for late submissions, even for nil-repayment returns, will work on a points-based system dictated by the frequency of submissions. In plain English - for each return submitted late, a taxpayer will receive a penalty point. Once the penalty point threshold is reached - four for quarterly returns – there is a £200 penalty and a further £200 penalty is levied for each subsequent late submission while on that threshold.

From January 1, HMRC is charging late payment interest from the day the payment becomes overdue to the day it is settled in full. Obviously, to avoid late payment penalties, the sooner you pay the lower the penalty rate will be.

There is a set scale and rate for penalties covering the overdue periods starting from 15-days to 30 days and beyond 31 days. For those recently registered for VAT there is a first year exemption, if it’s paid in full within 30-days then neither penalties nor interest will be applied in the first year.

Clearly there are elements of a minefield in this new legislation. We are specialists and can help so please do not hesitate to contact our Wisbech office.

Information on which this article is based is correct at the time of publishing. Any updates are available on our website: whitingsllp.co.uk

OUR

P

TEAM CAN HELP TO

odiatrists are health care professionals who have been trained to prevent, diagnose, treat and rehabilitate abnormal conditions of the feet and lower limbs. They also prevent and correct deformity, keep people mobile and active, relieve pain and treat infections. They can give you and your family advice on how to look after your feet and what type of shoes to wear. They can also treat and alleviate day-today foot problems. Our clinical team can provide advice and treatment if you have painful feet, thickened or discoloured toenails, cracks or cuts in the skin, growths such as warts, scaling or peeling on the soles, or any other foot-related problem. We can assess your feet and also prescribe orthoses, which are tailor-made insoles, to help to relieve arch, foot or heel pain. An orthotic device goes into your shoe to help to re-align your foot, take pressure off vulnerable areas of your foot, or simply to make your shoes more comfortable. Even if your feet are generally in good condition, you might consider having podiatry treatment to have the hard skin on your feet removed, toenails clipped, to find out if you’re wearing the right shoes or just to check that you’re looking after your feet properly.Podiatrists can also help with more complex foot problems including preventing, diagnosing and treating injuries related to sports and or exercise. Heel pain is a common occurrence and a debilitating condition we treat regularly. In most cases the pain is caused by some form of mechanical injury caused by small repetitive injuries that occur at a rate faster than the body can heal them. Heel pain can also be caused by lower back problems or inflammatory joint conditions. Your podiatrist can assess your feet, diagnose your problem and make recommendations for self-care at home, plus provide a clinic-based treatment plan to help solve your problem.

We have appointments available during the week, evenings and Saturday mornings for your convenience.

Contact us today on (01354) 651200 for information about how we can help your foot problem, and like us on Facebook for all the latest updates and information.

 Follow us on Facebook

March Podiatry Practice Ltd 47-49 High Street, March PE15 9JJ Tel 01354 651200 www.marchpodiatry.co.uk Health

Opening hours: Mon 9am-7pm, Tues 9am-5pm, Weds 9am-7pm, Thurs 9am-5pm, Fri 9am-5pm and Sat 9am-1pm

Your money is protected when you book your holiday with us

We understand that when it comes to paying money in advance for something such as travel, it’s so important that your money is properly protected. That’s why we are proud to be members of Protected Trust Services (PTS) who provide some of the best financial protection in the UK, giving us and our customers the confidence that their holiday money is fully protected.

What is Protected Trust Services?

PTS is a company that provides financial protection through an independent trust account and bespoke technology to protect your monies. This means, every time you book a holiday with us, your money only goes towards the arrangement of your holiday. It will be used to pay the suppliers, book the tickets, and will never be used for anything irrelevant to your booking. You can also call us at any time, ask where your money is, and we can give you an exact answer.

Being part of PTS, we take great pride in being able to offer the best and most trustworthy protection in travel. We can guarantee that when you book with us, you’ll receive the financial protection you deserve. Contact us today for a quote, we aim to beat any online or high street price.

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Kicking off February is an unmissable animated adventure for Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, hitting screens on February 3rd. Puss (Antonio Banderas) embarks on an epic adventure to restore his lost lives, but he will be needing some help on the way from his former partner and nemesis: the captivating Kitty Soft Paws (Salma Hayek).

The final instalment of the blockbuster Magic Mike film franchise set in the world of exotic male dancing bursts onto screens on February 10th. In Magic Mike Last Dance, Mike (Channing Tatum) is hoping for one last hurrah, as he heads to London with a wealthy socialite who lures him with an offer he can't refuse and an agenda all her own. With everything on the line, he soon finds himself trying to whip a hot new roster of talented dancers into shape. An action-packed return for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania on February 17th, Superheroes Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures, and embarking on an adventure that pushes them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible, this is one not to be missed!

Our new campaign Explore: The Wider World of Film kicked off this January and has brought some exciting new directors, award winners, documentaries, and the best of British and independent film to the big screen. This continues through February bringing us Enys Men – February

6th and All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (doc) –February 13th.

Enys Men (15): Mark Jenkin – BAFTA award-winning director of BAIT – brings to the screen a mindbending Cornish folk horror (with English subtitles). Set in 1973, the story takes place on an uninhabited island just off the Cornish coast where we follow a wildlife volunteer’s daily observations of a rare flower... and witness a horror unfolding as we explore what is real and what is a nightmare.

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed follows activist Nan Goldin’s epic and emotional story, showcasing rare footage of her fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the OxyContin addiction crisis.

Directed by Academy award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, the film interweaves Goldin’s past and present, the deeply personal and the urgently political.

Event Cinema ROH Live brings Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville to The Light on February 15th with heartmelting serenades, ridiculous disguises, and a fairy tale ending waiting just out of reach.

NT Live brings Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello on February 23rd, an extraordinary new production directed by Clint Dyer with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwan (The Alienist), and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance).

More blockbuster films coming your way including Dungeons and Dragons, Shazam! Fury of The Gods, and Super Mario Bros Book your tickets and find out more by heading over to: wisbech.thelight.co.uk

Magic Mike Last Dance

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania

By Steve Barclay MP

When the calendar flips into February it feels like the start of the year is complete. For many, January can be a challenging month: setting new goals, ambitions and resolutions feels a very positive start to the year but the month is often also associated with difficult days, sometimes referred to as ‘Blue Monday’, as the excesses of the festive season catch up with us. It is undeniable that current circumstances mean these feelings can be exacerbated, whether due to cost-of-living challenges at home or world events.

I do hope that, rather than feel blue, you joined the Samaritans in celebrating Brew Monday – a chance to check in with friends, family, neighbours, or colleagues to see how they’re doing and share a cup of tea – rejecting the thinking that the calendar decides how we feel. So, into February and 2023 is well underway and milestones like Valentine’s Day, school half term, and Shrove Tuesday are looked forward to. There’s also Black History Month, World Cancer Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day and National Love Your Pet Day among many more, including the less well-known National Pizza Day.

Speaking of things to look forward to, I’m due to enjoy a visit to the new Youth Club building in Littleport that has been completed and started to invite groups to do some taster sessions. It will be great to see the result of several years of hard work by Littleport Parish Council and speak to some of the young people who are benefiting.

It will also be good to see the progress on the Ferry Project’s nine new permanent emergency units for street homeless people, after work started last month. The units should be ready to occupy by the end of May. I was delighted to open some units for the project in Wisbech last year and it was amazing to see what this kind of intervention can do to help turn people’s lives around.

Of course, I should also mention looking forward to the revamp of March town centre, a oncein-a-generation activity that will rejuvenate the town thanks to Future High Streets funding. The ongoing works will be challenging over the coming months as work continues around the Market Place with resurfacing and reconfiguring of the car park, widening of the northern footway, new and repaired benches and bollards, and new electric vehicle charging points. However, as the saying goes, ‘no pain, no gain’ and I’m sure the disruption will be worth it. There is potential for more grant funding to support organisations and charities in the constituency with the recent Sport England Small Grants Programme, which has increased the awards it can make to £15,000 for community organisations, charities and not-for-profit companies. There’s also the £3 million Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund, which supports the modernisation and improvement of village halls, offering grants of between £7500 and £75,000. Find out more: https://www.sportengland. org/funds-and-campaigns/our-funds/small-grantsprogrammehttps://acre.org.uk/platinum-jubileevillage-halls-fund/

Lyncroft

SLIMMING WORLD

E & ChipTraybake

A great family and budget-friendly, one-tray brunch dish; guaranteed to put a smile on everyone̛s face (including the washer-uppers!)

Method

• Preheat your oven to 200˚C/Fan 180˚C/Gas 6. Tip the potatoes into a large, non-stick roasting tin and spray with low-calorie cooking spray.

• Sprinkle over the oregano, mix well and roast for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are starting to brown. Add the onion and mushrooms and cook for a further 15 minutes or until the potatoes are browned and tender.

• Make 4 wells in the vegetables and crack an egg into each of them. Add the tomatoes to the tray and return to the oven for 5 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

Interesting and Curious Facts of Yesteryear

Unusual, fascinating and sometimes amusing, by the author of ‘Wisbech’s Secret Princess’, Chris Donald

DON'T CALL ME REV.*

omas Clarkson *Reverent

“

I have left the Church, after due examination, I mean as a Clergyman only… my reasons concern only myself. I shall be obliged to you therefore if you will omit the title rev.” So wrote Thomas Clarkson to his friends.

Thomas’s father had been a vicar, and a good one. So, Thomas set out to become a vicar too and hopefully as good as his father. He went to Cambridge University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree and was ordained as a dean at Winchester. The next step was to become a vicar, but It never happened. After all this studying and hard work, he never concluded his studies. What stopped him from taking this last step?

Well, in 1785, at the age of twenty-five, he found out about the slave trade and all the unbelievable horrors and ghastly atrocities that went with it. From then on, all his life would be devoted to this single cause, abolishing the slave trade, more than anything else. He set out to get as much support as he could. There were some in the Church of England who wanted to help but there was only one religious group that supported him one hundred percent and they were The Religious Society of Friends, often known as Quakers.

Thomas said: ‘These people had been then long unanimous upon this subject (slavery). Indeed, they had placed it among the articles of their religious discipline. Their houses were of course open to me in all parts of the kingdom. Hence, I came to a knowledge of their living manners, which no other person, who was not a Quaker, could have easily obtained.’

He started a committee to get this terrible trade stopped. It consisted of Church of England, Methodists, Baptists but, again, mostly Quakers. But there were other things that concerned Thomas. He, together with his brother, John, was also a firm believer in pacifism and finding other ways of

settling disputes other than war. They started the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace. Many church people supported it but, as always, it was only the Quakers that were one hundred percent behind it.

Clarkson was often seen with Quakers which was unusual for an Anglian clergyman. He was so impressed with Quakerism that he wrote a book about them. Well, not just a book but three volumes containing a massive one thousand, three hundred and thirty-three pages. It goes into every detail about them, their beliefs, their dress and their way of life. It stands as an interesting look at how the Quakers were at the beginning of the 1800s. He said of the book… ‘I think it will do good.’

It was his belief that the slave was no different to any other person. Just because the colour of his skin was different didn’t make him or her any less important. He also carried this thought through to men and women. He did not understand why women were treated differently by society and by the church at that and it wasn’t till 1928 that women were given the vote and then in 1994 that the Church of England had its first female vicar.

He was also opposed to the death penalty as a way of dealing with some criminals and it wasn’t until more than one hundred years after his death that the state finally got rid of this.

But, Clarkson, although often seen with Quakers, remained with the Church of England, was married and attended services at the church. He never lost his Anglican faith but, interestingly, he had his last say at his funeral in Suffolk.

The funeral embraced both the Church of England and also the Society of Friends in its service. And yet… in 2011 a play was put on at the Angles Theatre in Wisbech called ‘Nine Parts a Quaker’, which is exactly how Clarkson had described himself.

The Clarkson memorial, Wisbech