Richard Davies
By Peter Steward
Most of the people featured on this web site come from earlier times. There are some exceptions, however, amongst the characters who have made our county what it is. Richard Davies is one such man.
Back in the early 1970s I lived and worked in Cromer on the North Norfolk coast. I actually lived at 7, Corner Street which is literally one minute's walk from the beach and Cromer Pier. Richard lived next door at number nine. He was a well known local fisherman but, more than that he was coxswain of Cromer Lifeboat - a position that saw him following in the footsteps of one of his ancestors Henry Blogg. Blogg was born in a cottage in Corner Street just across the road.
As a young reporter on the local newspaper I got to know Richard pretty well. Many is the crab he placed on our doorstep and many were the times he rang our doorbell as he flew off on a lifeboat call. He wanted to let us know that he was on "a shout" which could be a tad annoying in the middle of the night.
Richard was a generous and friendly man - one of the old school fishermen who seemed to be hewn out of the granite of the Cromer and Sheringham cliffs. Academic he wasn't being diagnosed with dyslexia whilst at Cromer Secondary Modern School. And rather surprisingly he suffered badly from seasickness.
Despite all that he went to sea at the age of 14. His great great grandfather James John Davies, his great grandfather, his grandfather and his father all served as coxswain and the surname Davies became synonymous with Cromer Lifeboat.
To be continued
By Peter Steward
Most of the people featured on this web site come from earlier times. There are some exceptions, however, amongst the characters who have made our county what it is. Richard Davies is one such man.
Back in the early 1970s I lived and worked in Cromer on the North Norfolk coast. I actually lived at 7, Corner Street which is literally one minute's walk from the beach and Cromer Pier. Richard lived next door at number nine. He was a well known local fisherman but, more than that he was coxswain of Cromer Lifeboat - a position that saw him following in the footsteps of one of his ancestors Henry Blogg. Blogg was born in a cottage in Corner Street just across the road.
As a young reporter on the local newspaper I got to know Richard pretty well. Many is the crab he placed on our doorstep and many were the times he rang our doorbell as he flew off on a lifeboat call. He wanted to let us know that he was on "a shout" which could be a tad annoying in the middle of the night.
Richard was a generous and friendly man - one of the old school fishermen who seemed to be hewn out of the granite of the Cromer and Sheringham cliffs. Academic he wasn't being diagnosed with dyslexia whilst at Cromer Secondary Modern School. And rather surprisingly he suffered badly from seasickness.
Despite all that he went to sea at the age of 14. His great great grandfather James John Davies, his great grandfather, his grandfather and his father all served as coxswain and the surname Davies became synonymous with Cromer Lifeboat.
To be continued