What Is “Reasonable” ?

After a day of gardening on Monday, we packed a picnic and went out in the car on Tuesday. It rained! We stopped off at the Cley Smokehouse to buy some buckling* for tea, then drove on to Blakeney. We parked in the quayside car park to eat our sandwiches

You have been warned… 

Here is the car park in early December [photograph from the Fakenham and Wells Times]‘Gilly’ is the Norfolk name for a soft-shelled crab. The really old barometer is built into the wall.

Bob wanted to see the Undercroft of the Blakeney Guildhall [a former medieval merchant’s house]It was cIosed, so I had to put my camera right against the grille to take this picture.

OK, there isn’t anything more to see than that – although I would have like to have walked round inside, not just peered through the barred windows.

But what intrigued me most was the sign English Heritage have stuck on the wall outside.

“Opening times- Any reasonable time”

Isn’t a morning during half-term reasonable?

What constitutes a reasonable time? “Oh, that’s just Normal For Norfolk” said a lady in the nearby craft shop, and giggled!!

* Buckling is hot smoked herring with the head and insides removed, retaining the roe, with a delicate combination of roast and smoked flavours. The word is believed to come from the Swedish or German words for herring.