To Norfolk via Cambridge with the signed conveyance and new trust deed and there to collect the keys from Elizabeth Kerr and take occupation of Heronshaw. Home via Stanton to check the caravan and collect some things for my parents.
Hearing news this evening of the crisis in the ambulance service, the resignation of the East German government, the findings of the Clapham railway crash and the internal wrangles of Thatcher and her party over Europe.
I was awoken early for a full day’s travelling. Firstly, I had a shower and let some of my leg plaster come off before eating breakfast and then, once prepared, I set off for Newmarket. I was in position within Taylor Vinters car park by 9am but waited until 9:15am before going in for my 9:30pm appointment with trust partner Gerard Chadwick. The building is a lovely Georgian house, listed and beautifully preserved. I got him to sign my Heronshaw conveyance and then we went through this new trust document to agree the wording required. This trust is providing the way of settling the key items for our family estate such that it may be given to one beneficiary to keep the estate together.
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Onward to Wroxham to the offices of my conveyancing solicitor, Elizabeth Kerr, where I gave her a copy of the conveyance and collected all of the deeds and keys for Heronshaw. I had lunch at the hamburger bar (the Riverside restaurant is now closed – presumably for the winter) and then I met the local chap, Jack Edwards, at Heronshaw. The old boy actually saw the place erected and the dyke dug in 1927 and has helped to look after the place for several owners. He will now check and forward my mail, keep people off and make sure the place is all right. I brought in the flower baskets, drain the water system and secured the premises. I drove home via Stanton where I collected the mail from my parents bungalow and their pensions from the post office. Home for a late tea and then, after making a succession of telephone calls, I watched the TV news and wrote up my journal.
The news tonight is a mounting crisis in the ambulance service. The government of locked out the ambulanceman for not working normally and now police and military ambulances are being called in. There are now no ambulances operating in London. The East German government has resigned, and new ministers will have to be appointed after the widespread and mass demonstrations for democracy and freedom of overseas travel. The report of the enquiry into the Clapham railway crash has severely criticised the management of British Rail. The Church of England is voted to allow the appointment of women priests. Thatcher is still backsliding over the resignation of Nigel Lawson. She still insists that she cannot understand his reasons for resigning. Leon Brittain, former Thatcher Cabinet minister and now European Commissioner, has called for Britain to join the exchange rate mechanism of the European monetary system.