In the spirit of September’s heritage theme, I’m heading up the A12 for a walk at Lowestoft with Ruth Wharrier. Ruth is an artist and teacher, who hails originally from the north-east of England, but for the past decade has made her home just a couple of hundred yards from the beach at Pakefield. Jayne enjoyed her Lowestoft Walk (Image: Newsquest) I first got to know her because of her great talent for creating beautiful paintings of flowers and plants in the tradition of the great botanical artists.
But today’s catch-up is about something entirely different. As Ruth has got to know her adopted town, she’s become increasingly interested in it as the birthplace of one of the 20th century’s most famous composers, Benjamin Britten. Rewind to December 2020.
Ruth’s friend, broadcaster Zeb Soanes, is marooned in the Victoria Hotel in the Kirkley area of Lowestoft. He’s returned to his home town to spend Christmas with his parents..
. but they have Covid. He can’t go back to London because his partner also has Covid.
His only option is to while away the time at the hotel. Luckily, Ruth is only a short stroll away so they meet for daily walks - suitably distanced, of course. ‘We’d stop, sit on a bench for a chat, have a moan,’ says Ruth.
One day, they stop right outside Britten House, the elegant Edwardian house in Kirkley that was the composer’s birthplace and family home. Why, Ruth asks her Lowestoft-raised friend, does the town not celebrate its famous son? .