04/04/2026
DOWN TO THE DARK WATERS
As part of the Corn Hall’s DissCover Book Festival, Diss Museum Actors will lead an entertaining walk down and back up Mere Street.
This will be on the afternoon of Friday 1st May, starting at 2.00pm from the Market Place, outside Boots.
The event is called Down to the Dark Waters and takes its cue from a theory that Mere Street’s original name, Tem Street, came from the Celtic for ‘dark waters’.
Waterways all over the country, the Thames, Tame, Tamar and many others, may have a similar derivation.
The event will feature actual literary/historical connections and also reflect the dates of particular sites.
An afternoon of surprises will include: the work of Charles Dickens, the 1945 general election, Rudyard Kipling, J.B.Priestley, 18th century conspiracy, John Betjeman & Mary Wilson, the tale behind a medieval cross, John Skelton, Matilda Fitz Walter, Thomas De Quincey, the Diss Book Club of the 1700s and their opinion of Thomas Paine; and more.
Some empty premises have surprising stories to tell. The Annals of the RAF recount the death of the son of the Nat West Bank manager, while piloting a Liberator on a 15 hour flight. Even the old Woolworths building is included, with extracts from the ‘Woolies’ novels of Elaine Everest.
In recent years, the actors have given presentations on The Roydon Riots, Thomas Manning, the American World War Two airmen, the Victorian part of the cemetery and the museum’s popular Ghost Walk.
The tour, which promises to be equally fascinating, will last about an hour, followed by light refreshments outside the museum. Tickets £5 from the museum.
