She was born in Orford, Suffolk and named Margaret Joan Hemingway; but when she was three years old her family moved to New Zealand, where she spent her childhood.
Orford Hall, now demolished, was a 17th-century country house built in an estate which is now a public park (Orford Park) in Orford, Warrington, England.
Another notable local family were the Booths, who built Orford House in the late 18th century, ancestors of Charles Booth of the Liverpool shipowning family.
As well as the Castle, Orford's attractions include river cruises, a number of pubs and hotels, a traditional post office which sells fresh bread, a smokehouse, and two restaurants; the Butley-Orford Oysterage and the Crown and Castle Hotel, owned by food writer TV personality Ruth Watson.
He became a Member of Parliament for West Looe, Cornwall from 1597 to 1598; for King's Lynn, Norfolk from 1604 to 1611; for Cambridge in 1614 and for Orford, Suffolk from 1624 to 1626.
Routes to Bewsey and Orford started in 1913, with a further route to Padgate in 1928 operating over part of an unbuilt tramway extension along Padgate Lane to Padgate Bridge.
Orford | Orford, Suffolk | Orford, Cheshire | Orford Park | Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford | Earl of Orford | Orford Ness | Horatio Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford |
He was first violinist of the Orford String Quartet from 1965 to 1995 and plays a J.B.Guadagnini violin crafted in Parma in 1770.
A singer of considerable warmth, musicality and sincerity, Watson was also greatly admired as Ariadne, the Countess in Capriccio, and especially as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, of which she left a memorable recording, conducted by Benjamin Britten himself.
He notably portrayed the role of Bob Boles in the Canadian premiere of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes for the opening of the CBC Opera Company's second season with William Morton in the title role, Edmund Hockridge as Captain Balstrode, Frances James as Ellen Orford, and Eric Tredwell as Swallow.
She is noted for her performance of Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, the title role in Strauss's Arabella, Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes, and the Governess in Britten's The Turn of the Screw.
Horace Walpole (1717–1797), writer who became Earl of Orford in 1791
William Beamont, a local historian and the first Mayor of Warrington lived in Orford Hall for some 23 years, until his death in 1889.
Plomesgate Hundred comprises the historic ports of Aldeburgh and Orford, the medieval market town of Saxmundham and twenty other parishes in the east of the county.
He was ordained deacon in 1958, priest in 1959 and bishop in 1978 and went on to serve as Assistant Curate of Great Crosby St Faith 1958–61, Minister of Orford St Andrew Conventional District (1961–63) and Vicar of St Andrew's Church, Orford (1963–70).