Wymondham

Like much of South Norfolk, Wymondham faces losing its tag as a sleepy market town due to increased development which is scheduled to take place into the next century.

At present Wymondham paints a picture of a picturesque town unchanged by the centuries with its resplendent Abbey and historic centre. But while the twin-tower Norman abbey stands in glorious isolation from the west, new housing estates and business parks are marching across fields in the foreground, seemingly intent on filling the green space between the town and the road.

The vast Harts Farm development, now under construction, will have more than 700 houses when it is completed and a business park is planned near the Somerfield superstore.

Wymondham has experienced massive growth to the north of the town centre. Now just a mile south of the centre, a new suburb is emerging.

Whereas the present historic centre is the product of hundreds of years of organic evolution, companies are building Harts Farm in a matter of months, changing forever the face of fields dating back to the Doomsday Book.

In 1961 Wymondham had a population of 5,900, a figure which in the next 30 years almost doubled to 10,869 and the concerns of many people are summed up by David Walker, head of Wymondham High School.

"We simply cannot continue meeting the demand we are seeing. Numbers at the school have increased by 40 per cent in just six years and we are not yet providing for the people in the new developments around Wymondham. We have to get the equation right by planning for growth or we will tear the heart out of the place."

The following was adapted from an article in the Eastern Daily Press newspaper of February 13th, 1998.