Fakenham and District Community Archive, Fakenham (2026)

31/05/2026

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - June 2026
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

This month’s photo was taken nearly 50 years ago, on the 24th June 1977, the day of the Annual Small School Sports. The winner was the team from West Raynham, as noted by the Headmistress, Mrs Carr, in her log book; ‘The Annual Small School Sports were held today at Syderstone School. For the first time a cup was presented to the school with most points – and that school was West Raynham! The children were over the moon!!’
Names of the children taking part are shown in the photograph, but we are puzzled as to exactly where the event was held, as Syderstone School closed in 1961, when it became the Amy Robsart village hall.
Can anyone remember this event and help us to identify where it was held? You can contact us on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact us’ section of our website

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be added to the archive or browse the archive on our laptops and in old scrapbooks. Our next public session will be in the church on Tuesday 30th June between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm. Here you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages and share your own memories. A voluntary donation of £3 includes tea and cake and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive

01/05/2026

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - May 2026
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

Back in March 2014, James Howes, whose father Bob was the full-time youth leader at Fakenham Youth & Community Centre (now the Council Offices), kindly allowed us to digitally preserve his father’s scrapbook of priceless memories, enabling us to create a whole page on our community archive website devoted to the many activities of Fakenham Youth Club.

More recently Michael Smith, contacted us with this photograph of the club, showing some of the members and his mother Joyce, who was a volunteer helper there during the late 1950s and early 60s.

If you attended the youth club in Fakenham during the 1950s, 60s or 70s and recognise anyone in this photo or have your own photos or memories of Fakenham Youth Club that you'd like to share with us we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of this website.

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be added to our records of local life, also browse the whole archive on our laptops and in old scrapbooks.

Our next public session will be in the church on Tuesday 26th May between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm. At this sociable afternoon you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages and share your own memories. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses. We hope to see you there!

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community

Photo kindly donated by Michael Smith.

01/04/2026

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - April 2026
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

Sugar beet first came to this country in the early twentieth century after a group of Dutch investors began offering contracts to Norfolk farmers to grow it, to be shipped to Holland for processing.

This photo shows a group of Dutch agricultural workers outside the Hempton Bell in 1912. They had come over from Holland to show Norfolk farmers how to grow and harvest sugar beet, which would have been a new crop to them and was tricky to grow, requiring loamy soils and a high labour input. By 1912 they were satisfied the crop could be grown successfully on our rich East Anglian soil and so built the sugar processing factory at Cantley.

Do you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life in or around Fakenham, including the nearby villages? If so, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of our website.

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our records of local life, also look through thousands of photos on our laptops. Our next public session will be in the church on Tuesday 31st March between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.

This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive
Photo kindly donated by Fakenham Heritage Group

28/02/2026

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - March 2026
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

What’s going on here then?! Why are two policeman walking alongside this lone farm worker on a field somewhere near Walsingham?! This dramatic photo from 1923 has quite a story behind it … read on for more!

On the 6th March 1923 without notice or negotiations, the Norfolk farmers gave notice and imposed a cut of 2 shillings and 6 pence to their workers’ wage of 25 shillings a week and in addition an increase in working hours from 50 hours to 54 hours a week. Norfolk’s 20,000 agricultural workers were affected.

So farmworkers were faced with an intensification of work, a lengthening working week and steadily declining wages. This prompted a strike in March 1923, led by the National Union of Agricultural Workers (NUAW).

Workers active in the union were most likely to be dismissed, and those who attempted to protest against the impositions from farmers were often met with lockouts. Those who decided to continue to work needed police protection.

“The agricultural worker of today is waking up” declared The Landworker, as farmworkers in Norfolk launched a ‘trial of strength’ against their farmer bosses. 7,000 of Norfolk’s farmworkers, some of the best organised in the country, withdrew their labour without notice.

In a five-week long strike workers formed cycling pickets, to confront strike-breakers and to spread their strike to farther-flung farms. With a high level of violence and a heightened police presence, the conflict eventually ended in a compromised victory following intervention by Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald: the weekly wage of 25 shillings was maintained, also the 50-hour working week.

Do you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life in or around Fakenham, including the nearby villages? If so, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of our website.

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our records of local life, also look through thousands of photos on our laptops. Our next public session will be in the church on Tuesday 31st March between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.

This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive
Photo kindly donated by Fakenham Heritage Group

31/01/2026

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - February 2026
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

This month’s photo from the Community Archive shows Queens Road in Fakenham in about 1908, a lovely tree-lined peaceful road, when transport was either by foot, bicycle or horse. This road is now a busy entrance into the town and can be a challenging drive, weaving around cars that are parked randomly either side of the road!

Do you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life in or around Fakenham, including the nearby villages? If so, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377or email us via the ‘contact’ section of our website: www.fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our records of local life, also look through thousands of photos on our laptops. Our next public session will be in the church on Tuesday 24th February between 2.00 and 4.00 pm.

This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive
Photo kindly donated by Jim Baldwin

31/12/2025

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - January 2026
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

In the 1980s, just forty years ago, making a telephone call was not as straightforward as it is today, and the telephone exchange was essential for routing calls and connecting subscribers. As the service gradually changed to an automatic digital system the old telephone exchanges and the personal service provided by the telephone operators became redundant.
Our photo shows the closure of Fakenham’s telephone exchange in February 1983 and the huge number of people who were essential to run it. Those shown here include Keith Studd, Michael Cook, Gillian Cook, Linda Amos, Gerald Durrant, Irene Bunkle, Sheila Massingham, Alan Edge, Doug Sheekie and Mr. Stuffins.
Do you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life at that time, either in Fakenham or the nearby villages? If so, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or via our website.

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our records of local life; also look through the whole digital archive on our laptops. Our next public session will be in the church on Tuesday 27th January between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.
This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk, Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive

Photo kindly donated by Zena Haws

01/12/2025

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - December 2025
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

We think times are pretty hard now, but this newspaper photo reminds us of 1979 and the infamous ‘winter of discontent’. Against the backdrop of a bitterly cold winter in 1978–79, hundreds of thousands of public service workers went on strike nationally. More than 2,000 workers went on strike in the Liverpool and Merseyside area – rubbish was left uncollected, hospital services were reduced and bodies went unburied. It was also one of the harshest winters of recent times, with deep snow, power cuts, food shortages and travel delays, and everyday life became one lot of difficulties after another.

Do you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life at that time, either in Fakenham or the nearby villages? If so, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of this website:

We usually hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our records of local life, also look through the whole digital archive. Please note though that because of Christmas there’ll be no public session in December, so we’ll next be in the church on Tuesday 27th January between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.
This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive.

06/11/2025

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - November 2025
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

This press cutting, thought to be from the late 1940s or early 50s, shows employees of Mr. William Smith operating an electric cross-cut saw at the Holt Road sawmills in Fakenham. They are Mr. Jimmy Gage of Colkirk, Mr. C. Spooner (centre) of Sculthorpe and Mr. S. Claxton of Great Walsingham.

Do you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life in Fakenham or the nearby villages? If so, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of our website

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our archive of local life. You can also look through our laptops, scrapbooks and displays and see a slideshow or video presentation. Our next session is on Tuesday 18th November between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm. (Please note this is a week earlier than usual because of the Christmas Tree Festival preparations.)

This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive

11/10/2025

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - October 2025
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

Here’s a wonderful photo taken at the end of the harvest of 1912 on a field known as Old Shammer, which was farmed at the time by the late Thomas Everitt of Shammer Farm, North Creake. It took days of hard, hot physical work to get the harvest in and involved all the men on the farm, plus their wives and children and of course the hard working horses. Huge haystacks were built, and the farmer would usually lay on a huge celebratory meal to thank everyone involved in bringing in the harvest.

If you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life in Fakenham or the nearby villages we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of our website.

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our archive of local life. You can also look through our laptops, scrapbooks and displays and see a slideshow or video presentation. Our next session is on Tuesday 28th October between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.

This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages. A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive

Photo kindly donated by William Sayer

29/08/2025

LOCAL HISTORY CORNER - September 2025
Readers of the Wensum Advertiser will be familiar with our regular ‘Local History Corner’ articles which have appeared each month since December 2011. For those who may not receive a printed edition there is an opportunity to view the current article, as well as those from previous editions on our website. https://fakenhamcommunityarchive.weebly.com/local-history-corner.html

In the past local businesses used to encourage their employees to meet socially and enjoy one another’s company outside of working hours – ‘team building’ in today’s management speak. The building firm of Fisher & Sons, which was based on the Dereham Road in Hempton, supported their employees’ Bowls Club: this photo, taken some time in the 1950s, shows the bowls team and their supporters relaxing and enjoying themselves at a game. We’re not sure of the location but think the photo might have been taken on the bowling green at the rear of the Red Lion pub in town, where the sheltered housing is now.

If you have any photos or memories you’d like to share of life in Fakenham or nearby villages we’d love to hear from you. You can contact Fakenham Community Archive on 01328 863377 or email us via the ‘contact’ section of our website:

We hold a public session in Fakenham Parish Church on the last Tuesday of every month, when you can bring in photos to be scanned and added to our archive of local life. You can also browse our laptops, scrapbooks and displays and see a slideshow or video presentation.

Our next session is on Tuesday 30th September between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm. This is a very sociable afternoon, where you can learn a lot about the history of our town and surrounding villages.

A voluntary donation of £3 includes refreshments and helps to cover our expenses.
Photo kindly donated by Paul Edge

Chris Chalk
Secretary, Fakenham & District Community Archive

Fakenham and District Community Archive

31/05/2026

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