Looking back to 2007 with expansion plans at King's Lynn's Trues Yard, a fire in Weeting and Fakenham dogs at Crufts, plus pancakes at Terrington St Clement in 1988

In our weekly Memory Lane feature, we look back to 1988 and 2007....

Lynn’s True’s Yard Museum wants to expand its operations by moving into buildings bought by a Norfolk charity – but faces a £200,000 fundraising challenge to do so. An anonymous charitable trust wanting to help the fishing heritage museum in North Street has bought the former tattoo shop and a neighbouring cottage in St Ann’s Street and offered them to the museum for the third phase of its expansion. But to be able to take a 99-year-lease on the properties, True’s Yard needs to find the estimated £200,000 needed to convert them to further extend its educational and community services.

Dozens of firefighters from across East Anglia raced to Weeting when a row of historic thatched cottages caught fire. Fire investigators do not yet know what caused the blaze, which began in the loft of an 18th century terraced cottage in the middle of The Row. Fire crews and specialist units from Fakenham, Methwold, Swaffham, East Harling, Brandon, Dereham, Wymondham, Watton and two from Thetford spent six hours tackling the flames.

Thousands of acres of land will be flooded in West Norfolk and The Fens, under radical multi-million pound plans to replace the “dying” Ouse Washes habitat. The washes, which run from Denver to Earith in Cambridgeshire, have provided important flood protection since the 17th century and are also an internationally recognised and protected home for nesting birds. But the wetland habitat has deteriorated drastically since the 1970s due to excess flooding in the spring and summer and several bird species could disappear from the area. Because of its conservation status, the Environment Agency is legally required to take action and is planning to create 1,000 hectares of new wet grassland habitat to replace the Ouse Washes over the next five years.

Sixteen pedigree dogs of many varieties will lead 13 members of the Fakenham and District Dog Training Club to this year’s Crufts’ show at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. It’s one of the largest entries from the club ever at the world’s biggest dog show. The club has around 100 members and meets weekly at Hempton Village Hall near Fakenham.

Massive plans to generate electricity in The Wash are already facing opposition from West Norfolk residents. Centrica, a parent company of British Gas and owners of Lynn Power Station, last month applied for Government permission for the first of three wind farms off the Lincolnshire coast. If the development goes ahead a 15-mile buried cable would connect the turbines to Walpole St Andrew sub-station, where the power will be fed into the National Grid. Centrica has now submitted a planning application to West Norfolk Council for the connecting cable, an extension to the sub-station and new access roads.

Members of Lynn’s Stop the War Coalition will be travelling to London to join a national protest. The group will be meeting at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park to mark the fourth anniversary of British troops in Iraq. There will also be a protest during the anti-war demonstration against Government plans to spend £76 billion on new weapons to replace Trident.

Bosses are keeping fingers crossed for lift-off after submitting their third planning application for a helipad at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, so that the East Anglian Air Ambulance can land there 24 hours a day. It is now more than ten months since generous Lynn News readers raised a huge £66,000 for the illuminated helipad, but various proposals have faced numerous hurdles, delays and changes to the location – at an extra cost to the QEH of around £150,000.

After blighting the landscape for more than a decade, the burned-out pub on Lynn’s Fairstead Estate will be torn down in the next few months and residents will have a say in what replaces it. West Norfolk Council has bought the pub – formerly known as The Fairstead – with cash from the Safer Stronger Communities Fund, which was set up after Lynn was awarded £3.6 million under a Government regeneration scheme last year.

The 100-year-old Methodist Church at Marham has been given a helping hand thanks to the nearby RAF Marham and a contractor. Methodist circuit steward, Mr Ray Webb, asked the base if it could help with the installation of a disabled access toilet and running water. And the job was quickly finished off by the contractor Haymills which provided men, equipment and materials.

Learning centres at Hunstanton and Fakenham are set to close, despite local opposition. The decision was announced by Lynn’s College of West Anglia and has been blamed on declining enrolments and changing Government priorities.