On this week in Clenchwarton, Hilgay, King’s Lynn, Swaffham and Terrington St Clement: August 11-17, 2015

Published: 06:00, 11 August 2024

In our weekly Memory Lane column we look back through the pages of the Lynn News from August 11-17, 2015…

Up to £14 million will be spent this year on improvements to Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The Gayton Road site is currently without one surgical theatre and another is coming to the end of its life. Plus, the hospital’s roof is in need of refurbishment. A midwife-led maternity unit is being created later in the year and officials will also be looking at a possible re-design of the front door of the A&E department. Staffing at A&E has also been examined with the introduction of two new consultants in May. The removal of the hospital being in special measures is hoped to help with recruitment.

Lynn Stars speedway rider Lewis Kerr has delighted his family, friends and fans by getting up and out of bed just two days after waking from an induced coma. Kerr suffered head injuries in an horrific accident during a meeting at Peterborough and was airlifted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where doctors placed him in the medically induced coma for three days. His wife Jessie posted pictures on social media of him up and out of bed, saying her husband had been through a “miracle” 24 hours after coming out of the coma. A fundraising account in support of Lewis has now raised more than £7,500.

Twenty-five years young – and still going strong. Toasting the 25th anniversary of Frigoscandia’s success in Lynn are these employees, pictured in August 1990 outside the company’s base on the Hardwick estate. In 1965, when it first opened, Frigoscandia had only one cold store, but in the next 25 years the business had grown to the extent there were 16 cold stores forming a massive “Food Town”, employing up to 700 people. Based on a 44-acre site with plenty of room for expansion, the Lynn operation was the headquarters for the Swedish company’s UK operation of nine plants. From left are Julie Clarke, Tony Smith, Sandra Watson, Tony Barrett, Anthony Illett and Annie Winner.

Campaigners who have fought controversial plans for nine wind turbines at Ongar Hill, near Terrington St Clement and Clenchwarton, are hoping that a new government wind farm policy will help them. Coriolis Energy has lodged an appeal to challenge West Norfolk Council’s decision to refuse planning permission, with councillors rejecting the proposal due to the impact on the landscape. In June, the government announced it was scrapping subsidies for all new onshore developments and that stricter regulations on mast locations would also be imposed.

Swaffham Town Council members have voted to contribute towards the cost of felling three diseased trees on the boundary of Swaffham’s cemetery, even though officials maintain the trees are not on their land. The work is expected to cost at least £3,000 and the council has decided to provide half the money required for the work on the edge of the Brandon Road site. It is thought the trees could become unstable if work was not carried out.

A chance discovery of some posh pottery in a mole hill has helped to prove that a series of lumps and bumps in a Hilgay field was actually once a wealthy Roman farmstead. A-level students have now joined members of West Norfolk and King’s Lynn Archaeology Society to survey the remains of the farmstead on land at Rose Farm. Although the site, which is a listed scheduled monument, was discovered in the 1980s, this is the first survey to be completed for some time. The examples of Samian pottery at the Rose Farm site has proved that some of the people living there would have been quite wealthy. The site also has a series of raised platforms which could have been used for animal pens, hay storage and buildings.

Unemployment in West Norfolk is continuing to fall despite another rise in the county, regional and national levels, new figures suggest. An estimated 3,700 people in the borough, around 5.3 per cent of the total workforce, are currently out of work, according to the latest statistics. That is down by 300 on the previous quarter and now at its lowest level since the spring of 2009. The fall came as the Norfolk-wide unemployment total rose by 1,500 to 21,800.

West Norfolk Council officials have revealed they are considering introducing a levy on new homes to help fund ways of minimising the environmental impact of house building. A report will be presented to the council’s ruling cabinet in September to set out plans to impose a £50 levy on new properties, which would be in line with similar charges imposed by other districts in the county. A council blueprint for future development is designed to set out where the 6,500 new homes the authority says are needed in the borough by 2026 should be built.

Nostalgia Chris Hornby