Why live in Nordelph? The right side of the border

A third in the varied range of stories that chronicle how today's residents arrived in the village.

Why Nordelph?

I was born in King’s Lynn many years ago, and after moving away for higher education, was unable to find suitable employment in Norfolk, so spent the next thirty years in the South of England where I married and had four children.. About seven years ago the opportunity came up to work in Cambridge and, with the children grown up and leaving home, my elderly mother still living in Lynn, and the desire as a Norfolk boy to return to my roots, we took the plunge.

The criteria included reasonable journey time to Cambridge and Lynn, access to a railway station for occasional business trips to London, good road connections to the A47, A1 and A14, and most importantly to be on the “right” side of the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire boarder. A search area within a few miles radius of Downham Market fitted the bill.

In terms of property we were looking for something detached, in a rural community, with decent sized private garden. At the time, some eight years ago, the problem we encountered was simply a lack of properties for sale that would fit this description; however, we were surprised to find that building plots were still available, unlike the South of England where land was like gold dust. That is how we stumbled across Nordelph. We found a building plot and, as well as meeting all our practical criteria, Nordelph seemed a pleasant village. The setting of Well Creek, the rural views and the friendliness of the first residents we met, not to mention the Pub.

As it happens the sale of the land fell through due to legal complications (often the case in Norfolk). We had by now sold up and moved into rented accommodation in Northwold so we were not well pleased! We saw some new houses were about to start being built in the village, identified one we liked and put our name down. Yet another obstacle as the developer decided to pull out, but fortunately agreed to sell us the plot and the plans, and we got a local builder to complete for us.

So here we are, seven years later. Any regrets? No. If we were doing the same today, we might add a shop/Post Office, mains drainage, gas, Broadband to our search criteria, but then we wouldn’t have settled in Nordelph. Changes?. Many in the short time we have been here, on the downside the church has been declared redundant, the garage has closed and the pub is about to. On the plus side, the new houses and the influx of new residents has breathed more life into the community. There is more going on than when we first arrived. The issues that have faced the village have brought people together and encouraged a good community spirit.

From another admirer of Nordelph.

With 170 households, there must be something like 375 (!) individual stories of how we came to Nordelph. We’ll be featuring more of them in later updates to the website.

BACK TO LIVING IN NORDELPH MASTER PAGE >>