A letter from Les to the Editor

Les is a bit taken aback by the latest minutes from Wereham Parish Council which bemoans the loss of almost every service and facility available to their residents!

Dear Editor,

I wonder if you would allow me to use my somewhat bizarre imagination. If you would, then as a result I find myself no longer being a 78 year old man living in Methwold but an 18 year old man living in Wereham. The reason for this is I have just read the comments made by Roger Lankfer Chairman of Wereham Parish Council.

Mr. Lankfer tells us he is rather sad because here at Wereham we could be losing our telephone box. Well that shouldn't be a problem for me, an 18 year old, as I have a mobile phone; in fact I've got two, that's why we could be losing our phone box. Most people are like me they have no need to use it, unlike my Father. In his day he didn't have a mobile phone, but then he hardly had anything else, such was the world that he lived in, those days of yesteryear.

Mr. Lankfer also tells us the Post Office and Shop is closed. Well no problem for me! Unlike my Father in his day he hadn't got two pennies to rub together. I'm rather well paid in my job, I can afford a car, so I frequently travel to Tesco's where I seem to come across a lot of Wereham folk, who I assume get there by car as I do.

Continuing, Mr. Lankfer tells us the George and Dragon Pub is for sale. So are many Pubs up and down the Country because life has changed. My dear old Father went to the village pub, and so do I, but the difference between him and me is I've got a car, I can go where I wish, doing what I wish. Father in his day played football for Wereham today there isn't a football club in Wereham but so what, I play football for Downham Town and how do I get there? You have it in one, by car, I'm not stuck in Wereham like poor old Father was.

My Father married a Wereham Lady, my girl friend lives in Kings Lynn, I'll leave you to guess how I travel there to see her. It's a good job Father didn't do his courting in Kings Lynn, he would have had to walk there.

Let's assume I've got all of this just about right. I'm not bothered about where that leaves me but I am concerned about the future of my village of Wereham, or if you wish, Methwold, Stoke Ferry, any village you care to name. Is my concern justified? Are our villages becoming nothing more than Dormitories? Places that have had the very heart ripped out of them, well hopefully Mr. Editor, some of your readers can tell me.

In a previous life a resident of Methwold but now is living in Wereham, even if he doesn't know why.

Les Lawrence