50 years ago on 1st July 1975 Essex County Council’s chairman Geoffrey Waterer ceremonially ‘cut the first turf’ (driving a JCB – see image) at the formal commencement of the South Woodham Ferrers new town project that would see a quadrupling of the population in the area over the following twenty years or so.
The South Woodham Ferrers Local History Society thought this was a milestone worth acknowledging, a thought probably not totally unrelated to the fact that its current chairman worked in the Essex County Council planning team responsible for the new town project from 1972 onwards.
To mark the anniversary of this the society is mounting an exhibition ‘South Woodham Ferrers New Town – The Promised Land?’ from Saturday 21 June to Saturday 5 July during normal library opening hours (i.e. not on Mondays nor Wednesday afternoons) that looks back over those 50 years to see what has been achieved here. The exhibition will include a large scale model of the town used for Essex CC publicity purposes and will display images of what South Woodham Ferrers was like 50 years ago before new town building work began. There may be some who might think they’d like go back to the 70s…
This year’s WoodhamFest has adopted a ‘70s theme to tie in with this anniversary and is being held on the weekend closest to 1st July, on 27th – 29th June. This will include an illustrated talk by the Local History Society’s chairman John Frankland at 2 pm in the library on Saturday 28th June. It is also hoped that the afternoon can also include a showing of the 1983 Open University film about South Woodham Ferrers – ‘Community by Design’ – but this proposal has not yet received OU’s blessing despite weeks of trying..! There is no charge for admission to this 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm event.
If you require any further information, please contact the Local History Society’s chairman John Frankland 01245 321518 or its secretary Roy Bradnam 01245 328714
