A New Life in the Country

A New Life in the Country

London Overspill is the term used to describe the communities that were created as a result of the 1930s London County Council policy to re-locate the overcrowded Londoners to new council houses and new towns outside London.

Flats Busy Street

The policy started in earnest after the Second World War when the government realised the acute housing shortage was a direct result of the devastation the Blitz had caused to the population living in London. The idea was to move people away from the capital out to the less densely populated areas of East Anglia. Sudbury, Great Cornard and Long Melford were designated areas to receive these people.

Now over 50 years later we have grown together as a community but like all events which happen in our own life time it is an important aspect of Sudbury’s growth which will soon be forgotten. SEA (Sudbury Ephemera Archive) would like to record memories from families who moved here as well as the old Sudburians who faced the changes which took place half a century ago. Not everyone welcomed the new comers, and many of them faced a completely different way of life in the country.

We know the schools had to be re-developed to cope with more pupils, but shops, amenities and all other aspects of life were to evolve with the amalgamating of a rural and urban population.

If you think you can contribute to this by giving us copies of articles, tickets etc which brought you here or are you prepared to make an oral recording of your experience and memories then please contact us, or come and meet us at our stand at one of the Events listed on this web site where we will be this summer.

We look forward to hearing from you and collecting more ephemera.

 

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