2019 – 2023: St James Village Green
There is a piece of land to the west of St James Lane and south of the Village Hall and allotments which was owned by East Suffolk District Council (ESC) and its predecessors as part of their land stock. It was sometimes also referred to as Sheet Field. For many years it was used by villagers for dog walking and other recreational purposes – there are still older residents who fondly remember the frequent, enthusiastic football games played there.
Early in the new century the Council gave permission for us to use part of the field at the south end to plant a wood. You can read here about the project to create of Sheetfield Wood.
The care and maintenance of field were the responsibility of the Council, or their contractors. In more recent times this became irregular, the field and boundary hedges overgrown, occasionally used for fly-tipping, and it became unsuitable for recreation.
In November 2019 the Parish Meeting Chairman suggested to ESC that they give the field to St James. This would save them the cost of maintaining it (usually done by us anyway) and enable us to look after and improve it for the benefit of the village.
After investigation, their reaction was positive and in August 2020 ESC made an offer to transfer the freehold to St James at no charge, subject to their Cabinet’s approval and agreeing contract terms. In November they voted to approve this offer and in December work on the contract to transfer the land to St James began. In June 2021 our Parish Meeting AGM agreed that the field would be a significant new asset for the village and voted unanimously to proceed with transferring ownership when terms were agreed, the field would be known as The St James Village Green.
The COVID epidemic slowed the process, and some unexpected legal issues had to be dealt with. One of these was the need for our Parish Meeting formally to acquire the power to own land, not usually in a parish meeting’s list of powers.
This was achieved in January 2023 when, under the Common Seal of East Suffolk Council, ESC conferred on St James South Elmham Parish Meeting “the function of a parish council [space for the seal doc, image?] to acquire and hold land for the purposes of general community use”.
Finally, on 18th December 2023 the legal transfer was completed and the land for the St James Village Green became “ours”. [The St James South Elmham Parish Meeting comprises all electors of the parish].
Meanwhile, we had begun work on the improvement and use of the Green, helped by a grant from The National Lottery Fund. This included removing the large mound of dangerous waste in the NW corner and re-seeding the area, adding new hedging and planting several crab-apple trees, chosen to match those along the front of the nearby Hall. We successfully bid for a Jubilee Oak from ESC which was planted in 2022 at the head of the Green, and we were given 500 daffodil bulbs by ESC and planted in various places around the north end.
The new Village Green played a part in our two recent major celebrations: for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022 and [bench picture?] the Coronation Celebration in the following year. A smart new bench commemorating both and its place on the Green has been addedA splendid oak sign, carved by Mark Goldsworthy, matching those at Sheetfield Wood and our Village Orchard, has also been installed.
[oak sign picture here ?]Our volunteer force has been fully engaged through all and continues to work on its care and development: our thanks to them all.
Our new Village Green is already becoming part of St James village life.