The Old Main Road
The old main road through Scarning has seen many changes over the years, and many different names. It has been a main route through central Norfolk for hundreds of years, once being called the Turnpike Road. In more recent years it was the A47 before Dereham and Scarning were bypassed in 1977. Then, f-for a few years, it was classified as a C road – the C470. A spate of accidents, due to the road not being gritted in icy weather, caused the road to be upgraded. It is the B1146 from Dereham, and along Draytonhall Lane to the A47. The remainder of the road westwards towards Wendling is “Dereham Road”, though many people still refer to the Old A47. Regardless of its name, the entire length of the road gets gritted fortunately though in icy weather.
During the late 1950s the A47 beside the church was deemed to be too narrow, so in 1957 the road was widened and straightened slightly. This involved rebuilding the retaining wall around the graveyard, but that also involved exhuming some of the graves to new locations in the churchyard. Imagine the uproar if such a scheme was suggested today, merely to widen a road!
The four photos below were taken by Eric Wright, showing the wall before and after the alterations in 1957, and are included by the kind permission of Ben Hewson, Eric’s grandson.