The Coal Yard
The Coal Yard is on the left of this aerial photo. Note the double-decker bus. The old red phone box is just visible.
The Coal Yard (or “the Dump”), situated between the Post Office and telephone box on the Burnham Road, was set up by Russell Brown some time between 1925 and 1929. (It is mentioned in Kelly’s Directory of 1929 for the first time).
Russell Brown bought the field when Stanhoe Hall Estate sold much of their land. He first built the tin clad building at the front and later added the concrete compounds at the back.
Michael Ayres took over the business in 1953 and used the site until he built the yard next to his new bungalow (on the Bircham Road near the Bircham crossroads), in about 1963 when the railway closed down and coal no longer came by train. When coal had to be collected by road he needed a larger storage area and a more accessible site.
Tom Ransom used the buildings as a workshop for his agricultural engineering business from 1964–1967.
Cyril Brown built the bungalow called Marches Close (named after the old name of the field) in 1980, on the site of the old coal shed, which was then demolished.