We moved to Suffolk in January 1991. We had always wanted to get away from town life in London and live in the countryside. When a new job opportunity near Norwich arose for Sam, we made the move to a village near Bury St. Edmunds. We loved being surrounded by arable fields, and our boys were always excited to watch the combine harvesters and tractors at work.
Nearly 30 years on from that happy day, there’s an unwelcome change I see every day as I drive the 12 miles home from work. To get home I usually take the scenic back route from Bury town centre past fields of crops, and have always taken delight in the changing seasons while watching the fields being ploughed and drilled, and then the crops being harvested. I know the change had to happen, but it’s happening too fast…
Hundreds of houses are going up like there’s no tomorrow. Great swathes of fields are being sold off to developers, who are building what I can only call ‘Lego’ houses. These houses are slowly causing the boundaries of Bury St. Edmunds to move rapidly outwards. As farmers in other villages near to Bury sell off their land as well, it looks to me as though soon there will be no boundaries at all and Bury St. Edmunds will meet up with the Lego houses being built in all the surrounding areas.
We’ve had many lovely years of rural living here, but now there are plans for another 60 houses in our village, on top of the other new housing that has already been built. Residents have no say in the matter. There is of course the usual ‘meeting’ in the village hall with developers and council officials, but hey, the ink has already dried on the contracts.
Nowhere is safe from developers. Farmers sell off their land as I expect it is now unprofitable to keep it going. Developers snatch it up and turn it into a construction site. Do they worry about whether the infrastructure can cope with the influx of so many new inhabitants? No … they’re too busy counting the profits.
Our village school is full. There is one shop, and only a couple of buses per day that go to Bury St. Edmunds. Each property will eventually have one or two cars on the road, and sometimes it’s quite dangerous walking along the country lanes now.
It ain’t good. The Isle of Wight beckons, but I expect they’re building hundreds of Lego houses over there as well…
Stevie Turner 
So sad!
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Yes.
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Nothing stands still. Unfortunately. What we knew, what we experienced, where we did it. Wheat and cattle have given way to square mile after square mile of 3500 sq foot McMansions on postage stamp lots, outdoor kitchens and not enough grass for a chihuahua to pee and keep their feet dry. Estates where you can hear your neighbor’s TV. Crazy. Gas stations and franchise food…Even for Texas I had to get out google earth to find places isolated enough for what I needed in my latest. Like what used to be the boondocks is now a suburb of what used to be a small town…but then, we’re showing our age, right? Damn kids these days…
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Yeah, us Boomers don’t like too much change, do we?
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You aren’t alone. I’m suffocating in my city. Landmark plazas and whatever they can get their grubs on being bought up and built up. Our traffic already can’t take anymore cars and condo skyscrapers are being squeezed in instead. 😦
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It seems that wherever there’s a spare bit of land, the developers manage to get their grubby paws on it.
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Anywhere and everywhere. 😦 Preservation is a thing of the past 😦 x
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Sadly, the Lego houses are springing up here in Canada, as well. I often wonder how the people who bought country homes years ago are coping with the ever-encroaching urban sprawl. It must be a shock! Developers are all greedy bastards and don’t care about sustainability one bit.
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You’re so right. It’s awful isn’t it?
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It’s ‘quick fix’ thinking because the infrastructure isn’t there to support all these new people. It is happening at an alarming rate around Milton Keynes and the outlying villages (where the villagers are going nuts about it to no avail). I look at all the old buildings in the brown belt falling into decay, but it has to be about money because they cost so much to fix up so it’s easier to knock up the lego houses. Again, nuts!
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Absolutely. It’s all about profiteering.
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They say we must embrace progress, as the population is growing at an alarming rate and we all want somewhere to live. I cannot help feeling there should be more sensible planning involved, instead of this race to the bank!
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Money and profits will always win unfortunately. I dread to think what the UK will be like in 500 years’ time.
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I did not see this sort of construction during our recent tour of York and Scotland. Maybe those areas are too far away from major cities. It boils down to overpopulation really.
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Perhaps everyone’s flocking to East Anglia. Who knows? I fear the villages will all be part of Bury St. Edmunds in times to come, as they all start spreading out onto previous farmland. When there’s no arable fields left to plant crops and feed the people, what next?
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A very valid point, Stevie, and I doubt our governments have the answer. They don’t seem to look ahead beyond their terms in power.
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They’re all looking to advance their own careers and increase their bank accounts. They don’t really care about anything or anyone else.
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