The final preparations are being made for Aylsham’s Christmas lights switch-on, which takes place on Friday, November 24.  

There will be craft stalls, hot drinks and mulled wine in the Town Hall, food vendors in the Market Place and further stalls down Red Lion Street. The stalls will open at 5pm, with the lights being switched on at 6pm. 

Many of the local shops will be staying open late so people can mix the festive atmosphere with some Christmas shopping. 

Music will be provided for the event by Aylsham High School students from their production of Oliver, the Vocalights Choir and Bill Downs. 

Santa’s grotto will be open from 5pm in its new location, the Green Room at the Town Hall, which is accessible from The Loke. Cash and card payments can be taken on the night. 

The popular Letter to Santa postbox will also be open on the night and will stay open until December 12. Details of what to include in your letter can be found on the town council website: aylsham-tc.gov.uk/events/letter-to-santa  

Donna Butcher, Events and Administration Officer at Aylsham Town Council, said: “I can’t quite believe that we’re at this time of year again already.  

“The past year has been difficult in different ways for many people, I hope that on this evening we can bring some Christmas cheer to the town and people will have fun and enjoy themselves.” 

The lights were put up by the Aylsham Christmas Lights Committee with the help of a band of volunteers.

Road closures will be in place from the following times to make it a safe event. Market Place will close at 2pm, Red Lion Street at 2.30pm and Bank Street/Penfold Street at 4pm.  

Bank Street/Penfold Street will reopen at 9pm and all the roads will be open again by 10pm. 

Volunteers are needed to help put up the Christmas lights across Aylsham town centre.

Anyone able to help is asked to meet outside Aylsham Town Hall at 8am on Sunday, November 5.
The lights will then be switched on at a special festive event from 6pm on Friday, November 24.
Smudge Smith, chairman of the Aylsham Christmas Lights Committee, said: “It’s a huge community event. If we get enough volunteers, it will all be done in a couple of hours.”

Volunteers will be provided with refreshments and they will be asked for their help again on Sunday, January 7, to take the lights down. Helpers will again be asked to meet at 8am at the town hall.
A number of events are held throughout the year to raise funds for Aylsham’s Christmas lights. If you would like to make a donation or help raise funds, please call Smudge Smith on 07798 611233.

Members of the public are being invited to a meeting of Aylsham Town Council to discuss a plan for nearly 250 new homes in the town.
Hopkins Homes Ltd has submitted a planning application to Broadland District Council to build 242 homes on land off Burgh Road. There is also an outline planning application for land for a new primary school.

A spokesperson for Aylsham Town Council said the authority had received notice of the planning application.
“The Town Council will be holding a meeting to discuss this application and agree their response on Tuesday November 14at 6pm in the Town Hall. Members of the public are invited to give their views on the application.”
The planning application is for a site covering nearly 32 acres of land to the south of Burgh Road. It is currently primarily used as farmland and for car boot sales.
The application also includes proposals for garages, parking, vehicle access onto Burgh Road, open spaces, landscaping, drainage and other associated infrastructure.
It is proposed that 33 per cent of the homes will be classed as “affordable”.
A statement from Hopkins Homes says: “The proposed development seeks to deliver a high-quality designed development, informed by a landscape-led approach to achieve an attractive, inclusive and biodiverse realm.”
The statement adds that the development would provide “a safe and inclusive outdoor environment for all ages”.
The planning application will be considered by Broadland District Council at a future dates.
The full documents are available on Broadland District Council website’s planning section with the with the reference number 2023/3003.

A landscape gardener, who stepped in at the 11^th hour to tackle a design at the prestigious Sandringham Flower Show, is celebrating returning home with a wheelbarrow full of top trophies.

Aylsham man Kevin Myhill, 65, from Hungate Street, designed a small garden in just seven weeks – a fraction of the time it would normally take.
But it didn’t stop him winning four top awards; a large gold medal, best small garden title, best in show – all judged by experts Chris Beardshaw and Alan Mason – as well as winning the people’s choice prize.

“You are usually planning a garden design a year in advance, but I got a last-minute call to step in because a designer pulled out through ill health,” he explained.
“I was hopeful of winning but didn’t think I’d do that well. The people’s choice award was the most pleasing, because that’s who I’m designing for. It was great to see crowds lined five deep wanting to look at my garden.”
Kevin’s design was geared to the kind of small gardens found on modern day housing developments. “I wanted to show you can have a very pretty garden in a small space that is also useful, relaxing and wildlife-friendly. It featured seating, a pergola, small water feature hedgehog boxes, a bird table and bee and butterfly-friendly plants – all in an area smaller than 4m by 5m,” he said.
Kevin was helped with plant selection by Teresa Rogers and Jo Contreras from Woodgate Nursery, who provided them for free. He had four days to build it, which he did solo, and did it with a day to spare.
The garden also raised £120 in public donations for his chosen charity, Aylsham Hedgehog Rescue. Kevin, who began as a builder before switching to landscape garden around 30 years ago, is now back to his day job of making benches, patios and pergolas for people’s gardens.

Firefighter Chris Baker knows that defibrillators can save lives – because he’s used them.

And now he has plugged the gaps in the network of vital machines located across Aylsham.

In recent months he has added eight new defibrillators to the previous three, which he reckons have saved at least five lives.

He has more in the pipeline and is then switching his focus to surrounding villages, plus all the fire stations in Norfolk.

Chris’s crusade was sparked last October while taking part in a park run at Blickling Hall, where a man collapsed and needed life-saving help.

“The run was stopped so I went to the scene and helped with CPR and brought him round using a defib – then began thinking about where they were located in town,” he explained.

“There were only three – at the Town Hall, fire station and the Recreation Ground – so I looked at sites where we needed more.”

Three were donated by the Norfolk based Heart2Heart charity, but the rest were provided by businesses and building owners. There are now units at the high school, Budgens, Blickling Hall café, ACT Centre, Aylsham Garden Centre on Norwich Road, Friendship Hall on Mill Road and Broadland Autocare on Cromer Road, as well as both ends of the industrial estate.

While the main costs have been covered by commercial sponsors, Chris also raises funds to help pay for consumables such as pads and batteries. He checks all the units every week.

“I get email alerts each time one is used, and they have all been used a couple of times. If they save one life it is worth it, but they have probably saved five since November,” said Chris, from Holman Road.

He is a fire and survival instructor at Petans on Norwich airport, as well as a full-time firefighter based at Great Yarmouth and on-call fireman at Aylsham, where he is also manager of the town’s U-16s football team, and welfare officer at the Aylsham Runners Club.

“I have been a fireman for 14 years and get a lot of satisfaction from saving lives,” added Chris. People can donate towards Chris’s campaign by emailing him at chrisbaker999@hotmail.co.uk