Downham Market Photo Gallery

The Town Clock, costing £450, was presented to the Town in 1878 by James Scott, who was a grocer and draper in the Town and which has become THE landmark of  Downham Market. 

Scott's initials appear in the weather vane at the very top of the Clock. 

The main construction is of iron with decorated tracery, having a square gabled clock case with four dials. 

This clock case was renewed in 1985 at which time the whole structure was blast-cleaned and repainted. Further restoration work was made in mid 2004.

The Town sign at the junction of London Road, Howdale Road and Priory Road.

Saint Edmunds Church : the first known church on this site was built in Norman  times, but rebuilt in the 13th century in Early English style. 

Carrstone was used in the building, although some harder stone, probably from quarries near Stamford, was used for the quoins and buttresses, but the lead spire is a later addition.

The top of the tower was repaired in brick during the 17th century, the roof of the nave has alternate tie-beams and the chancel was extensively rebuilt during the 19th century.

Stand in front of the Church and on a clear day one can see for miles across the open Fens beyond the Town. 

The Church stands on the Carrstone edge which forms the hill giving Downham its name - it means "the settlement on the hill". It became a market town in Saxon times ( circa 950 - 1000AD) and is one of Norfolk's oldest market towns.

Downham Market Town Council offices in Paradise Road, converted from former car sales premises. These premises also house the local Registrar of Births Marriages and Deaths.

The regular open air market used to be held on what was then called "The Market Place" by the Town Clock on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year.

 Since mid 2003 it has now been moved to its new enlarged location on the other side of the Town Hall, and the original location has now been renamed "Town Square".

 Downham Market Town Hall,  on the western side of the Town Square.

The foundation stone was laid on October 20th 1887 by Mr. W.A.T. Amherst, MP , and the construction was of "white" brick, almost certainly from a local brickyard near the railway, together with local carrstone.

The balcony was added in 1897 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria at a cost of £200.

Further alterations took place in 1936/7, and in 1973/4 it was completely modernised and extended.

The enlargements and improvements made to the buildings in this later work cost £84,000

Looking south along the new Relief Channel , completed in 1964  towards Denver Sluice. The first sluice there was constructed by the great Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in 1651 as a part of the great drainage of the Fens engineering works taking place at that time. Far from being seen as progress by all concerned, a large number of the locals  saw this as a threat to their livelihood of fishing, eeling and wildfowling, and this led to opposition in the form of sabotage, although not to such a great degree as would cause Oliver Cromwell himself to intervene. 

The original sluice at Denver was rendered useless by the forces of nature in 1713 and rebuilding had to take place, until finally on August 31st 1833 the embankments to the west side of the river collapsed under the pressure of flood water, the fields being covered with stagnant water for months. 

In the following year Sir John Rennie undertook reconstruction of the sluice at Denver, creating what is in the main to be seen today. Since 1968 water from the Denver complex has been diverted southwards in order to supply the increasing needs for water in Essex.

The Relief Channel flows northwards past the villages of Stowbridge, Runcton Holme and Watlington, before finally rejoining the River Great Ouse just south of 

King's Lynn.

During the 1830's regular travel by horse drawn coach was a well organized part of Downham Market's life, going to places such as Wells, King's Lynn, Ely, Cambridge, March, Chatteris, Norwich, Wisbech and of course to London. However by 1845 coaches heading south were only going as far as Cambridge, specifically to "meet the trains" as the railways had started to spread out across the country. The local station booking office was to start with situated in The Swan, until the construction of the present buildings in the mid 19th century. 

By 1854 there were three passenger trains a day to King's Lynn and Ely, except on Sundays when it was reduced to only one. The present line is operated by West Anglia Great Northern line and was electrified in the early 1990's, now providing a frequent and fast direct service to London King's Cross via Ely and Cambridge.