Patriotic Wymondham folk turned out in force on Monday 6th May 1935 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George the Fifth and Queen Mary.

In the picture people are seen dispersing from a United Service for all denominations, which had been held on the Fairland at 10 a.m. just after Edwin Gooch, Chairman of the Urban District Council and a famous son of the town, had laid a wreath at the War Memorial with British Legion members in attendance.

Among a full day of activities on the King’s Head Meadow were children’s sports with maypole and country dancing going on at the same time, watched by Russell Colman, the Lord Lieutenant of the County. Afterwards the children were assembled in the middle of the meadow to sing the National Anthem, following which they were served tea in the Fairland Hall or the old Women’s Institute Hall on Norwich Road. In the early evening there were fancy dress competitions, as well as those for decorated cycles, prams and bath chairs! Later in the evening on the meadow there was community singing accompanied by the British Legion Band, the day concluding with signal rockets and the lighting of a bonfire and beacons.

Children were presented with commemorative mugs, while old people, out-relief workers and the unemployed were given cash hand-outs. The funding for these largely came from house-to-house collections.

At the time Wymondham had not only the Jubilee to celebrate, but also its elevation to an Urban District the month before, a status it sadly lost in the reorganisation of local government in 1974 – but that’s another story!