Downham Market and Villages

Market town and surrounding villages: pop. 10,000
Timeline: Started October ’08

Downham Market and Villages in Transition was the first place to host the Transition East Gathering (March 7 '09) in which many initiatives got to experience the Transition technologies of Open Space and World Café for the first time, as well as meet fellow Transitioners from outside their own core groups. TD have put on a series of films (Crude Awakening, Power of Community, The 11th hour) and threw a highly successful party in conjunction with a screening of The Age of Stupid (two core members are part of a great band, The John Preston Tribute Band) to which 150 people came. They have held stalls at various fetes, offering debates and information and collecting ideas.

In August the core group put aside one whole day to reflect, digest and reconnect, in which they engaged with what being in a Transition group entails without any business-of-the-day. This was a crucial step: “It’s quite hard for that space to exist,” said John one of the movers and shakers of the group. Carol expanded: “It became clear that we need to make time to meet together without goal-orienated agendas or our capacity to reflect on the deeper currents of our activity and motivation would be in danger of becoming swamped by the planning and administrative mind."

TD’s recent Our Food, Our Future conference on October 31 received funding (£2,500) from local councils and businesses which allowed them to invite Bob Flowerdew as one of their speakers, pay for half the public liability insurance, buy a projector and other events costs which can sometimes be beyond the scope of many initiatives. They plan to tour the food event in all the surrounding villages. They are presently running a Copenhagen month leading up to the Climate talks in December and actively engaged in the local campaign for allotment provision in the only town in Norfolk without any allotments.

Transition Norfolk meeting on "The Stoneleigh Effect" 2010, organised by Downham Market and Villages in Transition

Website: http://www.transitiondownhamandvillages.co.uk/
Contact Person:
Carol Hunter
Tel: (01366) 502 106
Email: carolhunter135@hotmail.com