Images of rural Norfolk

The Norfolk Rural Community Council recently held a photography competition with the aim of finding images that summed up the strengths and challenges faced by rural communities. I was pleasantly surprised to win second prize with a shot of the Community Playbus (the picture is in my previous post). The Omnibus project, based in North Walsham, uses the bus to deliver information technology and play facilities to outlying rural areas. We came upon the bus purely by chance while travelling along a country lane somewhere in North Norfolk looking for other subjects entirely - and realised it would make an interesting statement for the 'services, access: are you being served' theme (one of six possibilities). Its appearance in the very rural setting and the fact that it represents a project clearly delivering service to rural areas obviously appealed.The one below was taken on my mobile phone at the Council's AGM and shows part of an exhibition stand with a range of selected other entries - the winners were announced as the last item at the meeting.

Pictures to order

I've just sent in my entry for a photography competition organised by Norfolk's Rural Community Council - there were several themes and the idea was to submit photographs that would illustrate some of the aspects of rural life....more geared to problems than to advantages, I think. Anyway, it proved harder than I had thought to find some suitable images for the various categories. In my mind's eye I knew what I wanted. In practice things didn't really go to plan. The countryside often looked far to picturesque: what I sought was the gritty reality of run-down shops and isolated people. I was looking for country shops to photograph but there weren't that many, and there weren't usually shoppers around. As a last ditch effort I decided to go up to the north Norfolk coast last Sunday to look at a group of houses near the cliff edge between Sheringham and Weybourne, that I thought would suit the isolation theme....and was rewarded with a dramatic overcast sky and a few good shots to choose from! The one I chose can be seen here.....


Here are some of the images I entered and a description of the category they relate to
Healthy environment, healthy community: (Winterton on Sea, Norfolk)

Services, access - are you being served? (Community Playbus, a project supporting families and groups by offering I.T. ande play facilities in rural locations, taken in north Norfolk)

Rural isolation - idyllic or isolated? (between Sheringham and Weybourne, Norfolk coast) ; the houses are at the end of a rough track from Weybourne village.