ABOUT US
The Marham Poors Allotment is a registered charity set up to support the people of Marham. It appears to have been in existence in one way or another for at least the last 170 years but was set up in it's present form in September 1964.
The romantic story told of its formation concerns a noble lady, perhaps the squire's wife, who was riding through the village in her carriage on a cold, damp winters day. She noticed that many of the cottages had no smoke rising from their chimneys and on arriving home discussed this with her husband. On realising that it was possible that the poorer members of the community could not afford to buy logs to light fires, she persuaded her husband to give up some of his land which could then be rented out and the proceeds distributed amongst the poor and needy of the village.
In reality, it is more likely that at the time of land enclosure in the 18th century, areas of marginal land such as bog and fen were not considered as being good enough to farm and were set aside to provide resources for the poor of the parish. Marham Fen and one or two other smaller parcels of land fell into this category and are now owned and managed by the charity known as Marham Poors Allotment.
Marham Poors Allotment is administered by a group of nine trustees who have responsibility to administer the charity within certain conditions. They have leased the large portion of the land to Anglian Water who have sunk boreholes to extract drinking water to serve the people of King's Lynn and the surrounding areas. The rent paid by Anglian water is used to fufil the objective of the charity which is to help anyone within the parish of Marham who 'Find themselves in distress and unable to recieve help from social services etc.' All requests for support are vetted by the trustees and if found to be valid and within the remit of the charity, help will be given.
In 1842, £200 was given out under the terms of the charity to provide fuel for the poor of the parish, a sum that would equate to a little over £25,000 today. The trustees still give an annual fuel payment today in the form of oil, coal and gas vouchers, but they also give vouchers for food in the form of Sainsbury's vouchers. These vouchers are available to anyone who receives the government pension or is of government pensionable age and has lived in Marham for at least 3 years. We also issue the vouchers to widows and widowers. In addition, they have set aside land to provide allotments for the village and supported the parish council financially in setting them up. A number of smaller grants have also been made to support individuals in a variety of ways.
