Edgar Wymer of Hevingham

The Hevingham village sign, showing two crossed brooms introduces us to a village where making birch brooms was the traditional craft.

Edgar Wymer was the last person in Hevingham to make birch brooms. With a lively Norfolk accent, he reminisces as he demonstrates the method of splitting a birch for binding before he gathers a handful of birch twigs and tightly binds them with the strip of bark. He trims the tops to length and finally inserts a slender branch into the bundle of twigs as a handle - this makes the tied bundle even tighter, and adds strength to the broom.

Hevingham is a large village in Norfolk, located seven miles north of the city of Norwich, off the A140 to Aylsham. Archeological research has indicated the area has been inhabited since neolithic times, and the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Today, the village offers two pubs - The Marsham Arms and The Fox - as well as a village hall and a caravan and camping park. Nearby, Buxton Heath is a ‘site of special scientific interest’, and boasts a World War 2 pill-box in the south-west corner.