page_title: Dereham
section_title: Industry and employment
hierarchical_section_title: Dereham / Industry and employment
caption_attribution_description: The Mid Norfolk railway, Dereham yard
context_page_description: Dereham, also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parish in the Breckland District of the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about 15 miles west of the city of Norwich and 25 miles east of King's Lynn.
  The civil parish has an area of 21.51 km² and, in the 2001 census, had a population of 15,659 in 6,941 households; the population at the 2011 census increased to 18,609. Dereham falls within, and is the centre of administration for, Breckland District Council. The town should not be confused with the Norfolk village of West Dereham, which lies about 25 miles away.
  Since 1983, Dereham has been twinned with the town of Rüthen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is also twinned with Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf, France.
  In spite of the reunification of Germany in 1990, the sign on the A47 at the entrance to Dereham from the Swaffham direction still refers to Rüthen being in West Germany; this sparks periodic comment in the local press.
context_section_description: Dereham was the home to the "Jentique" furniture factory which made boxes for both instruments and bombs during the Second World War. The town was also the home to the Metamec clock factory.
  Hobbies of Dereham produced plans, kits and tools—including their famous treadle fretwork saws—for making wooden models and toys, which were popular in the days before moulded plastic. At one point Hobbies owned 10 shops in prestige locations all over the UK. In the early 1960s the firm was taken over by Great Universal Stores, who sold the shops and closed the business. However, due to a shrewd management purchase of the "old traditional" parts of the firm, Hobbies rose again, limiting itself to the role of specialist model-makers shop. After nearly 40 years of its new lease of life, Hobbies moved out of Dereham to new premises in Raveningham, Norfolk, where it still trades today.
  Cranes of Dereham, and its successor the Fruehauf trailer company, was a major employer in the town for many decades. Cranes built nearly all the giant trailers (100 tons plus) that carried equipment such as transformers at slow speeds across the UK, usually in the livery of Wynns or Pickfords. The launch of a new trailer was treated rather like that of a ship with lots of people coming out to see the leviathan move through the narrow streets of the town towards the A47. The town also had several large maltings. Almost all this large scale industry has drifted away since the 1980s.
  In March 2015 Crisp Maltings announced that they intended to restore the maltings complex beside the station to operational condition, producing malt for craft beer, as part of a planning application for a major housing development.  The restoration was expected to cost £1 million.  In 2017 the plan to restore the Maltings was dropped, although the housing development was allowed to continue. As of 2020 the Maltings buildings have been made weathertight but they remain empty.
caption: The maltings complex beside the railway, closed in 2000.
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