The population

The picture painted today, from the information gathered from the village survey, is a far cry from the first Domesday reference described in an earlier chapter. The village of Little Thurlow now has 210 inhabitants and the profile of their ages show that currently over 50% of the population is over forty years of age, and only 6% are in the age bracket 20-30 years. This means that the population has a far higher number of people who are either retired or approaching retirement age than one would ordinarily expect in a national survey. This is a reflection of both the diminishing numbers of job opportunities for younger people locally, particularly on the Estate itself, and the high cost of housing in the village. A public meeting held some years ago to establish the potential interest amongst the younger generation in affordable housing supplied by joint initiative with a Housing Association was extremely well attended. Many young families would like to live here but they cannot afford it. The small numbers of Little Thurlow children in the village school is also an indication of the imbalance in the age of the population. The village is, however, very stable with 60% of the current villagers having lived here for more than ten years. Over half the villagers live in their homes either on their own, or with one other person. The days of multiple occupation of the houses are long gone.

• Positive and negative reasons for living in Thurlow
• Shopping habits
• Employment
• The School
• Leisure pursuits
• Village activities