Wymondham Roadworks: A11 Reopens, No Trains 3 October

Wymondham’s road network is simple and therefore fragile. One dual carriageway, the A11, does almost all the work: north-east to Thickthorn and Norwich, south-west to Attleborough, Thetford, Newmarket and the M11. When the A11 stops, the alternatives are single-carriageway B-roads through villages, and everybody finds that out at the same time.

Wymondham roadworks change week to week, so this page is rechecked against the source records rather than left to age. It covers what is closed now, what is coming, and the parts that do not change: the car parks and their charges, the park and ride, and where to check before you set off. Last checked on 21 September 2026.

The A11 weekend closure is over

The A11 between Thickthorn junction and Wymondham was due to reopen at 6am on Monday 21 September, after closing in both directions at 8pm on Friday 18 September. National Highways lifted a bridge deck into place over the road, for the future Cantley Lane Link Road.

National Highways’ seven-day closure report for 18 to 24 September carries the closure with an end time of 06:00 on 21 September and lists no further closure of that stretch in the rest of the week. The scheme page has not been updated since 27 August, so there is no first-party account yet of how the lift went or what comes next.

The temporary 7.5-tonne weight limit on the B1172 Norwich Road between Hethersett and Thickthorn applied to that weekend only, and the four signed diversions that went out to Thetford and Newmarket have been lifted with it.

The wider A47 Thickthorn junction scheme runs on. It is costed at £216m to £239m and is due to complete in 2028/29, so expect more of these weekends.

The next one to diary: no trains on 3 and 4 October

All lines between Norwich and Ely close on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, which is the line through Wymondham, Attleborough and Thetford. This one is worth knowing about early, because it removes the direct train to Cambridge and Stansted Airport for a whole weekend.

• Greater Anglia: buses replace trains between Norwich and Ely. Trains keep running between Ely and Stansted Airport.
• East Midlands Railway: no trains between Norwich and Ely. Services are amended to run between Ely and Nottingham or Liverpool Lime Street, with replacement buses between Norwich and Peterborough that do not call at Ely.

If you have an early flight from Stansted on either of those days, a replacement bus to Ely and a train onwards is not the same journey time as the through service. Plan it as a longer trip.

Closed now and over the next fortnight

Norfolk County Council publishes its temporary traffic orders as statutory notices, and National Highways publishes a rolling seven-day list for the A11 and A47. Between them, this is what is on the books for the Wymondham and south Norfolk area.

Two words to watch in the council’s notices. An order made is a decision. An order proposed is an intention, and the work can move or be dropped.

Tonight, Monday 21 September, two A11 slip roads close south-west of the town. The southbound Attleborough exit slip goes from 8pm to 5am, and the southbound B1077 Besthorpe exit slip from 8pm to 6am. Both are exit slips, so the main carriageway stays open and you are carried on to the next junction.

The long one is Hethersett Lane at Colney. The order runs from 7 September to 24 December, with a clause allowing it to continue until 6 March 2028, and the diversion pushes traffic out to Watton Road and the A47. Anyone using that lane as a cut-through towards the hospital and the research park should expect to be sent round for months rather than weeks.

That is a short list, and the reason is publication timing rather than quiet roads. Norfolk County Council’s most recent batch of temporary traffic orders was published on 11 September. Nothing has appeared in the ten days since, checked across five postcodes in the district. Anything starting from about the end of September is therefore not yet on the public record. The seven-day closure report we used is the edition published on 18 September, covering to 24 September, and it had not been replaced when this page was checked this morning.

Speed limits and footpaths: the permanent changes

Temporary closures dominate this page, but three permanent orders in the district are worth knowing about.

• Long Stratton, Swan Lane and Brookes Way. Norfolk County Council made two orders on 1 September which came into effect on 7 September. A 20mph zone now runs along Swan Lane from The Street north-west to Brookes Way, and a 30mph limit covers Brookes Way and the realigned section of Swan Lane built for the bypass. The 2013 order for Swan Lane is revoked. The council also corrected a reference to “Brookes Lane” in its July notice to “Brookes Way”.
• Easton, Hall Road and Marlingford Road. The council proposes to extend the 30mph limit by 127 metres along Hall Road and 150 metres along Marlingford Road, ban motor vehicles from a 99-metre length of the old Marlingford Road alignment, and turn that length into a shared-use footway and cycle track up to 5.4 metres wide. Objections must be in writing, with grounds, by 6 October 2026, to the nplaw Traffic Regulation Order Team at County Hall or trafficorders@norfolk.gov.uk.
• Harleston, footpath FP36. The path from Spirketts Lane, closed since 6 April 2026 for housing development, was due to reopen on 5 October. The Secretary of State has approved an extension to 5 April 2030, so it will have been shut for four years.

One thing we still could not confirm today, and have not been able to confirm since early September. The council has published nothing about the result of the JCB patching trial it ran in the district. The statutory order names where it happened: Cherry Tree Road between the B1113 Turnpike and Long Lane, on the Carleton Rode and Banham boundary, from 1 to 4 September. The county’s own potholes page still does not mention the trial at all.

Parking in Wymondham

South Norfolk Council runs four car parks in the town, 249 spaces between them. Charges apply 08:00 to 18:00, Monday to Saturday, excluding bank holidays, and the first hour is free in all four. Rechecked on 20 August 2026 and unchanged.

The practical rule: if you are staying more than four hours, you must use Cemetery Lane or Town Green, because the two short-stay car parks enforce a four-hour maximum. Cemetery Lane also allows a stay of up to five days, and if you use its check-in check-out facility the machine reserves £20 on your card against a failure to check out.

There are on-street disabled bays at Fairland Hill and Market Place, and off-street accessible bays in all four car parks except Market Street, which has two off-street and two on-street single bays.

An annual permit for all the pay and display car parks in Diss, Wymondham and Loddon costs £380, and to qualify for a resident’s permit you must have no parking at your own address and live within 500 metres of the car park.

Parking tickets in South Norfolk are handled by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk on the district’s behalf, which catches people out.

Park and ride for Norwich

For anything in Norwich city centre, Thickthorn Park and Ride is the obvious answer from Wymondham: it sits at the far end of the A11, at the junction now being rebuilt.

• 726 spaces, including 21 disabled and 18 family bays. Parking is free; you pay only the bus fare.
• Service PR1, up to every 14 minutes, and as little as 17 minutes to Castle Meadow.
• First bus 05:57 on weekdays, 06:40 on Saturdays, 08:30 on Sundays and public holidays.
• Last PR1 back from Castle Meadow 20:14 on weekdays and Saturdays, 17:31 on Sundays and public holidays.
• After 18:00 your park and ride ticket is also valid on the Turquoise Line 13 and Green Line 14A, which stop outside the site and run until late. The last of those from Castle Meadow is 23:15. They do not call at Norwich bus station, so use St Stephens Street.
• Fares: adult day £3, young person aged 5 to 19 and concession £2, two people £4, and a group of up to five £5, all for unlimited journeys that day.

A group of five travelling in for the day pays £5 in total and parks for nothing. That compares well with over four hours in a Norwich city centre car park, and it is the single most useful travel fact in this district. The evening extension on the 13 and 14A is the second, because most people assume the site shuts at 20:14.

The routes that matter

• A11 north-east: Wymondham to Thickthorn and the A47, then Norwich. This is the road everything depends on, and the one being rebuilt at its far end until 2028/29.
• A11 south-west: Attleborough, Thetford, Newmarket and the M11 for Cambridge and London.
• B1172: the old Norwich road through Hethersett and Cringleford, and the road everyone reaches for when the A11 closes. It is single carriageway through villages and it does not have the capacity. The 7.5-tonne limit imposed for the September weekend has gone.
• B1135: east towards Bracon Ash and Mulbarton, or west towards Dereham. It crosses the A11 at the Tuttles interchange, on the north side of the town, and those slip roads are the ones that close for overnight work.
• A140: the Norwich to Ipswich road, reached across country, and the route to Long Stratton and Diss.

One piece of good news on that last route: the Long Stratton bypass opened to traffic on 11 August 2025, taking the A140 around the east side of the town for about 2.4 miles between the new Church Lane roundabout and Oakside farm. It is a Norfolk County Council scheme, built by Octavius, costed at £46.9m and funded 70% by the Department for Transport’s Major Road Network Fund and 30% locally, including £14.5m through the Greater Norwich Growth Board. The new 20mph and 30mph limits on Swan Lane are part of the same works.

What it means for you

• The A11 is back. The weekend closure ended at 6am on Monday 21 September and nothing on the public record replaces it this week.
• Book around Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October if you travel by train. There is no through service to Cambridge or Stansted Airport on either day, and the replacement bus adds time at both ends.
• Hethersett Lane stays shut. If it is part of your route to the hospital or the research park, the diversion runs until Christmas at the earliest.
• If you live in Easton, 6 October is your deadline to object to the proposed speed limit and cycle track changes.
• For a normal week in Norwich, the park and ride still beats parking in town, and your ticket lasts later in the evening than the PR1 timetable suggests.
• Check before you go. Almost every closure on this page carries a “may continue until” clause, and utility work regularly overruns.

For the rest of the practical information on this site, see our pages on Wymondham house prices, train times to London and planning applications.

Where to check before you travel

• one.network is the live roadworks map that Norfolk County Council and the utilities feed. Search on Wymondham and it will show current and planned street works, including the small ones this page will never list.
• National Highways live travel updates for the A11 and A47, which are trunk roads and therefore not the county council’s.
• The National Highways road closure report publishes a seven-day list of planned full closures as a spreadsheet, updated on working days. It is the source for the A11 overnight closures above.
• National Rail engineering works for the Norwich to Ely line, which is the Wymondham line.
• The A47 Thickthorn junction scheme page for the next set of closures when they are announced.
• Public Notice Portal carries Norfolk County Council’s statutory temporary traffic orders in full, road by road, with the exact extent, dates and signed diversion.

Frequently asked questions

Is the A11 open between Wymondham and Norwich?

Yes. The full closure between Thickthorn junction and Wymondham ran from 8pm on Friday 18 September to 6am on Monday 21 September, for a bridge lift on the A47 Thickthorn scheme. National Highways’ seven-day report for 18 to 24 September lists no further closure of that stretch.

Are there trains from Wymondham on 3 and 4 October?

No. All lines between Norwich and Ely are closed on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October. Greater Anglia will run buses between Norwich and Ely, with trains continuing from Ely to Stansted Airport. East Midlands Railway will run replacement buses between Norwich and Peterborough that do not call at Ely.

How long is Hethersett Lane at Colney closed?

The order runs from 7 September to 24 December 2026, for footway reconstruction, with a clause allowing it to continue until 6 March 2028. The diversion is via Watton Road, the A47, Norwich Road and Colney Lane.

Is parking free in Wymondham?

The first hour is free in all four council car parks, and after that you pay: £1 for two hours, £2 for three. Charges apply 08:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday only, so parking is free on Sundays, bank holidays and overnight.

Which Wymondham car park can I leave a car in all day?

Cemetery Lane (90 spaces) or Town Green (51 spaces), the two long-stay car parks, at £4 for over four hours. Market Street and Back Lane are short stay with a four-hour maximum.

How much is Thickthorn Park and Ride?

£3 for an adult day ticket, £2 for a young person or concession, £4 for two people and £5 for a group of up to five. Parking at the site is free. The PR1 runs up to every 14 minutes and takes about 17 minutes to Castle Meadow.

How long is the A47 Thickthorn scheme going to take?

Construction started in the third quarter of 2025/26 and is due to complete in 2028/29. It is costed at £216m to £239m.

Sources

• National Highways road closure report, seven-day closure spreadsheet, the edition published on 18 September 2026 covering 18 to 24 September, downloaded on 21 September, for the end time of the A11 Thickthorn to Wymondham closure and the two A11 southbound exit slip closures near Attleborough and Besthorpe on 21 September. The same file was still the current edition when rechecked this morning.
• National Highways, A47 Thickthorn junction near Norwich, update of 27 August 2026, for the closure dates and purpose, the side-road closures, the B1172 weight restriction and the scheme cost and timescale. Rechecked 21 September 2026: no update has been published since 27 August.
• National Rail, no trains between Norwich and Ely on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, for the dates, the operators affected and the replacement arrangements.
• Norfolk County Council temporary traffic regulation orders published on the Public Notice Portal on 11 September 2026, the multiple temporary traffic notices batch and the multiple traffic notices batch, for the Alburgh, Ditchingham and Great Ellingham closures and their revised dates, and the 4 September batch for the Hethersett Lane closure at Colney. No later Norfolk batch had been published when this page was checked on 21 September 2026, across five postcodes in the district.
• Norfolk County Council, Long Stratton, C345 Swan Lane and U71874 Brookes Way traffic orders, made 1 September 2026 and in effect from 7 September, for the 20mph zone, the 30mph limit and the revocation of the 2013 order.
• Norfolk County Council, Easton, Hall Road and Marlingford Road traffic regulation orders and notice, dated 11 September 2026, for the proposed 30mph extensions, the motor vehicle prohibition, the 5.4-metre shared-use cycle track and the 6 October objection deadline.
• Norfolk County Council notice NTRO14409, dated 11 September 2026, for the Secretary of State’s approval extending the Harleston FP36 closure to 5 April 2030.
• Broadland and South Norfolk car park listings for spaces, charges, restrictions and accessible bays at all four Wymondham car parks, rechecked 20 August 2026.
• South Norfolk car park permits for the £380 annual permit and the resident eligibility rule.
• First Bus, Thickthorn Park and Ride for spaces, fares, frequency, first and last buses and the evening validity on the 13 and 14A, rechecked 20 August 2026.
• Norfolk County Council, Long Stratton Bypass opens to traffic, published 11 August 2025, for the opening date and scheme details, and the council’s Long Stratton Bypass project page for the route, cost and funding split.
• Norfolk County Council potholes page, rechecked 21 September 2026, which still carries no mention of the JCB patching trial.

Roadworks change at short notice and closures are regularly cancelled or moved. Check one.network and National Highways on the day before you rely on any of this.