Report - Medlers Scrap Yard, Hevingham, Norfolk - October 2017

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Medlers Scrap Yard

This site is well past its prime but there are still quite a few interesting vehicles yet to have rusted away completely. Also made more entertaining going around with a car enthusiast naming cars based on a single body panel.

History

The history on this site seems to be pretty much non-existent, but from what others have wrote it seems that Lenny Medler owned the site and ran a scrapping company there. Apparently he died on March 2nd 1989 and left the site to his wife Betty Medler. Since doing so, the site fell into disrepair and nature has finished it off. This story doesn't seem to have any genuine source other than all of the other blogs which repeat the same stuff, however i did manage to find a couple obituaries and death records that suggest Lenny and Betty mentioned in the story above were born 1906 and 1926 respectively, making them close in age and the story at least plausible.

The friend I visited with was also telling me about a story in which their sons (Bo-Bo & Duke) were playing on the scrap yard when one of them (Duke) went missing, they boys body was later found a week or so later. Supposedly this why the scrap yard closed and is also rumoured that a wall cars was used to keep people out to avoid anything like it happening again. The remains of the wall of cars can been seen in certain parts of the site, however it may well be irrelevant of the boys death and just there to keep people out. While there is no solid evidence of the story about there son, the couple mentioned above did have a son that died; In Betty Medlers obituary, it states that she was a Precious mum of Hazel, Jenny, Patsy, Popsy, Bo-bo and Duke (deceased). This ties in with a death record for Gary Duke Medler who was 15 when he died in 1977, this would make Betty 36 when she gave birth; This is further substantiated by the fact at all three Lenny, Betty and Duke were all buried at the same cemetery in Havingham. Of course this is all speculation but the story seems plausible at very least and adds a bit of mystery to the site.

References:
Blog post with history
Blog post with history
Betty Medler Obituary
Lenny Medler Obituary (1/2)
Lenny Medler Obituary (2/2)
Death record for Betty Medler (Added a year after the obituary linked above)
Death record for Lenny Medler (Matching the date of the obituary linked above)

Photos

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Thanks For Reading
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[HughieD]

Wow...really like this - serious rusting old car urbex report. Fab.

 

[mookster]

I love this place, it's always good for a relaxed wander when in Norfolk. I was lucky enough to bump into one of the Medler's descendants when I was there the first time, real nice guy who didn't mind us having a poke around.

The scrapyard was at one point one of the biggest and most well-known in the entire country, legendary for some of the stuff they had here. It was mostly cleared out in the late 1990s when the price of scrap rocketed. They got rid of nearly everything, what remains is all they left behind presumably when the price of scrap began to fall once more. A well-known family of banger and stock car racers who are local to the yard, the Girlings, helped clear it and managed to stop some of the rarest/most unusual/oldest stuff going to the bailer, instead cars dragged out from the scrapyard were gradually raced as bangers over the next couple of decades - I was lucky enough to see one that came from here raced a few years back if the story attached to it is true.

 

[Exxperious]

I love this place, it's always good for a relaxed wander when in Norfolk. I was lucky enough to bump into one of the Medler's descendants when I was there the first time, real nice guy who didn't mind us having a poke around.

The scrapyard was at one point one of the biggest and most well-known in the entire country, legendary for some of the stuff they had here. It was mostly cleared out in the late 1990s when the price of scrap rocketed. They got rid of nearly everything, what remains is all they left behind presumably when the price of scrap began to fall once more. A well-known family of banger and stock car racers who are local to the yard, the Girlings, helped clear it and managed to stop some of the rarest/most unusual/oldest stuff going to the bailer, instead cars dragged out from the scrapyard were gradually raced as bangers over the next couple of decades - I was lucky enough to see one that came from here raced a few years back if the story attached to it is true.

Not surprised it was well know, seen figured thrown around from 3000-4000 cars at some point in time. Cool that some of car were saved/raced, be a shame if everything just go crushed