Soham: 'We thought these things didn't happen in a market town like ours'

It's very middle-of-the-road, modest in its pretensions," one of the pillars of the Soham community said yesterday.

Until last Sunday, the Cambridgeshire market town was an unremarkable, slightly fading community bent on trying to revive its fortunes.

But on Monday, Soham was transformed as the beaming faces of the missing 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells began to appear on posters offering rewards in every shop window.

And the traditional community in the Cambridgeshire fens, which had been complaining about the closure of its police station since its last officer retired a couple of years ago, suddenly found itself invaded by police. Search teams clad in black could be seen on every corner.

With the police came the press. Satellite vans mushroomed in car parks and television cameras filled the high street. Helicopters drowned out the sounds of everyday life.

But what was missing was what shocked residents most. Suddenly the streets were deserted of youngsters.

Lesley Watchorn, a travel agent, said: "Normally there would be children all over the place during the school holidays, but there is not one child around this week. Any children you see are with their families and they are being held on to tightly by their parents."

John Powley, a local councillor, added: "My neighbours had two little boys and those boys are now locked into their garden and have not been allowed to go out. The atmosphere has become very protective. Parents are worried there could be somebody out there who has taken those two girls and they are very fearful."

On Monday, there was still optimism when 500 volunteers gathered to help search for the girls – clinging to their previously unshakeable belief that nothing too terrible could have happened in the town.

"Everyone thought, 'It's all right, we will find them' but we turned up absolutely nothing,'' said Mr Powley.

The next day they returned, determined to press on, only to be turned away. Detectives, realising the danger of obliterating vital evidence, had decided to call in specialist teams.

"The community spirit, which has always existed here, had actually come to the fore with these events," said Mr Powley, a county councillor and former MP for Norwich South. "People felt very frustrated that there was nothing they could do. There was a lot of sadness.

"A week ago, if you had said to people in Soham that this was going to happen they would have told you to take a running jump, these things don't happen in a nice market town like this,'' he added.

Frustration turned to pessimism as people slowly began to realise that the most realistic explanation was that the two girls had been abducted.

Jenny Webster, a hairdresser, said: "A lady came in here the other day and she was in tears. People are getting very choked up. Knowing the family as we do, we all want to do something,we feel helpless.''

Linda Yardy, one of her customers, said: "We are all living in fear of the worst.''

The mood of the adults of Soham has had an impact on their children. "There are even children asking, 'Where is Holly?' It has affected a lot of them. Sometimes when it is dark and raining they have asked where are they sleeping tonight," added Mrs Webster.

By yesterday, the constant driving rain seemed an appropriate backdrop for a town now almost enveloped by sombre foreboding.

Despite a population of 9,000, the inhabitants of Soham frequently refer to it as a "village'' – indicative perhaps of its close-knit community. Nearly everybody has some connection to the families touched by this developing tragedy.

The town is set in the midst of the Cambridgeshire fenlands, a bleak, almost featureless landscape criss-crossed with waterways, where families have lived for generations. Many older residents pride themselves on rarely having travelled far. They display an old-fashioned sense of decency and ability to mind their own business.

Camps of agricultural workers dot the landscape between farms. A predominantly agricultural community, Soham has been hit by the general farming downturn.

Mr Powley said: "It is mostly agricultural and they grow carrots, lettuce and celery for supermarkets all over the world." But there has been a decline and Soham has taken its share of that decline. "We have been trying to bring Soham into the modern world. Agriculture continues to decline and we need is to replace it with modern industries such as information technology.''

Shops have closed as people gravitate to nearby Cambridge and Newmarket, bus services have been cut and a farmers' market, set up last summer, failed to take off. In an area with the fastest growing population of over-85s in England, councillors have been trying to attract youngsters to a new development of 300 houses just outside town.

Like so many small market communities across the country, it has also suffered the curse of bored youth with the ensuing vandalism, petty crime and minor drug offences.

The town's forum has been determined in its efforts to revive Soham's fortunes with plans for a new community centre and it even dreams of reopening the train station that shut decades ago.

Until last Sunday, Soham was largely preoccupied with small-town problems. All that has now changed.

This week nobody has been complaining about declining bus routes.

As Mrs Webster explained: "Everyone is so sad, so sombre. Nobody is talking about anything else. We just want them home, safe and well as they were – little girls.''