Feltwell

Feltwell
St Nicholas Church, Feltwell
Feltwell Location within Norfolk
Area	20.14 sq mi (52.2 km2)
Population	3,112 (2021 census)
•  Density	155/sq mi (60/km2)
OS grid reference	TL711905
Civil parish	Feltwell
District	King's Lynn and West Norfolk
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Thetford
Postcode district	IP26
Dialling code	01842
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South West Norfolk
List of places UK England Norfolk 52°29′11″N0°31′10″E / 52.486413°N 0.519365°E / 52.486413; 0.519365

Feltwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.

Feltwell is located 11 miles (18 km) north-west of Thetford and 34 miles (55 km) south-west of Norwich.

History

Feltwell's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a spring or stream with an abundance of mullein. ^[1]

Feltwell has good archaeological evidence for Roman settlement, including two unidentified buildings, two villas and two bathhouses which prove the wealth of Feltwell during the Roman era. ^{[2] [3]}

In the Domesday Book, Feltwell is listed as a settlement of 124 residents in the hundred of Grimshoe. In 1086, the village was divided between the East Anglian estates of King William I, William de Warenne and the Abbey of St Etheldreda, Ely. ^[4]

In August 1382 the poet John Gower purchased the manors of Feltwell in Norfolk and Moulton in Suffolk. They were then granted to Thomas Blakelake, parson of St Nicholas's, Feltwell, and others, at a rent of £40 annually for his life. ^[5]

In 1944, an Avro Lancaster of No. 15 Squadron RAF crashed in the parish after a training flight from RAF Mildenhall, the crash site was excavated by the Anglian Aeronautical Preservation Society in 1982. ^[6]

Geography

According to the 2021 census, Feltwell has a population of 3,112 people which shows an increase from the 2,825 people listed in the 2011 census. ^[7]

Feltwell sits along the B1112 between Stoke Ferry and Icklingham and the River Little Ouse.

St. Nicholas' Church

Main article: St Nicholas Church, Feltwell

St. Nicholas Church is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. St. Nicholas' is located within the village on Hythe Road. ^[8] The church was largely rebuilt in the nineteenth century, after the collapse of the tower in 1898, under the direction of Frederick Preedy and was used for Catholic Mass during the Second World War for prisoners of war. ^[9]

St Mary's Church

The Church of St Mary, Feltwell

Feltwell's active Church of England parish church, St Mary's, is also a Grade I listed building. ^[10] It largely dates from the fifteenth century and was built after the site of earlier worship was severely damaged by fire. St Mary's displays East Anglia's finest examples of French stained-glass installed by the Parisian workshops of Édouard Didron and Eugene Oudinot, installed in the nineteenth century. The church was extended in the late-nineteenth century under the oversight, as with St Nicholas, of Frederick Preedy.

Among the memorials in the church is one to Lt-Col. Edward G. Hibbert of the Grenadier Guards, a veteran of the Crimean War and the Battles of Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol. ^[11]

RAF Feltwell

Main article: RAF Feltwell

RAF Feltwell opened in 1937 for use by the Royal Air Force and, during the Second World War, hosted the Vickers Wellingtons of No. 37, No. 57 and No. 75 Squadrons RAF on strategic bombing missions of Continental Europe. After the war, Feltwell hosted Thor ballistic missiles for the RAF and was later leased to the United States Air Force. Today, RAF Feltwell is used as an accommodation estate for American servicepeople based at RAF Mildenhall. The base is notable for its three radomes, resembling giant golf balls, that dominate the local countryside.^{[ citation needed ]}

Amenities

Feltwell Primary School is named after Sir Edmund de Moundeford, a seventeenth-century Feltwell resident and politician. In 2022, the school was rated as 'Good' by Ofsted. ^[12]

Feltwell's only remaining public house is called The Wellington, named after the Vickers Wellingtons that flew from RAF Feltwell during the Second World War, which dates from the eighteenth century and has in its history been used as a shop, an off-licence, a restaurant and, most recently, a wine-bar known as 'The Lodge.' The pub opened as The Wellington in 2014. ^[13] The Chequers closed in 2017 having stood on its current site since the eighteenth century with significant renovation in 1930. ^[14]

The village is also home to: a General Practice surgery & pharmacy; a veterinarian practice: a car garage and service station; two convenience stores; a hairdressers; a Chinese takeaway; a Fish and Chips takeaway and; a small amount of miscellaneous businesses close to the old snooker hall.^{[ citation needed ]}

Notable residents

• John Gower- (c. 1330 – 1408) poet, lord of the manor of Feltwell.
• Sir Edmund de Moundeford- (1596–1643) politician, died in Feltwell.

Governance

Feltwell is an electoral ward for local elections and is part of the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk

The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy MP since 2024.

War memorial

Feltwell's war memorial takes the form of a marble Celtic cross above a plinth, located inside St Mary's Churchyard. The memorial lists the following names for the First World War: ^{[15] [16]}

Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Burial/Commemoration
Sgt.	Edward Ellingford	12th (Rangers) Bn., London Regiment	9 Sep. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Cpl.	Arthur Southgate	9th Bn., Norfolk Regiment	18 Oct. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Cpl.	Albert J. Spencer	2/5th Bn., Sherwood Foresters	5 Apr. 1918	Braine-le-Comte Cem.
LCpl.	Percy Wing	2nd Bn., Loyal Regiment	27 Jun. 1918	Souvenir Cemetery
LCpl.	Albert E. Willett [a]	7th Bn., Norfolk Regiment	17 Apr. 1917	Hollybrook Memorial
Dvr.	Thomas S. Norbury	ASC att. 1/4th Field Ambulance RAMC	15 Nov. 1918	Lille Southern Cemetery
Dvr.	Thomas Smith	34th Reserve Park, ASC	9 Aug. 1918	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Gnr.	Percy W. Wright	14th Bde., Royal Field Artillery	25 Sep. 1918	Brie British Cemetery
Gnr.	Fred Cooper	61st (Trench Mortar) Bty., RGA	2 Mar. 1916	Menin Gate
Pte.	Alfred Wilson	1st Cavalry Div. Ambulance, RAMC	8 Aug. 1918	Vis-en-Artois Memorial
Pte.	Ernest E. Laws	11th Bn., Border Regiment	2 Dec. 1917	Tyne Cot
Pte.	William Peak	2nd Bn., Coldstream Guards	21 Oct. 1914	Menin Gate
Pte.	Archibald Southgate	1st Bn., Essex Regiment	18 Jan. 1917	Thiepval Memorial
Pte.	Thomas W. Willett	1st Bn., Essex Regt.	13 Aug. 1915	Helles Memorial
Pte.	James W. Whistler	13th Bn., Royal Fusiliers	1 Oct. 1917	Tyne Cot
Pte.	Sydney Payne	1st Bn., Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers	20 Nov. 1917	Cambrai Memorial
Pte.	Frederick J. Wilkin	1st Bn., Lancashire Fusiliers	4 Jun. 1915	Helles Memorial
Pte.	Frederick W. Brown	1st Bn., Norfolk Regiment	4 Jun. 1916	Faubourg Cemetery
Pte.	Bertie Coleman	1st Bn., Norfolk Regt.	14 Sep. 1914	Jouarre Memorial
Pte.	Percy Vale	1st Bn., Norfolk Regt.	27 Jul. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Pte.	Adrian Bartlett	3rd Bn., Norfolk Regt.	21 Feb. 1917	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Pte.	Walter A. C. Wilkin	3rd Bn., Norfolk Regt.	4 Apr. 1919	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Pte.	Charles W. Pearson	8th Bn., Norfolk Regt.	Unknown	Unknown
Pte.	Harry E. Curtis	9th Bn., Norfolk Regt.	26 Sep. 1915	Loos Memorial
Pte.	Thomas W. Gent	9th Bn., Norfolk Regt.	16 Sep. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Pte.	Walter H. Bullen	1st Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment	25 Sep. 1915	Loos Memorial
Pte.	Frederick W. Upcraft	2nd Bn., Queen's Royal Regt.	4 Sep. 1916	Thiepval Memorial
Pte.	Edwin G. Cracknell	11th Bn., Suffolk Regiment	17 Oct. 1917	Tyne Cot
Pte.	George A. Baxter	2/7th Bn., Worcestershire Regiment	25 Aug. 1917	Lijssenthoek Cemetery
Pte.	Percy Banham	5th Bn., Yorkshire Regiment	27 May 1918	Soissons Memorial
Pte.	Charles W. Vincent	9th Bn., Yorkshire Regt.	16 Oct. 1916	Tyne Cot
Rfn.	John T. Rolfe	2nd Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps	12 Nov. 1917	Tyne Cot
Smth.	John E. Emmerson	13th Bde., Royal Horse Artillery	18 Jul. 1917	North Gate Cemetery

The following names were added after the Second World War:

Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Burial/Commemoration
Sgt.	G. Roy White	No. 103 Squadron RAF	4 Jul. 1943	Runnymede Memorial
AS	Henry G. Cordy	HMS Hostile	23 Aug. 1940	Chatham Naval Memorial
LCpl.	Edmund W. Lambert	Pioneer Corps	10 Sep. 1944	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Pte.	Dorothy B. Lemon	ATS att. 151 Heavy Regt., RA	1 Aug. 1942	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Pte.	Frederick W. Reeve	1/6th Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment	3 Aug. 1944	Bayeux War Cemetery
Pte.	Peter T. Lawrence	Royal Norfolk Regiment	23 Jul. 1945	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Pte.	Francis A. Manning	6th Bn., Royal Norfolks.	14 Jul. 1941	St. Nicholas' Churchyard
Tel.	Raymond B. Walden	HMS Salmon	14 Jul. 1940	Chatham Naval Memorial

Footnotes

References

1. "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
2. "mnf5205 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
3. "mnf21137 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
4. "Feltwell | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
5. G.C. Macaulay (ed.). "Introduction, Life of Gower". The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol 4 The Latin Works (PDF). p. vii-xxx.
6. "mnf18622 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
7. "Feltwell (Parish, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
8. Historic England, "Church of St Nicholas, Feltwell (1342364)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 9 April 2015
9. "Norfolk Churches". www.norfolkchurches.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
10. Historic England. "Church of St Mary (Grade I) (1077715)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 8 March 2023.
11. "Norfolk Churches". www.norfolkchurches.co.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
12. [e-mail], Ofsted Communications Team (8 October 2020). "Find an inspection report and registered childcare". reports.ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
13. "WELLINGTON - FELTWELL". www.norfolkpubs.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
14. "CHEQUERS - FELTWELL". www.norfolkpubs.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
15. "Roll of Honour - Norfolk - Feltwell". www.roll-of-honour.com. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
16. "Geograph:: Fakenham to Fundenhall :: War Memorials in Norfolk". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2025.

Notes

1. LCpl. Willett was killed during the sinking of HMT Donegal which was torpedoed whilst returning to Southampton from northern France.

External links

Media related to Feltwell at Wikimedia Commons