Fornham St Martin

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Fornham St Martin
Fornham St. Martin cum Fornham St. Genevieve village sign - geograph.org.uk - 4292713.jpg
Village sign Fornham St Martin
Suffolk UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Fornham St Martin
Location within Suffolk
Population1,300 (2005) [1]
1,319 (2011) [2]
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Bury St Edmunds
Postcode district IP28, IP31
Police Suffolk
Fire Suffolk
Ambulance East of England
List of places
UK
England
Suffolk
52°16′19″N0°42′50″E / 52.272°N 0.714°E / 52.272; 0.714

Fornham St Martin is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located on the northern outskirts of Bury St Edmunds off east and west from the A134, in 2005 its population was 1300. [1] Its parish council is shared with neighbouring Fornham St Genevieve, and is known as Fornham St Martin cum St Genevieve Parish Council. Fornham St Martin is one of a trio of contiguous villages by the River Lark. The other villages are Fornham St Genevieve and Fornham All Saints.

Contents

History

The word Fornham means 'Trout village' derived from the Old English words forne meaning trout and hām meaning village with the addition of the dedication to Martin of Tours. [3] The village is recorded in the Domesday Book with 27 households in 1086 made up of 3 villagers, 11 freemen, 10 smallholders, 3 slaves along with 2 cobs, 4 cattle, 12 pigs, and 80 sheep. [4]

The Battle of Fornham, a significant battle in English history, took place in Fornham Park and the surrounding area in 1173. This was part of the Revolt of 1173–74 where King Henry II, led by Robert de Lucy fought the Flemish rebels for his son, Henry the Young King, led by Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. Scribes of the time variously estimated that between 3000 and 10,000 Flemish mercenaries were slaughtered and lie beneath the fields, woodland and ditches. [5]

The village appears on John Speed's 1610 map as "Fernham mertin" and in 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the town as a parish in Thingoe district, Suffolk in the Diocese of Ely; on the river Lark, 1¾ mile North of Bury St Edmunds and related that it had 74 houses, a post office, a church and a free school. [6]

Church

Fornham St Martin Church (OS grid TL8566) with King George's playing field across the way at the south end of B1106 to the village. The churchyard contains a number of notable burials:

See also

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Fornham St Martin at Wikimedia Commons

References

  1. 1 2 Estimates of Total Population of Areas in Suffolk Archived 19 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine Suffolk County Council
  2. ↑ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  4. ↑ "Fornham [St Martin] | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  5. ↑ "Battle of Fornham". Suffolk Archives. Retrieved 26 May 2020.[ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ Fornham St Martin Suffolk Britain through time Website


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