Thankful Villages (also known as Blessed Villages; ) are settlements in England and Wales from which all their members of the armed forces survived

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The term Thankful Village was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s; in ''Enchanted Land'' (1936), the introductory volume to ''

The King's England ''The King's England'' is a topographical and historical book series written and edited by Arthur Mee in 43 volumes. The first, introductory, volume was published in 1936; in 1989, The King's England Press was established to reprint the series. ...

'' series of guides, he wrote that a Thankful Village was one which had lost no men in the war because all those who left to serve came home again. His initial list identified 32 villages. There are tens of thousands of villages and towns in the United Kingdom. In an October 2013 update, researchers identified 53

civil parishes in England In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

and Wales from which all serving personnel returned. There are no Thankful Villages identified in Scotland or Ireland yet (all of Ireland was then part of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

). Fourteen of the English and Welsh villages are considered "doubly thankful", in that they also lost no service personnel during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. These are marked in italics in the list below (note: while the list includes 17 of these, not all have been verified).

List of Thankful Villages

The researchers acknowledged a number of other villages which have been put forward as Thankful Villages but where they found there to be some uncertainty, generally over the place of residence of a serviceman.

England

;Buckinghamshire * Stoke Hammond ;Cambridgeshire * Toft ;Cornwall *''

Herodsfoot Herodsfoot (Cornish: Nanshiryarth) is a village in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately four miles (6 km) southwest of Liskeard and five miles (8 km) north of Looe at a point where two tributaries ...

'' ;Cumberland * Ousby ;Derbyshire *'' Bradbourne'' ;Dorset *'' Langton Herring'' ;Durham * Hunstanworth ;Essex *

Strethall Strethall is a village and a civil parish in the Uttlesford District, in the English county of Essex, near the town of Saffron Walden. Having suffered no casualties in World War I it is known as one of the thankful villages. The Icknield Way Pa ...

;Gloucestershire * Coln Rogers * Little Sodbury *'' Upper Slaughter'' ;Herefordshire * Knill *''

Middleton-on-the-Hill Middleton on the Hill is a village in north east Herefordshire, England, near the border with Worcestershire. Middleton-on-the-Hill lies a few miles to the east of the A49 between Ludlow and Leominster. Middleton on the Hill is one of the 53 Tha ...

'' ;Hertfordshire * Puttenham ;Kent * Knowlton ;Lancashire *'' Arkholme'' *''

Nether Kellet Nether Kellet is a village and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, a few miles south of Carnforth. It had a population of 646 recorded in the 2001 census, increasing to 663 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes the ...

'' ;Leicestershire * Saxby *

East Norton East Norton is a small village and parish located in the east of Leicestershire, adjoining the A47 Leicester to Uppingham road. According to the 2001 Census, it had a population of 94 in 37 households. The population remained less than 100 at t ...

* Stretton en le Field ;Lincolnshire * Bigby *'' Flixborough'' *''

High Toynton High Toynton is a village and civil parish"High Toynton Lincolnshire ...

'' * Minting *'' Allington'' ;Northamptonshire * East Carlton * Woodend ;Northumberland * Meldon ;Nottinghamshire *

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

* Maplebeck * Wigsley *

Wysall Wysall is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is south of Nottingham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 321, including Thorpe-on-the-Glebe and increasing to 431 at the 2011 census. Holy Trinity Church ...

;Rutland *

Teigh Teigh is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the village was 48 in the 2001 census. At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and was included with the civil pari ...

;Shropshire * Harley ;Somerset *

Aisholt Spaxton is a small village and civil parish on the Quantocks in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, South West England. History Spaxton was part of the hundred of Cannington. The modern parish includes the ancient parishes of Aisholt and Ch ...

Chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

Chelwood Chelwood is a small village within the civil parish of Compton Dando in Somerset, England, and is in the affluent Chew Valley in the Bath and North East Somerset council area, about from Bristol and Bath. The parish, which includes the hamlet ...

* Holywell Lake *

Rodney Stoke Rodney Stoke is a small village and civil parish, located at , 5 miles north-west of Wells, in the English county of Somerset. The village is on the A371 between Draycott and Westbury-sub-Mendip. The parish includes the larger village of Dra ...

* Shapwick *''

Stocklinch Stocklinch is a village and civil parish north-east of Ilminster in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. History The village is one Somerset's nine Thankful Villages (from a total of 52 villages in England and Wales), in which al ...

'' * Tellisford *'' Woolley'' ;Staffordshire *''

Butterton Butterton is a small village in the Staffordshire Peak District of England (). It overlooks the Manifold Valley and Ecton Hill, which rises 1,212 feet above sea level. Butterton lies 5 miles east of Leek and roughly 8 miles from Alton Towers th ...

'' ;Suffolk *

Culpho Culpho (pronounced Cul-fo) is a hamlet and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, about northeast of the centre of Ipswich and west of Woodbridge. Culpho's population is less than 100, so the Office for National Statistic ...

* Wordwell *'' South Elmham St Michael'' ;Sussex *

East Wittering East Wittering is a coastal village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The majority of the village lies within the civil parish of East Wittering, while the western edge lies within the boundary of West Wittering civil parish. ...

;Yorkshire *''

Catwick Catwick is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Beverley town centre and west of Hornsea town centre. It lies on the A1035 road (formerly B12 ...

'' * Cundall *

Helperthorpe Helperthorpe is a village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The village lies in the Great Wold Valley and the course of the winterbourne stream the Gypsey Race passes through it. History The village is mentioned in the Dome ...

Norton-le-Clay Norton-le-Clay is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated near the A1(M) motorway and north-west of Boroughbridge. It is one of the Thankful Villages Thankful Villages (also known as B ...

Scruton Scruton is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is west of Northallerton. According to the 2001 census the village had a population of 442, decreasing to 424 at the 2011 census. History The na ...

Wales

;Ceredigion *'' Llanfihangel y Creuddyn'' ;Glamorgan * Colwinston/''Tregolwyn'' ;Pembrokeshire *''

Herbrandston Herbrandston is a village, parish and Community (Wales), community on the north side of the Cleddau Estuary, River Cleddau, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is located to the west of Milford Haven and Hakin and east of St Ishmael's. Before 1960 and th ...

Tavernspite Tavernspite ( cy, Tafarn-sbeit) is a small village about southeast of Narberth in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. It lies on the B4314 Pendine to Templeton road, close to the border with Carmarthenshire and is in Lampeter Velfrey community ...

, in Pembrokeshire, has been mooted as a fourth doubly thankful village in Wales.

France

In France, where the human cost of war was higher than in Britain,

Thierville Thierville () is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in northern France. It is around 30 km south-west of Rouen city centre, and around 130 km north west of Paris. Thierville is remarkable as the only village in all of Fran ...

in Upper Normandy was the only village in all of France with no men lost from World War I. Thierville also suffered no losses in the Franco-Prussian War and World War II, France's other bloody wars of the modern era.

In popular culture

On 3 June 2016 singer-songwriter

Darren Hayman Darren Hayman (born 1 December 1970) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the writer, lead singer, and guitarist in Hefner. Since Hefner disbanded in 2002, Hayman has embarked on a prolific solo career releasing t ...

released the first of three albums inspired by and written in-situ at the Thankful Villages. 54 villages were covered, including

Welbury Welbury is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is about south of Appleton Wiske and north of Northallerton. The village is mentioned in the Domesday book (1086) as having 6 Geld units for t ...

, North Yorkshire, not in the 53 listed above.

References

{{reflist United Kingdom in World War I