Tottington is a deserted village and

civil parish 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 ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. It is situated some north of the town of

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24, ...

and south-west of the city of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. Any population at the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada * ...

Name

Tottington means "farm/settlement of Tota's people" or perhaps, "farm/settlement connected with Tota".

History

Tottington has an entry in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086. In the great book Tottington is recorded by the name of ''Totintuna'', meaning 'the town or settlement of Tota's people'. The main land holder was Ralph FitzHelwin. The survey also states there are fifteen mares.

Samson of Tottington Samson of Tottington (1135 – 1211) was an English Benedictine monk who became Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. His life was later used by Thomas Carlyle as a leadership model in his book ''Past and Present''. Life Samson was born at Tottington, n ...

was Abbot of Bury St Edmunds from 1182 to 1211, and Thomas of Tottington filled the same role from 1302 to 1311.

Evacuation

During the

Second World War 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the village was taken over by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

when it was incorporated into the Stanford Battle Area. The military ranges were needed to prepare Allied

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

for Operation Overlord, the invasion of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

in 1944. Though some villagers were said to be happy to give up their homes to help the British war effort,
Information about the Evacuation the majority were less than enthusiastic with a number of heated village meetings and some refusing to leave the area.
Breckland exodus - the forced evacuation of the Norfolk Battle Area 1942:Part 1 This was the subject of a book written by Lucilla Reeve, one such person who refused to leave, under the pseudonym ''A Norfolk Woman'' called ''Farming, on a Battle Ground''.
Lucille Reeve - Eastern Daily Press However, at the end of the war, the former villagers were never allowed to return to their homes by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

. Most of the inhabitants of Tottington rented their houses and farmed the land belonging to the Walsingham estates. Though they had been promised that they could return to their homes after the war, the government later reneged on the promise and bought the land, threatening Walsingham with a

compulsory purchase order A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for p ...

.
Breckland exodus - the forced evacuation of the Norfolk Battle Area 1942:Part 2 As the majority of the inhabitants were not landowners, they received very little in compensation, were put into council housing and many lost their livelihoods. They continued to fight for many years to return to their homes and farmland but the beginnings of the Cold War and the need for dedicated training areas removed all chances of a return. Since the evacuation, the village and its parish remain within the Ministry of Defence's Thetford

training area. Access is not permitted without special permission.

The Parish Church of St Andrew

The church is situated at the northern end of the village. The roof of the church is clad in blast-proof sheeting which was installed to protect the structure of the church. The original

pantiles The Pantiles is a Georgian architecture , Georgian colonnade in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Formerly known as "The Walks" and the (Royal) "Parade", it leads from the well that gave the town its name. The area, develope ...

are stored inside the church ready to be restored if the village is given back to the public. The churchyard is surrounded by wire fencing to protect the church from the military manoeuvres. In October 2009, a World War II veteran who had been born in the village was buried in St Andrew's churchyard after permission for the interment was granted by the Ministry of Defence. It was the first burial in the graveyard for more than fifty years..

Governance

The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had no inhabitants. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Breckland.

References

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

(1999). ''OS Explorer Map 229 - Thetford in the Brecks''. . * Rootsweb.com (1998–2006).
Ghost Towns/Deserted Villages of Great Britain
'. Retrieved 17 February 2006. * Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001).
Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes
'. Retrieved 2 December 2005.

External links

Information from Genuki Norfolk
on Tottington.

on the Stanford Battle Area and its deserted villages and churches. {{authority control Former populated places in Norfolk Villages in Norfolk Breckland District Ghost towns in England Civil parishes in Norfolk Forcibly depopulated communities in the United Kingdom during World War II