Barton Mills is a 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the West Suffolk district of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England. The village is on the south bank of the River Lark. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is 'corn farm by the mill'.

History

The village was originally called Barton Parva (Little Barton). The name changed to Barton Mills in the eighteenth century. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 records the village as being in Lackford Hundred with a population of 22 households. The village was once the holiday retreat for

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of wha ...

, the discoverer of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

, and there is a plaque on the wall outside his country home, The Dhoon, in the main street.

Location

The village is near the Fiveways Roundabout, a busy junction where the A11 London to Norwich trunk road, the A1065 towards North Norfolk and the A1101 (Long Sutton (Lincolnshire) to Bury St. Edmunds) roads meet.

Barton Mills Scarecrow Festival

Barton Mills hosts a biannual Scarecrow Festival, held in July. The main road through the village is closed to traffic (except to residents) during the two-day-long festival, which includes musical bands, food, dancing, car boot sales at the local playing fields and viewing scarecrows created by local residents. This festival has been featured in the ''Guinness Book of World Records'', boasting the most scarecrows ever made at any one time. The record is currently held by the National Forest Adventure Farm near Burton on Trent.

Church

Barton Mills is served by the Church of St Mary as its parish church, a building dating back 800 years. Giacomo Savelli, who became Pope Honorius IV in 1285 was rector of Barton Mills church at the time of his election to the papacy, although there is no evidence that he ever visited

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

References

External links

www.bartonmills.net
* Villages in Suffolk Forest Heath Civil parishes in Suffolk {{Suffolk-geo-stub