Blundeston 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 north of the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

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 ...

. It is north-west of

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

, south of

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

and around inland from the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast. It is part of the area known as Lothingland in the East Suffolk district. Blundeston Prison was located on the southern edge of the village but closed in early 2014.Blundeston
Suffolk Heritage Explorer,

Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Governme ...

. Retrieved 9 March 2021.Blundeston and Flixton
Healthy Suffolk, 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2021. The parish had a population of 1,637 at the

2011 United Kingdom census A Census in the United Kingdom, census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Inter ...

. It extends from the

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The earliest attestation of the name is from 1275, ''Wahenhe'', from ''*wagen + ea'', meaning the river by a q ...

, which marks the county border with

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, in the west to the

A47 road The A47 is a major trunk road in England linking Birmingham to Lowestoft, Suffolk, maintained and operated by National Highways. Most of the section between Birmingham and Nuneaton is now classified as the B4114 road, B4114. From Peterborough ...

in the east. It borders the Suffolk parishes of Corton, Flixton, Oulton, Lound and Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet as well as the Norfolk parish of Burgh St Peter across the Waveney. The parish council is operated jointly with the sparsely populated parish of Flixton to the south.Welcome to Blundeston & Flixton Parish Council Website
Blundeston and Flixton Parish Council. Retrieved 9 March 2021. The village is clustered in the centre of the parish. The Lowestoft to Norwich railway line crosses the western section of the parish, with the nearest station at Somerleyton railway station. This part of the parish consists of a series of drainage marshes in the floodplain of the Waveney. The B1075 Lowestoft to Somerleyton road crosses the parish.

History

At the Domesday Survey of 1086, Blundeston was named as ''Dunstuna''. It was a small village in the hundred of Lothingland consisting of a handful of families. The land was part of the holdings of Robert of Vaux and Count Alan of Brittany.Blundeston
Open Domesday. Retrieved 9 March 2021. During the medieval period the land was split between two manors, one at Blundeston Hall and one owned by the Gonville family. Suckling AI (1846) 'Blundeston', in ''The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk: Volume 1'', pp. 307–321. Ipswich: WS Crowell.
Available online
at British History Online. Retrieved 9 March 2021.) A medieval moated site at Blundeston Hall is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

.Moated site at Blundeston Hall
List entry,

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. Retrieved 9 March 2021. In the 17th-century the hall was owned by William Heveningham who was one of the

judges A judge is an official who presides over a court. Judge or Judges may also refer to: Roles *Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc. *Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...

at the trial of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. He was later found guilty of treason and imprisoned at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

for the rest of his life. The ecclesiastical parish was combined with neighbouring Flixton in the 18th-century. During the 19th-century the hall was owned for a time by

Samuel Morton Peto Sir Samuel Morton Peto, 1st Baronet (4 August 1809 – 13 November 1889) was an English entrepreneur, civil engineer and railway developer, and, for more than 20 years, a Member of Parliament (MP). A partner in the firm of Grissell and Peto, ...

, a railway developer who also owned the nearby

Somerleyton Hall Somerleyton Hall is a country house and estate near Somerleyton and Lowestoft in Suffolk, England owned and lived in by Hugh Crossley, 4th Baron Somerleyton, originally designed by John Thomas. The hall is Grade II* listed on the National He ...

. Peto sold the hall following his bankruptcy at the end of the 1860s and by the 1880s it was owned by Richard Henry Reeve, a prominent local landowner.

Culture and community

St Mary the Virgin's Church, Blundeston is medieval in origin and is one of around 40

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berks ...

es in Suffolk. The tower includes stonework dating from the 11th-century or earlier, whilst the nave is 12th century and includes a number of 14th and 15th-century features. The octagonal font is 12th-century and the rood screen dates from the 15th-century; the building is a Grade I listed building.Church of St Mary
List entry,

. Retrieved 9 March 2021.Knott S (2008
St Mary, Blundeston
Suffolk Churches. Retrieved 9 March 2021. The font and alter from the ruined St Andrew's church in Flixton were moved to Blundeston after it was destroyed in the

Great Storm of 1703 The Great storm of 1703 was a destructive extratropical cyclone that struck central and southern England on 26 November 1703. High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London and damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Ships wer ...

.Knott
St Andrew, Flixton
Suffolk Churches. Retrieved 9 March 2021. The village has a number of basic services, including Blundeston Primary School, a village hall, bowls club and a public house, the ''Plough Inn'', which dates from 1701 and is a Grade II listed building.The Plough
List entry,

. Retrieved 9 March 2021. Another pub, the ''Red Lion'', closed in 2010, and the village is known to have had at least two other pubs during the 19th-century. At the junction of Church Road and Pound Lane is a circular village pound which was used for storing stray animals.Pound at Junction with Pound Lane
List entry,

. Retrieved 9 March 2021. At the end of Church Road at the junction between Short Road and The Street is the disused Blundeston Windmill. The village is the home of Blundeston Cricket Club, who play in the Norfolk Cricket League.

Blundeston Prison

Blundeston prison was built in the early 1960s as a Category C men's prison. It housed around 500 inmates, including at one time

Reggie Kray Ronald Kray (24 October 193320 March 1995) and Reginald Kray (24 October 19331 October 2000) were English gangsters or organised crime figures and identical twin brothers from Haggerston who were prominent from the late 1950s until their arres ...

. The prison was closed in early 2014 and the site sold to a property developer.

Notable residents

Author and illustrator

James Mayhew James John Mayhew (born 1964 in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English illustrator and author of children's books, storyteller, artist and concert presenter/live art performer. Early life and education The son of RAF pilot John Byrne Mayhew and ...

was brought up in Blundeston.Boggis M (2018
Popular broadcaster set to return to hometown
''Lowestoft Journal'', 19 January 2018. Retrieved 2021-03-09. The character

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield''Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work; see is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to matur ...

in the

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

novel of the same name was born at "Blundestone" and a number of local landmarks are referenced in the novel.What the Dickens is going on at Blundeston church?
''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts 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 ...

'', 10 June 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-31. It is not known whether Dickens ever visited Blundeston, but from letters he wrote he mentions choosing the name after seeing it on a signpost during a visit to Great Yarmouth. Road names such as Copperfield Terrace and Dickens Court reference the novel and on the village sign David is pictured looking towards the church. The ''Plough Inn'' has a plaque over its entrance that says "Barkis (the Carrier) from the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, started from here"

Notes

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Waveney District