Buckenham is a small village and former civil parish, now in the

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 ...

of Strumpshaw in the English county of

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 ...

. Buckenham is located south-west of

Acle Acle ( ) is a market town on the River Bure on the The Broads, Norfolk Broads in Norfolk, located halfway between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. It has the only bridge across the River Bure between Wroxham and Great Yarmouth.Ordnance Survey (2005). ...

and east of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

History

Buckenham's name is of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

origin and derives from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

for Bucca's'' homestead'. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, Buckenham is recorded as a settlement of 195 households in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Blofield Blofield is a village and civil parish in the Broadland district of the English county of Norfolk. The parish includes the village of Blofield and the hamlets of Blofield Heath and Blofield Corner. Blofield is located five miles (8 km) ...

. In 1086, the village was part of the estates of King William I, St. Edmund's Abbey and

William d'Ecouis William d'Ecouis (sometimes referred to as William de Schoies) was an early Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman baron, who is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a substantial holder of land and manors. William d'Ecouis founded Middleton, Norfolk# ...

. The Old Rectory was built in 1827 for the Reverend T. W. Beauchamp and is Grade II listed with accompanying listed Stable & Coach house and a Seventeenth Century boundary wall. On 1 April 1935, the civil parish was abolished and merged with Strumpshaw.

Geography

In 1931, the parish had a population of 128. This was the last time separate population statistics were collected for Buckenham as in 1936, the village was subsumed into Strumpshaw Civil Parish. The

River Yare The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network. The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the villag ...

runs through the parish. The nearby Buckenham Marshes RSPB reserve is a haven for birdwatching, including taiga bean geese,

lapwings Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (Family (biology), family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, ...

and wigeons. Buckenham Railway Station serves the village, outlying communities and the RSPB reserve. It is a stop on the

Wherry Lines The Wherry Lines are railway branch lines in the East of England, linking with and . There are 14 stations on the lines, including the three termini. They form part of Network Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.11 and are classified as a rural ...

, with limited services to , and .

St. Nicholas' Church

Buckenham's parish church is dedicated to

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

and dates from the Thirteenth Century. St. Nicholas' is located on Church Road and has been Grade I listed since 1962. The church's doorway dates to the Twelfth Century whilst the church fell into disuse and disrepair in the 1970s and is now in the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. The church boasts a carved

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

and originally had stained-glass windows designed by Yarrington which were destroyed by vandals in the late-Twentieth century. The church also contains memorials to members of the Beauchamp family and a Reverend George Elwin.

War Memorial

Buckenham's war memorial is a stone

cross of sacrifice The Cross of Sacrifice is a Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth war memorial designed in 1918 by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). It is present in Commonwealth War grave ...

in St. Nicholas' Churchyard which has been Grade II listed since 2017. The memorial lists the following names for the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

: And, the following for the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Former civil parishes in Norfolk Broadland