Coddenham 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

Mid Suffolk Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just three towns, being Stowmarket, Needham Market and Eye. Its council was based in Needham Market until 2017 when it moved to sha ...

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 ...

in eastern England. Located to the north of the A14 road, 8 miles north of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

, the parish also includes the hamlet of Coddenham Green. In 2005 its population was 570, increasing to 620 at the 2011 Census. At the 2021 census its population was 630. Village facilities include a community village shop and café, a country club offering themed evenings, darts, pool and snooker, and the Coddenham Centre.

History

During the

Roman occupation of Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caesa ...

, Coddenham was the largest settlement in Suffolk. There were two Roman forts at the site at Baylham House, which was known as ''Combretovium''. The Roman road from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

(then

Camulodunum Camulodunum ( ; ), the Roman Empire, Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important Castra, castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "wikt:strapline, strapline" in the 1960s ...

) to

Caistor St Edmund Caistor St. Edmund is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Caistor St. Edmund and Bixley, in the English county of Norfolk. Caistor St. Edmund is located east of Wymondham and south of Norwich. The village is located alon ...

(then

Venta Icenorum Venta Icenorum (, literally "marketplace of the Iceni") was the civitas or capital of the Iceni tribe, located at modern-day Caistor St Edmund in the English county of Norfolk. The Iceni inhabited the flatlands and marshes of that county and ...

) in Norfolk ran through the town. The place-name 'Coddenham' is first attested 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 ...

of 1086, where it appears as ''Codenham''. The name means 'Codda's homestead'. The village was struck by an F1/T3 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Notable people

The motocross racer

Dave Bickers David Geoffrey Bickers (17 January 1938 – 6 July 2014) was an English professional motocross racer from Coddenham, Suffolk. He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1959 to 1969. Bickers won two European motocross championships ...

was from Coddenham. The astronomer and author

Tom Boles Thomas Boles (born 1944 in Lennoxtown in Scotland) is a Scottish amateur astronomer, discoverer of astronomical objects, author, broadcaster and former communications and computer engineer, who observes from his private "Coddenham Observatory" ( ...

lives in Coddenham.

References

External links

Coddenham Parish Council WebsiteCoddenham Parish Community WebsiteCoddenham Facebook Page
Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District Bosmere and Claydon Hundred {{Suffolk-geo-stub