Elmswell is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the county of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. It is situated halfway between Bury St. Edmunds and

Stowmarket Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 trunk road between Bury St Edm ...

and lies just to the north of the

A14 road A14 may refer to: * Aero A.14, a Czech reconnaissance aircraft built after World War I * Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System 14 ( ATC code A14) ''Anabolic agents for systemic use'', a subgroup of the ATC Classification Syste ...

. The history of the village can be traced as far back as the Roman times based on a site containing a pottery kiln dated around the third century. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names the origin of Elmswell or in its Old English form Elmswella, as referred to 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 manusc ...

of 1086 comes from 'Spring or Stream where elm-trees grow. The place name Elmswella is formed by the conjunction of elm + wella, where wella is Old English for stream. A huge village green – Butten Haugh Green – once formed the centre of Elmswell. However, the arrival of the railway in 1846 and the bacon factory in 1911, meant the green now has houses built on it. The 1881 census showed that the number of dwellings in the village was 196 and the population was 761.

Present Elmswell

The village was struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day. Currently, the number of houses is over 2000 and the number of inhabitants is over 4750. The Church of St John the Divine in Church Hill was mentioned in the

. Sir

Robert Gardiner Robert Gardiner may refer to: Politicians *Robert Gardiner (politician) (1879–1945), farmer and federal Member of Parliament from Canada * Robert Gardiner (MP for Bristol), see Bristol (UK Parliament constituency) * Robert K. A. Gardiner (1914� ...

, former

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

, the lord of the manor, who died in 1620, built

almshouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

next to the church and left them to three women from Elmswell and three from the nearby village of Norton. He is buried in St John the Divine. The village has had a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

since 1846, on the line between Bury St Edmunds and

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. There is a wildlife area at Kiln Meadow, and two pubs – The Tavern and The Fox - exist in the village. Elmswell was named Suffolk's village of the year in 2008 beating Cockfield and Fressingfield into second and third place respectively.

References

External links

*
Official Elmswell Parish Site
Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District {{Suffolk-geo-stub