Fornham St Genevieve 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 West Suffolk District is a local government district in Suffolk, England. It was established in 2019 as a merger of the previous Forest Heath District with the Borough of St Edmundsbury. The council is based in Bury St Edmunds, the district's ...

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 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 ...

. It is one of a trio of contiguous villages by the River Lark. The other villages are Fornham All Saints and

Fornham St Martin Fornham St Martin is a Village#United Kingdom, village and civil parish in the West Suffolk (district), West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located on the northern outskirts of Bury St Edmunds off east and west from the A134 ro ...

Location

The village is located around north of Fornham St Martin and a north of

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

. In 2005 its population was 110. Its parish council is shared with neighbouring Fornham St Martin, and is known as Fornham St Martin cum St Genevieve Parish Council.

Etymology

The village name is derived 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 '

Trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

Homestead' for Fornham with the addition of the dedication to Saint Genevieve.

History

River Lark at Fornham St Genevieve - geograph

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 ...

records that the population of Fornham St Genevieve in 1086 was 30 households. The history of Fornham Park involved the scene of the Battle of Fornham in 1173. Robert Whitehand Earl of Leicester put up his final stand against the forces of

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

near the church, and was subsequently captured and taken prisoner. Fornham St Genevieve church tower - geograph

Fornham St Genevieve as now seen was formed from the Fornham Hall estate, designed by

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

. The parish church was constructed around the 14th century from rubble flint, and included at least one memorial to the Tyldesley family. It was accidentally burned down on 19 May 1775, reputedly owing to the negligence of a man shooting jack daws that had lodged in the steeple. The remaining tower was Grade II* listed in 1955. Brown visited the estate after the fire and produced details plans for the estate, but died in 1783 before development could begin. The manor house at Fornham no longer survives.

Transport

The B1106 is the main road through the village. Owing to an historical accident, there is now a roundabout in which four of the five exits have the same number.

Gallery

File:Poppy field at Fornham St Genevieve - geograph.org.uk - 121029.jpg, Poppy field at Fornham St Genevieve (2003) File:Old lock on River Lark - geograph.org.uk - 20738.jpg, Old lock on River Lark (2005) File:The Suffolk Golf Course - geograph.org.uk - 631595.jpg, The Suffolk Golf Course (December 2007) File:Mill Lane - geograph.org.uk - 2758121.jpg, Mill Lane, Fornham St Genevieve (2012) File:The Suffolk Golf Course - geograph.org.uk - 631593.jpg, The Suffolk Golf Course at Fornham St Genevieve. British Sugar factory smoke in the distance (2007) File:Heading south east, Timworth Carr - geograph.org.uk - 4709479.jpg, Heading south east, Timworth Carr (2015)

References