Garboldisham () 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 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 ...

. Garboldisham is located north-west of Diss and south-west 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 ...

, along the A1066.

History

Garboldisham'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 ''Gaerbald's'' homestead or village. To the south of the village are the hamlets of Smallworth and Broomscot Common, the name of the latter possibly recalling the village's ancient pagan past, but more likely perhaps an affiliation to a Scandinavian with the surname Brun. This name might reflect the Viking invasions or Scandinavian connections of the

Wuffingas The Wuffingas, Uffingas or Wiffings were the ruling dynasty of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Wuffingas took their name from Wuffa, an early East Anglian kin ...

, founders of the kingdom of East Anglia. It might even go further back in time, according to unsubstantiated theories that the pre-Roman

Iceni The Iceni ( , ) or Eceni were an ancient tribe of eastern Britain during the British Iron Age, Iron Age and early Roman Britain, Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the ar ...

inhabiting this area were Old English speakers rather than Cymric/Welsh. There is a 10-foot high

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

round barrow on Garboldisham Heath, known locally as 'Soldier's Hill' and 'Boadicea's Grave', although there is no evidence that Queen

Boudicca Boudica or Boudicca (, from Brythonic * 'victory, win' + * 'having' suffix, i.e. 'Victorious Woman', known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as , ) was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed up ...

is buried here. Local antiquarian

Basil Brown Basil John Wait Brown (22 January 1888 – 12 March 1977) was an English archaeologist and astronomer. Self-taught, he discovered and excavated a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, which has come to be called "one of t ...

carried out an excavation at the mound around 1963, and uncovered a burial urn, some cremated human bone, two flint flakes and a flint scraper. The burial probably dates from around 1300 BC and were likely disturbed by gravel quarrying in the nearby woods during 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 ...

. 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, Garboldisham is listed as a settlement of 7 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 ...

of Guiltcross. In 1086, the village was part of the

East Anglian East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

estates of King William I. Garboldisham Hall was built in the early Nineteenth Century by

Sir George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...

. In the late Eighteenth Century, the hall was the property of Crisp Molineux who earned much of his wealth profiting from the plantations in

Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

. In 1822, the hall was the birthplace of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough. It was subsequently demolished in 1952.

Geography

According to the 2021 census, Garboldisham has a population of 990 people which shows an increase from the 969 people recorded in the 2011 census. Garboldisham is located along the A1066, between

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...

and Diss.

Church of St. John the Baptist

Garboldisham's parish church is dedicated to

Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

and dates from the Thirteenth Century. St. John's is located within the village on Church Street and has been Grade I listed since 1958. The church still holds regular Sunday services, usually three times a month. St. John's holds a rare East Anglian example of a Galilee porch with the interior decoration largely the remnants of a Nineteenth Century restoration by James Powell and Sons. The church also holds an elaborate

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

featuring various saints, a set of royal arms from the reign of Queen Anne and a

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 ...

from the Fifteenth Century. Garboldisham also holds the ruins of All Saints' Church, which was abandoned in 1734 after the tower collapsed into the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, and a Methodist Chapel on the southern side of the A1066.

Amenities

The village contains a

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

with independent shop, selling a range of groceries as well as East Anglian regional "gourmet" produce. Garboldisham Church of England Primary School is located close to St. John's Church and is part of St. Benet's Academy. The Headteacher of the school is Mrs. M. Croskell. The village's

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

has been open since the Seventeenth Century, in 2011 the council put forward plans to convert the building into five flats. This plan was opposed by the local community who formed a consortium and eventually bought the pub in 2016 and re-opened it a year later. Garboldisham Cricket Club has a ground outside of the village on Harling Road and operates four men's teams, one women's team and juniors teams.

In Popular Culture

The "Garboldisham Road" was mentioned in the ''

A Bit of Fry and Laurie ''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series with ...

'' sketches "Information" and "Strawberries and Cream".

Notable residents

* Crisp Molineux- (1730–1792) politician, lived in Garboldisham. * John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough- (1822–1883) politician and landowner, born in Garboldisham *

Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill Deputy lieutenant, DL (25 July 1825 – 19 April 1873) was a British aristocrat, officer in the British Army, deputy lieutenant of Oxfordshire, a lieutenant in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry and a businessman. He was a g ...

- (1825–1873) British Army officer and businessman, born in Garboldisham. * Maj. Ernest Denny DSO- (1872–1949)

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

cricketer and British Army officer, died in Garboldisham. * Lucinda Gooderham- (born 1984) rower, born in Garboldisham.

Governance

Garboldisham is part of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

of Guiltcross for local elections and is part of the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

. The village's national constituency is

South West Norfolk South West Norfolk is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 by Terr ...

which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy MP since 2024.

War Memorial

Garboldisham's war memorial takes the form of a stone octagonal shaft on a two-stepped plinth topped with a cross adorned with a carving depicting

Saint George and the Dragon In a legend, Saint Georgea soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a huma ...

, located at the junction of Manor and Church Road. The memorial was renovated in 2014 to mark the

First World War Centenary The First World War centenary was the four-year period marking the centenary of the First World War, which began in mid-2014 with the centenary of the outbreak of the war, and ended in late 2018 with the centenary of the 1918 armistice. Partic ...

and lists the following names: The following names were added after 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

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District