Great Waldingfield 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 Babergh 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 ...

, England about two miles (3 km) north-east of Sudbury and two miles (3 km) south-west of its sister village,

Little Waldingfield Little Waldingfield is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Located two miles from its sister village, Great Waldingfield, it is part of the Babergh District, Babergh district, and includes the hamlet of Humble Green. In 2021 its popu ...

. The village is split into two separate parts; the older and smaller part around the St. Lawrence Church, and the newer and larger section along the B1115 road between Sudbury and

Lavenham Lavenham is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Lavenham Guildhall, Guildhall, Little ...

. Most of the houses in the newer section were built after

World War II 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 ...

, including much

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

. The parish also includes the hamlets of Upsher Green and part of Washmere Green. The population is estimated to be 1,460, reducing to 1,431 at the 2011 Census. The village hall was the normal location of the halfway feeding station on the Dunwich Dynamo overnight bicycle ride until 2010, whilst an episode of ''

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

'' ("Fruit of the Dessert") was filmed in the village.

History

The discovery of a number of artefacts suggests that the village existed during the

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 ...

and the Roman occupation of Britain, but the first record of the village's existence is from 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, in which the village was listed as ''Walingafella Magna'' with three Saxon manors and an area of around 3,000 acres (12 km²). Located on the major thoroughfare between the wool town of

and Sudbury, the village was well-placed to benefit from the trade boom in the late

Middle Ages 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 global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. An outbreak of

Bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...

in 1626 reduced the population by at least 10%, going from 513 in 1611 to 459 in 1631. In 1648, during the siege of Colchester (part of the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

) Cromwell's Ironsides were billeted in the village, an area which became Garrison Lane. Soldiers were stationed in the village after the war before being demobilised. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a steady decline in population, caused by out-migration and a flu epidemic, from 659 in 1851 to 348 in 1931. During

an airfield was built adjacent to the village. The airfield was completed in 1943 and handed over to the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

on 23 March 1944. For security reasons named Station 174 by the United States Army Air Force, the airfield was later more commonly known as RAF Sudbury. With three runways, the airfield was home to the 486th Bombardment Group.

Governance

Great Waldingfield is part of the Suffolk County Council electoral division of Sudbury East and Waldingfield, and is represented by Philip Faircloth-Mutton (Conservative). It is also part of the Babergh District Council

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 ...

called Lavenham, and is represented by Councillors Margaret Maybury (Conservative) and Paul Clover (Conservative).

Notable residents

* John Hopkins: Village rector who, together with Thomas Sternhold, produced the first national English hymn book in 1562. The book has gone through over 600 editions, and has been outsold only by the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...

. * Thomas Crooke, a leading

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

cleric. He also served as village rector from 1571 to 1598, and his sons, of whom three became famous, grew up in the village: ** Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet ** Helkiah Crooke ** Samuel Crooke * Neville Armstrong (1914–2008), literary agent and publisherIan Miller
Other lives: Neville Armstrong
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 26 September 2008, accessed 27 July 2021

Location grid

References

External links

Village websiteSchool website
Suffolk Churches {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk