Helmingham 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 ...

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 ...

, 12 miles (20 km) east of

Stowmarket Stowmarket ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. o ...

, and 12 miles north (20 km) 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, ...

. It has a population of 170, increasing to 186 at the 2011 Census. It retains the same name by which it was recorded 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, namely ''Helmingheham'', meaning 'the village of Helm's people'.

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (8 January 1877 in Vallsjö – 23 November 1964 in Lund) was a Swedish academic, Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to 1942 and one of the outstanding scholars of the English language in the firs ...

, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.232.

Helmingham Hall Helmingham Hall is a moated manor house in Helmingham, Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the Baron Tollemache, Tollemache family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late med ...

, a large red brick quadrangular mansion, dates from the reign of Henry VIII. The ancient family of Tollemache have been seated here from an early period after settling for a while at

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars and Sport utility vehicle, SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Crickle ...

soon after the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

of England. A Lionel Tollemache married the heiress of the Helmingham family so acquiring this estate in the 15th century. The village was the birthplace of Faith Emmeline Backhouse, mother of the war poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. In 1900, excavations in the

Rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

garden unearthed a cemetery, possibly Roman, containing some 25 graves.Campaign for Real Ale about Helmingham
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Present day

The village is formed from the meeting of two roads, B1077 from the south-west to the north and B1079 from the south-east. Helmingham Hall is 500 metres west of this junction. Its village church of St Mary's was first built as the estate church for the Hall. Sited on the edge of the park, it is filled with memorials to several generations of the

Tollemache family The Tollemache family (also historically spelt Talmach or Tallemache) is an England, English noble family, originally from Suffolk. The family's surname is pronounced . Members of the family have had a significant impact on the economy and polit ...

, including a large tomb with a verse describing four generations of the family. The village appears never to have had a public house. The church at Helmingham, St Mary's, is the church featured in BBC sitcom ''

Only Fools and Horses ''Only Fools and Horses'' (titled onscreen as ''Only Fools and Horses....'') is a British television sitcom that was created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Ki ...

'', in the 1987 Christmas special "

The Frog's Legacy "The Frog's Legacy" is the sixth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses''. It was first broadcast on 25 December 1987. In the episode, the Trotters search for the hidden gold legacy of Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, an o ...

". Most of the episode's location scenes were filmed in nearby Ipswich, but due to film editing the church is depicted as being located next to a beach.

References

* Villages in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District Civil parishes in Suffolk Bosmere and Claydon Hundred {{Suffolk-geo-stub