Mundford 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 A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

. It is situated at the intersection of two major routes, the A134 Colchester to King's Lynn road and the A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road, about north west of

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 ...

. The village is from the city 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 ...

and from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The village's name means 'Munda's ford'. The civil parish, in 1845, had 437 inhabitants, and 1609 acres of land, exclusive of a common of 190 acres, and also 90 acres of heath, where the parishioners had the right of fuel and rabbits, but no pasturage. Today it has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 1,591 in 669 households. The population at the 2011 Census had reduced to 1,526 in 652 households. The parish shares boundaries with the adjacent parishes of Didlington, Cranwich, Weeting-with-Broomhill, Lynford and Ickburgh. The parish falls within 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 ...

. Local government responsibilities are shared between the parish, district and county councils.

Local history

Lynford Quarry in Mundford is a well-preserved in-situ

Middle Palaeolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle P ...

open-air site dating to 60,000 years ago that is believed to show evidence of

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

activity.

Church

St Leonard's is the ancient

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

. It is a Grade II* listed building. The earliest parts of the church were built in 1220; the font is 14th century with a 17th-century cover. In 1911–12, Captain F. J. O. Montagu of Lynford Hall commissioned

Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect, one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishm ...

to complete the front pews of the nave, the pulpit, reading desk, organ loft and case,

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

, chancel stalls and ceiling. There is a good ring of six bells, all of which were cast by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...

in 1945. The organ is a three-manual instrument built by

Harrison & Harrison Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company based in Durham that makes and restores pipe organs. It was established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and t ...

of Durham in 1912. The tradition of this Church is moderate Catholic and vestments are worn. In the 16th century the Killingworth family were the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

s (see below). In 1845 Sir Richard Sutton was patron, and the vicar was the Rev. John Raven, B.A.White, 1845.

Manors

There were two recorded manors at Mundford (anciently Montfort after that family) both originally held of the Church. One was West Hall. On the 26 July 1561, Richard Killingworth (d.1586), as Lord of West Hall manor in the parish of Mundford, presented to the church there, of which he was Patron. His son & heir-apparent, John Killingworth (d.1617), presented in 1574, and Richard the father again on 16 August 1577. Giles Killingworth ohn's son and heir-apparentpresented on 21 July 1608. Giles died seized of the manor etc., on 26 February 1634, leaving by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Hare in the City of London, a son and heir, James, then aged 15. Soon after this the manor was purchased by his cousin, Sir Giles Alington of Horseheath, Knt., (d.1638) and settled on James, his son by his second wife Dorothy, daughter of Michael Dalton. James died young after a fall from a horse, and the manor passed to his half-brother, William, 1st Lord Alington (1610–1648). By 1845 Lord Berners possessed West Hall. The other was East Hall Manor, also purchased about 1630 by Sir Giles Alington but by 1845 most of the parish belonged to Sir Richard Sutton, Lord of East Hall.

World War II

On 16 December 1942, British double agent Eddie Chapman was flown on a mission to Britain by the Germans in a

Focke-Wulf Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG () was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the ...

bomber, converted for parachuting, from

Le Bourget Le Bourget () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. The commune features Le Bourget Airport, which in turn hosts the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (Air and Space Museum). A very ...

airfield.Max Arthur

The Independent, 6 January 1998 He was equipped with wireless, pistol, cyanide capsule and £1,000 and, amongst other things, was given the task of sabotaging the

de Havilland The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited (pronounced , ) was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of North London. Operations were later moved to ...

aircraft factory at Hatfield. After an uncomfortable flight, during which he suffered a nosebleed due to a poorly tightened oxygen mask, Chapman became stuck in the hatch as he tried to leave the aircraft. Finally detaching himself, he landed some distance from the target location of Mundford, near the village of

Littleport, Cambridgeshire Littleport is a town in East Cambridgeshire, in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about north-east of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely and south-east of Welney, on the Bedford Level South section of the River Great Ouse, close to Burn ...

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Mundford

External links

Genealogical information relating to Mundford from GenUKI
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Breckland District Civil parishes in Norfolk