New Buckenham 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 The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

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 ...

. The parish covers an area of and had a population of 468 in 197 households at the 2001 census, falling marginally to a population of 460 in 209 households at the 2011 census. The small parish includes only the village, New Buckenham Common and some outlying houses and farmland. It is in the

local government district Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

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 ...

. A

nucleated village A nucleated village, or clustered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement pattern. It is one of the terms used by geographers and landscape historians to classify settlements. It is most accurate with regard to planned settlements: its ...

, New Buckenham has a medieval

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogon ...

encompassing a

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

that originally served as the

market place A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...

. At the green there is a historic

market house A market house or market hall is a covered space historically used as a marketplace to exchange goods and services such as provisions or livestock, sometimes combined with spaces for public or civic functions on the upper floors and often with a ...

, a grade II-star listed building which features a

whipping post The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. ...

, and commonly called the Market Cross. The village entirely comprises a

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

together with the adjacent

Buckenham Castle Old Buckenham Castle and Buckenham Castle are two castles adjacent respectively to the villages of Old Buckenham and New Buckenham, Norfolk, England. Old Buckenham Castle All that remains today of what was a Norman castle are the remnants of ...

, which lies in the neighbouring parish of Old Buckenham.

Geography

The B1113 road passes through the village, diagonally over the green, and then across the Common. This road runs to 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 ...

, distant to the north east. The nearest towns are

Attleborough Attleborough is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish located on the A11 road (England), A11 between Norwich and Thetford in Norfolk, England. The parish is in the district of Breckland (district), Breckland and has an area ...

and Diss, where there are mainline railway stations. In general, the land slopes slightly downhill towards the south and the centre of the village lies at an elevation of around above sea level. A small watercourse (or "beck" in Norfolk dialect) runs across the Common and then along the southern edge of the village. The parish borders the parishes of Banham, Old Buckenham and Carleton Rode. The nearby hamlet of Dam Brigg lies in the parish of Banham.

History

A planned town

New Buckenham was founded in the 12th century by William d’Aubigny to accompany his new castle in the manor of Buckenham. The site had a common to the east and a limited area of arable land (the Haugh field) to the south. The town was planned on a grid pattern and surrounded by a substantial wet

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

that connected to the castle's moat. In some places the moat was up to nine metres wide and three metres deep with an internal bank. It was referred to as the ‘burgh ditch’ in 1493 and the area within it was known as ‘ the burgage’. By 1600 the moat was no longer being maintained and was becoming clogged with rubbish. in 1632 Charles Gosling, the owner of the Rookery, was given leave to build a barn across it. New Buckenham remained a market centre and was joined to Norwich by a turnpike road in 1772. However, it never grew into a larger settlement, and by the mid-19th century markets were no longer held although a small number of annual

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

s were. The population peaked in the first half of the 19th century, with 795 inhabitants recorded in the 1831 census. The village has largely retained its original layout for which, according to the '' Pevsner'' for Norfolk, ‘it deserves to be better known’, and there has been little development beyond its medieval boundaries. In ''Norfolk from the Air I'', New Buckenham is described as ‘a rare example of a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

planned town that has not significantly expanded outside or shrunk within its original boundaries’. The original plan would have been altered by the foundation of the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

between 1243 and the end of the thirteenth century. It was further modified by building over the southern part of the market place which had occurred by 1529: its original limit is marked by Boosey's Walk. Later expansions of the settlement have occurred at Marsh Lane in the south and St Martin's Gardens in the north. There remains a wealth of half-timbered housing hidden behind 18th and 19th century brick frontages, and forty buildings in the village are Grade II listed. MAGIC mapping The green is a registered

common Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Com ...

and is still called the Market Place although no market or trading fair is now held in New Buckenham.

Victorian

New Buckenham Silver Band was created in 1887 to celebrate

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 and 21 June 1887 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey, and a banquet to which ...

and continues as one of the older

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

s in East Anglia. One of the two current pubs in the village, historically the ''George Hotel'' but now named the ''Inn on the Green'', was built in 1898 as a railway hostelry in anticipation of the construction of a railway line that failed to materialise.

Community

Governance

There is a parish council that meets once a month. Since 2015, New Buckenham is in The Buckenhams & Banham

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

district, which returns one councillor to the district council. Since 2010, the parish is part of the Parliamentary

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Mid Norfolk Mid Norfolk is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2010 by George Freeman (po ...

. The green, Market Cross, church clock and Chapel Hill pump are maintained by a charitable trust called The High Bailiff's Trust. Historically the parish was part of 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 Shropham.

Amenities

As of 2019 the village has two

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

s (the ''Inn on the Green'' and ''The King's Head''), and on King Street there is a

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

, with 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 ...

counter, and next door a

tearoom A teahouse or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only serve ...

. The Inn on the Green closed permanently in 2020 and planning permission has been granted for its conversion to residential. A modern

village hall A village hall is a public building in a rural or suburban community which functions as a community centre without a religious affiliation. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is a building which is owned by a local gover ...

and playing field exists on the northern edge of the village, and a separate

cricket field A cricket field or cricket oval is a large grass field on which the game of cricket is played. Although generally oval in shape, there is a wide variety within this: perfect circles, elongated ovals, rounded rectangles, or irregular shapes with ...

lies in a corner of the Common, home to the village club. New Buckenham's calendar includes a traditional fete held on the August Bank Holiday, and a community gathering called the "Hair of the Dog Walk" which takes place on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

Religion

The historic parish church, now a grade I listed building, is dedicated to Saint Martin and is

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, coming under the

diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church of England, forming part of the Province of Canterbury in England. Its origins trace back to the early medieval bishopric of See of Elmham, Elmham and Thetford, which were ...

. There were also Primitive and Wesleyan

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

churches in the village; the Primitive chapel was on Marsh Lane whilst the Wesleyan chapel was on Chapel Lane — both have been converted to houses. Until 2018 the school room adjacent to the Wesleyan chapel continued to be used by the Methodists but has now also been sold.

Notable residents

* Poet, children's author and hymn writer

Emily Taylor Emily Taylor (7 April 1795 – 11 March 1872) was an English schoolmistress, poet, children's author, and hymnist. She wrote numerous tales for children, chiefly historical, along with books of instruction and some descriptive natural history. ...

(1795–1872) was brought up in the village and ran a school there.ODNB. Information under Alexander Gordon, "Taylor, Edgar (1793–1839)", rev. Eric Metcalfe, ODNB, Oxford University Press, 200
Retrieved 16 September 2014. Pay-walled.
/ref> * Biblical scholar, writer, and minister Joseph Bryant Rotherham (1828–1910) was born there.

Notes

External links

New Buckenham Parish Website
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District Populated places established in the 12th century Fortified settlements