Sicklesmere is a village in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, England. Located on the A134 around a mile south of Bury St Edmunds, the village is divided between the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

es of

Little Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

and

Great Whelnetham Great Whelnetham (sometimes Great Welnetham) is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around two miles south of Bury St Edmunds, in 2005 its population was 820. The parish also contains ...

History

All spellings of the name until the seventeenth century are with ''-d-'', starting with ''Sidulfes mere'' circa 1100. The purported 1272 spelling ''Sykolvesmere'', in W. Rye, ''A Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Suffolk'' (1900) is an error by Rye; the manuscript of the fine in the National Archives actually has ''Sydolvesm r''. The village is named after a mere or lake that used to be present near the

River Lark The River Lark is a river in England that crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse, and was extended when that river was re-routed as part of drainage improvements. It is thought to have be ...

, and the first element is the Old English personal name ''*Siduwulf'', not a Norse name (Keith Briggs and Kelly Kilpatrick, A dictionary of Suffolk place-names, Nottingham: EPNS & SIAH 2016, page 122). In truth it is no more than a small cluster of properties besides the River Lark. Many of these are flint-built cottages. A circular shaped building known as the Toll House is located on the main road. In the days of coach travel there was a regular service between

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

via

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

which ran four times a day through Sicklesmere. The village was also previously served by

Welnetham railway station Welnetham railway station was on the Long Melford-Bury St Edmunds branch line, serving Great Whelnetham, Little Whelnetham and Sicklesmere in Suffolk. It opened in 1865 and closed in 1961; later it was converted into a private residence. The " ...

until the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

. The village has a pub, the Rushbrooke Arms.

Gallery

Image:River Lark at Sicklesmere.jpg, River Lark at Sicklesmere File:Rushbrooke Arms Sicklesmere Suffolk.jpg, The Rushbrooke Arms File:Village Store, Sicklesmere.jpg, Village Store

References

External links

Villages in Suffolk {{Suffolk-geo-stub