South Elmham (also Southelmham) is a location in north

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 ...

which was an ancient

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

dating back to the 7th century when it was given to the Bishop of East Anglia. South Elmham constituted a "ferthing", i.e a quarter of

Wangford Hundred Wangford was a hundred (subdivision), hundred of Suffolk, England, consisting of . Wangford Hundred was an area of around from west to east and five across. The River Waveney formed its northern border separating it from Norfolk. To the east la ...

. This area included the parishes of

Homersfield Homersfield, also known as St Mary, South Elmham, is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is in the East Suffolk district, south-west of the market town of Bungay and north-east of Harleston. The offic ...

and Flixton.

Nine parishes

In '' The Suffolk Traveller'' (1735) John Kirby describes how Wangford Hundred is divided into three parts: the nine parishes, the seven parishes and a remaining part around

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is located along the A145 r ...

. The nine parishes are: * St Mary Flixton * St Mary Homersfield * St George Southelmham * St James Southelmham * St Margaret Southelmham * St Michael Southelmham * St Nicholas Southelmham, "whose church is so entirely demolished, that hardly any rubbish of it is to be found". * St Peter Southelmham * All Saints Southelmham When John's sons,

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

and

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

produced a second edition in 1764 they added the comment: :"These nine Parishies which are called the Deanery of Southelmham, are represented in old Wills as one Township ; and as such they have an Estate in Aldborough and Wortwell in Norfolk, common to them all. For we frequently meet with Homersfield, in the Town of Southelmham; and St. James, in the Township of Southelmham; and the like."

Etymology

Views on the etymology of the name – and indeed its significance for the Christianisation of the Anglo Saxon – differ. Keith Briggs and Kelly Kirkpatrick only mention a derivation from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

based on Elm + Ham yielding "Elm Farmstead". However Mel Birch mentions this derivation, but then goes on to discuss

Claude Morley Claude Morley (22 June 1874 – 13 November 1951) was an English antiquary and entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera and Diptera. He has been described by Peter Marren as "Suffolk's best-known entomologist". Biography Morley was born ...

's suggestion arising from area being called ''Almeham'' in the Doomsday Book. He rejected the derivation from Elm as inappropriate for an area 9,000 acres in size and with such a particular nature. Instead he offered a derivation from the saxon term '' ælmesse'' referring to "our alms" or "alms-giving" saying that this referred to an area of land given as alms by the recent christian convert, King

Sigeberht of East Anglia Sigeberht of East Anglia (also known as Saint Sigebert), (Old English: ''Sigebryht'') was a saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the first English kin ...

Felix of Burgundy Felix of Burgundy (died 8 March 647 or 648), also known as Felix of Dunwich, was the first bishop of the kingdom of the East Angles. He is widely credited as the man who introduced Christianity to the kingdom. Almost all that is known about hi ...

, the first Bishop of the East Angles. The latter view supports the claims for South Elmham to be the seat (sede) of the

See of Elmham The See of Elmham was an Anglo-Saxon episcopal see of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The precise location of the Sees of the Anglo-Saxon period are, as the historian James Campbell put it "thorny questions hichhave long vexed the learned." The presence ...

in a long standing controversy in relation to rival claims by

North Elmham North Elmham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and is located about north of East Dereham, on the west bank of the River Wensum. Including Gateley, the civil parish had a population of 1,4 ...

, in

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 ...

History

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:South Elmham Geography of Suffolk