Thankful Villages (also known as Blessed Villages; ) are settlements in England and Wales from which all their members of the armed forces survived

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The term Thankful Village was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s; in ''Enchanted Land'' (1936), the introductory volume to '' The King's England'' series of guides, he wrote that a Thankful Village was one which had lost no men in the war because all those who left to serve came home again. His initial list identified 32 villages. There are tens of thousands of villages and towns in the United Kingdom. In an October 2013 update, researchers identified 53

civil parishes in England 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 ...

and Wales from which all serving personnel returned. There are no Thankful Villages identified in Scotland or Ireland yet (all of Ireland was then part of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

). Fourteen of the English and Welsh villages are considered "doubly thankful", in that they also lost no service personnel during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. These are marked in italics in the list below (note: while the list includes 17 of these, not all have been verified).

List of Thankful Villages

The researchers acknowledged a number of other villages which have been put forward as Thankful Villages but where they found there to be some uncertainty, generally over the place of residence of a serviceman.

England

;Buckinghamshire * Stoke Hammond ;Cambridgeshire *

Toft Toft may refer to: People * Albert Toft (1862–1949), English sculptor * Alfonso Toft (1866–1964), English pottery artist * Christian Toft (born 1968), Danish Olympic swimmer * Claude Toft (1922–1981), Irish politician and Mayor of Galway ...

;Cornwall *''

Herodsfoot Herodsfoot (Cornish: Nanshiryarth) is a village in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately four miles (6 km) southwest of Liskeard and five miles (8 km) north of Looe at a point where two tributaries ...

'' ;Cumberland *

Ousby Ousby is a village and civil parish in Eden district, in the English county of Cumbria. It is a Thankful Village, one of 52 parishes in England and Wales that suffered no casualties during World War I. The parish had a population of 362 in 200 ...

;Derbyshire *'' Bradbourne'' ;Dorset *'' Langton Herring'' ;Durham * Hunstanworth ;Essex *

Strethall Strethall is a village and a civil parish in the Uttlesford District, in the English county of Essex, near the town of Saffron Walden. Having suffered no casualties in World War I it is known as one of the thankful villages. The Icknield Way Pa ...

;Gloucestershire * Coln Rogers * Little Sodbury *'' Upper Slaughter'' ;Herefordshire *

Knill Knill is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenille'' (from the Old English meaning 'Place by the hillock'), the small village of Knill is just inside the Herefordshire border with ...

*'' Middleton-on-the-Hill'' ;Hertfordshire * Puttenham ;Kent * Knowlton ;Lancashire *'' Arkholme'' *'' Nether Kellet'' ;Leicestershire * Saxby * East Norton * Stretton en le Field ;Lincolnshire * Bigby *'' Flixborough'' *'' High Toynton'' * Minting *'' Allington'' ;Northamptonshire * East Carlton * Woodend ;Northumberland * Meldon ;Nottinghamshire * Cromwell *

Maplebeck Maplebeck is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located 6 miles north of Southwell, and is part of the civil parish of Winkburn. It is in the civil parish of Caunton. It is one of only five villages in England to have a church dedicat ...

Wigsley Wigsley is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicest ...

Wysall Wysall is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is south of Nottingham. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 321, including Thorpe-on-the-Glebe and increasing to 431 at the 2011 census. Holy Trinity Church ...

;Rutland *

Teigh Teigh is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the village was 48 in the 2001 census. At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and was included with the civil parish ...

;Shropshire * Harley ;Somerset * Aisholt *

Chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...

* Chelwood * Holywell Lake * Rodney Stoke * Shapwick *''

Stocklinch Stocklinch is a village and civil parish north-east of Ilminster in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. History The village is one Somerset's nine Thankful Villages (from a total of 52 villages in England and Wales), in which all ...

'' * Tellisford *'' Woolley'' ;Staffordshire *''

Butterton Butterton is a small village in the Staffordshire Peak District of England (). It overlooks the Manifold Valley and Ecton Hill, which rises 1,212 feet above sea level. Butterton lies 5 miles east of Leek and roughly 8 miles from Alton Towers th ...

'' ;Suffolk *

Culpho Culpho (pronounced Cul-fo) is a hamlet and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, about northeast of the centre of Ipswich and west of Woodbridge. Culpho's population is less than 100, so the Office for National Statistics i ...

* Wordwell *'' South Elmham St Michael'' ;Sussex *

East Wittering East Wittering is a coastal village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The majority of the village lies within the civil parish of East Wittering, while the western edge lies within the boundary of West Wittering civil par ...

;Yorkshire *''

Catwick Catwick is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Beverley town centre and west of Hornsea town centre. It lies on the A1035 road (formerly B1244) from Leven to Hornsea. ...

'' * Cundall *

Helperthorpe Helperthorpe is a village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The village lies in the Great Wold Valley and the course of the winterbourne stream the Gypsey Race passes through it. History The village is mentioned in the Domes ...

* Norton-le-Clay * Scruton

Wales

;Ceredigion *'' Llanfihangel y Creuddyn'' ;Glamorgan * Colwinston/''Tregolwyn'' ;Pembrokeshire *'' Herbrandston''

Tavernspite Tavernspite ( cy, Tafarn-sbeit) is a small village about southeast of Narberth in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. It lies on the B4314 Pendine to Templeton road, close to the border with Carmarthenshire and is in Lampeter Velfrey community an ...

, in Pembrokeshire, has been mooted as a fourth doubly thankful village in Wales.

France

In France, where the human cost of war was higher than in Britain, Thierville in Upper Normandy was the only village in all of France with no men lost from World War I. Thierville also suffered no losses in the Franco-Prussian War and World War II, France's other bloody wars of the modern era.

In popular culture

On 3 June 2016 singer-songwriter

Darren Hayman Darren Hayman (born 1 December 1970) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the writer, lead singer, and guitarist in Hefner. Since Hefner disbanded in 2002, Hayman has embarked on a prolific solo career releasing t ...

released the first of three albums inspired by and written in-situ at the Thankful Villages. 54 villages were covered, including

Welbury Welbury is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is about south of Appleton Wiske and north of Northallerton. The village is mentioned in the Domesday book (1086) as having 6 Geld units for tax ...

, North Yorkshire, not in the 53 listed above.

References

{{reflist United Kingdom in World War I