Burston is a village and former

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

, now in the parish of

Burston and Shimpling Burston and Shimpling is a civil parish in the county of Norfolk, England. The parish covers an area of and had a population of 538 in 206 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 568 in 234 households at the 2011 Census. It in ...

, in the

South Norfolk South Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Long Stratton. The population of the Local Authority District was 124,012 as taken at the 2011 Census. History The district was formed on 1 April 197 ...

district, in the county of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England, 3 miles (4.5 km) north of Diss. In 1931 the parish had a population of 279. In the 2011 Census, Burston and Shimpling had a population of 568 people in 234 households.

History

Burston's name is of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

origin and derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), 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 was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for a settlement or farmstead built around a landslip. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, Burston is listed as a settlement of 41 households belonging to King William and

Robert Malet Robert Malet (c. 1050 – by 1130) was a Norman-English baron and a close advisor of Henry I. Early life Malet was the son of William Malet, and inherited his father's great honour of Eye in 1071. This made him one of the dozen or so great ...

. From 1914 to 1939, Burston was the scene of the longest strike in history when schoolteachers Tom and

Annie Higdon Annie Catherine "Kitty" Higdon (''née'' Schollick; 30 December 1864 – 24 April 1946) was a British schoolmistress. She and her husband, Tom, were at the centre of the 25-year long Burston School Strike. Their battle with authority is celebrate ...

went on strike in protest over unhygienic and inadequate schooling conditions for the local children. In 1949, the School building was registered as an educational charity and is currently operated by a board of trustees as a museum, visitor centre, village amenity and educational archive. A rally to commemorate the strike has been organised on the first Sunday of September every year since 1984 by the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

and its successor organisation,

Unite the Union Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK (after ...

. On 1 April 1935, the parish of

Shimpling Shimpling is a village and civil parish in south Suffolk, England. About from Bury St Edmunds, it is part of Babergh district. The village is formed from two halves, the newer Shimpling Street and about away the old village of Shimpling. T ...

was merged with Burston. On 10 July 1983, the new parish was renamed to "Burston and Shimpling". In 1931 the parish of Burston (prior to the merge) had a population of 279.

St. Mary's Church

Burston's Parish Church is of

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 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

origin and is dedicated to

Saint Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

. In the Eighteenth Century, the tower collapsed and the parish did not have the sufficient funds to erect a replacement. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

were significantly remodelled in the Nineteenth Century and the church has been

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since December 1959. Furthermore, the graveyard holds the graves of the Higdons who led the school strike.

Amenities

Burston once had its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, with services on the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

between and

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. The station closed in 1966.

Notable Residents

- English schoolmistress * Tom Higdon- English schoolmaster

War Memorial

Burston has a new War Memorial constructed out of marble and brick on Church Green, complete with a researched book containing details of the fallen and those who served during the conflicts of the Twentieth Century. It lists the following names for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

: * Sergeant Frederick G. Bryant (1895-1916), 1/6th Battalion,

Durham Light Infantry The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1968. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and t ...

* Lance-Sergeant Herbert Garnham (1890-1915), 9th Battalion,

Royal Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

* Corporal George W. Durbridge (1898-1918), 12th Battalion,

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tank ...

* Private William E. East (1896-1916), 2nd Battalion,

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

* Private Gurney R. Sandy (1895-1918), 8th Battalion,

Lincolnshire Regiment The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regiments ...

* Private Edward K. Potter (1888-1917), 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private George W. Sandy (1894-1915), 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private George W. Johnson (1890-1917), 2nd Battalion,

South Wales Borderers The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for 280 years. It came into existence in England in 1689, as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot, and afterwards had a variety of names and headquarters. In ...

Burston and Shimpling Parish. (2020). Retrieved November 16, 2022. https://burstonandshimpling.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-War-Memorial-Book.pdf

Notes

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Former civil parishes in Norfolk South Norfolk