Darsham 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 Lowes ...

, England. It is located approximately north east of

Saxmundham Saxmundham ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England, set in the valley of the River Fromus about north-east of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the main A12 road between London and Lowestoft. The town is serv ...

. The village is bypassed by the A12 and is served by Darsham railway station, which is approximately one mile away from the village centre, on the

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

East Suffolk Line. The name of the village of Darsham derives from Deores Ham — home of the deer. This name is borne out by early reference to local roadways as chaseways. There was hunting in this area as late as the 18th century. Darsham is a mixed community with six farms. The village still has a pub, The Fox, however over the past few years the village has lost its school, shop and post office. The garage on the A12, now primarily a petrol station, has a cafe and a shop. There is also a farm shop, a handmade tile factory, a pottery, a builder, an irrigation contractor, seed and feed merchants and a cafe, a private nursing home and a plant nursery with a shop and restaurant.

History

The village gave its name to the

Ham class minesweeper The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers (IMS), known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. All of the ships in the class are named for British place nam ...

HMS ''Darsham''. In WW2, Darsham was the site of RAF High Street, situated just off the A144 road to Bramfield and

Halesworth Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tributary of the River Blyth, upstream from Southwold. T ...

, an early radar station part of

Chain Home Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the off ...

which originated at Bawdsey Manor, in

. The High Street radar station had "Type 1 radar", 4 (Receive towers) of 240 ft made from wood and five (Transmit towers) of 360 ft made of steel. The wood towers stood in a close formation. The site later became a fireworks factory. Further down the A12 towards Lowestoft there are a row of cottages, Optney Cottages, that used to be the Darsham Coaching Inn.

Darsham Marshes Nature Reserve

Darsham Marshes Darsham Marshes is a 20 hectare nature reserve south of Darsham in Suffolk, England. It is owned and managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. This marsh and fen site has two ponds and a network of dykes. The wildlife is diverse and flowering plants ...

is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

located south of the village. The reserve is in size and is owned and managed by

Suffolk Wildlife Trust Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) describes itself as the county's "nature charity – the only organisation dedicated wholly to safeguarding Suffolk's wildlife and countryside." It is a registered charity, and its headquarters is at Brooke House in ...

.Darsham Marshes
Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 2013-05-29. The reserve consists of areas of marshland, meadow and fen land along the

Minsmere River Minsmere River is a river in the English county of Suffolk which flows into the North Sea at Minsmere. The river is formed from the River Yox at Yoxford before flowing through Middleton, Eastbridge and Minsmere. It flows to the south of Minsmer ...

and is designated as a

County Wildlife Site County Wildlife Site (often abbreviated to CWS) is a conservation designation in the United Kingdom, which despite conferring no statutory protection onto a site, does affirm a site's importance and value for wildlife in its county context. The d ...

References

External links

Picture of Darsham 'pylons' in WW2
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk