Elmswell is a village and
civil parish in the county of
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.
[OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket
Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. ] It is situated halfway between
Bury St. Edmunds and
Stowmarket and lies just to the north of the
A14 road A14 may refer to:
* Aero A.14, a Czech reconnaissance aircraft built after World War I
* Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System 14 ( ATC code A14) ''Anabolic agents for systemic use'', a subgroup of the ATC Classification Syst ...
.
The history of the village can be traced as far back as the Roman times based on a site containing a pottery kiln dated around the third century.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names the origin of Elmswell or in its
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 ...
form Elmswella, as referred to in the
Domesday Book of 1086 comes from 'Spring or Stream where elm-trees grow. The place name Elmswella is formed by the conjunction of elm + wella, where wella is
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 stream.
A huge village green – Butten Haugh Green – once formed the centre of Elmswell. However, the arrival of the railway in 1846 and the bacon factory in 1911, meant the green now has houses built on it.
The 1881 census showed that the number of dwellings in the village was 196 and the population was 761.
Present Elmswell
The village was struck by
an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.
Currently, the number of houses is over 2000 and the number of inhabitants is over 4750.
The Church of St John the Divine in Church Hill was mentioned in the
Domesday Book. Sir
Robert Gardiner Robert Gardiner may refer to:
Politicians
*Robert Gardiner (politician) (1879–1945), farmer and federal Member of Parliament from Canada
* Robert Gardiner (MP for Bristol), see Bristol (UK Parliament constituency)
* Robert K. A. Gardiner (1914†...
, former
Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, the lord of the manor, who died in 1620, built
almshouses
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...
next to the church and left them to three women from Elmswell and three from the nearby village of
Norton. He is buried in St John the Divine.
The village has had a
railway station since 1846, on the line between
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
and
Ipswich. There is a wildlife area at Kiln Meadow, and two pubs – The Tavern and The Fox - exist in the village.
Elmswell was named Suffolk's village of the year in 2008 beating Cockfield and Fressingfield into second and third place respectively.
References
External links
*
Official Elmswell Parish Site
Villages in Suffolk
Civil parishes in Suffolk
Mid Suffolk District
{{Suffolk-geo-stub