Feltwell is a village which holds an RAF base 10 miles (16 km) west of

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...

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, and is in the borough of

King's Lynn and West Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk is a local government district with borough status in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in the town of King's Lynn. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 147,451. History The district was ...

Landmarks and facilities

Feltwell has the largest area of any parish in Norfolk. It is a thriving community. The village has a large modern

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

which was originally built during the post WW2 building period to cope with the 1946-48 "baby-boom". The original school buildings are of late Victorian era mock perpendicular flint-faced single-storey buildings, which catered for all age groups on either side of Long Beck Road. Because of its size it is well provided with amenities. In addition to a general practice surgery and attached pharmacy there are a vet's surgery, a garage / service station, two convenience stores, a hairdressers, a card and gift store, a Chinese takeaway, a traditional fish & chip shop, a gymnasium, a secondhand goods yard and a number of small businesses clustered in what used to be a snooker hall. Of late there have been up to three pubs in the village but the uncertainties of the licensed trade today mean that each has had periods of being 'dark' The only pub/restaurant trading as of mid-2020 is ''The Wellington'' (a relaunch of ''The Lodge'' paying homage to the

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

bombers that flew from Feltwell in WW2). There is also a Social Club. ''The Chequers'' was re opened with new landlords on 1 December 2018 but then later closed and has been put up for sale. The village also has two churches, St Mary's and St Nicholas's (pictured above) which is now redundant, together with a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel. The street known as Long Beck as against Short Beck obtained its name from the stream (depicted on OS maps as the common black dyke) which was spring-fed from a pond in the southeast corner of the new primary school site. Feltwell was virtually a sea-shore settlement during the Roman occupation: when the New Cut relief channel was excavated several Roman villas were discovered, one with a sword currently being held at Norwich castle museum, along the excavation route of the river, and were injudiciously destroyed. The village was the site of a busy RAF bomber command aerodrome in WW2 that now houses US schooling, furniture storage and some satellite tracking from three large aerials housed in distinctive balls. Other neighbouring RAF fields now used by USAFE are

RAF Lakenheath Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, UK, north-east of Mildenhall and west of Thetford. The base also sits close to Brandon. Despite being an RAF stati ...

and

RAF Mildenhall Royal Air Force Mildenhall or RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located near Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a Royal Air Force station, it primarily supports United States Air Force (USAF) operations, and ...

.https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/33240/DEDP09_annex_a.pdf

John Gower connection

In August 1382

John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civ ...

purchased the manors of Feltwell in Norfolk and

Moulton Moulton may refer to: Places in the United Kingdom ;In England *Moulton, Cheshire *Moulton, Lincolnshire **Moulton Windmill * Moulton St Mary, Norfolk *Moulton, Northamptonshire **Moulton College, agricultural college **Moulton Park, industria ...

in Suffolk. They were then granted to Thomas Blakelake,

parson A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term d ...

of St Nicholas's, Feltwell, and others, at a rent of forty pounds annually for his life.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk