Garboldisham () is a village and civil parish, part of Guiltcross in the

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

district, in Norfolk, England, near the boundary with

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 ...

. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 721 which increased to 969 at the 2011 Census.

Origin of name

A D Mills (2003) says it was a 'homestead or village of a man called Gǣrbald'. It appeared in the Domesday Book (1086) as Gerboldesham. The traditional view of Gaerbold is that it is an Old English name, i.e. homestead of Garbold. Others argue it has a Viking origin with Garbold being a famous Viking. As described above, the boundary between Anglian, Viking and possibly even Iceni is blurred in the light of recent genetic and linguistic research. To the south of the village are the hamlets of Smallworth and Broomscot Common, the name of the latter according to some recalling the village's ancient pagan past, but more likely, so Carole Hough thinks, an affiliation to a Scandinavian with the surname Brun. This name might reflect the Viking invasions or Scandinavian connections of the Wuffingas, founders of the kingdom of East Anglia. It might even go further back in time if you believe theories that the pre-Roman Iceni inhabiting this area were Old English speakers rather than Cymric/Welsh.

Notable buildings

The village contains a Post Office with independent shop, selling a range of groceries as well as East Anglian regional "gourmet" produce. On Church Road is Garboldisham Church of England School, a primary school with about 90 pupils. The school is next to Garboldisham's St John the Baptist Church and opposite the village hall. There is also a small

Methodist chapel Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

, situated south of the A1066. The ''Fox'' public house, on the crossroads of the A1066 and Hopton/Harling Road, closed in 2007 but was purchased by a village consortium in 2016 and reopened in December that year.

History

There are the ruins of Garboldisham All Saints Church, where the 14th century western face collapsed into the nave in 1734. Garboldisham Manor was a substantial house designed by George Gilbert Scott junior in the Jacobean style. The hall was demolished in 1952. There is a 10-foot high Bronze Age round barrow on Garboldisham Heath, known locally as 'Soldier's Hill' and 'Boadicea's Grave', although there is no evidence that Queen Boudicca is buried here. Local antiquarian Basil Brown carried out an excavation at the mound around 1963, and uncovered a burial urn, some cremated human bone, two flint flakes and a flint scraper. The burial probably dates from around 1300 BC. John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough and grandfather of Sir

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, was born in Garboldisham Hall in 1822. Archaeological test pits were dug between 2011-2014. The report was published in 2019.

Village life

Garboldisham has active cricket teams. The "Garboldisham Road" was mentioned in the '' A Bit of Fry and Laurie'' sketches "Information" and "Strawberries and Cream".

References

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District