Wordwell is a small village and

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 authorit ...

in Suffolk, England, about five miles North of Bury St Edmunds. The village was hit by the Black Death in 1348 and never recovered in terms of population; in 2005 it was estimated to have only 20 residents. During the 19th and early 20th centuries it was part of the

Culford Culford is a village and civil parish about north of Bury St Edmunds and north east of London in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. According to the 2011 Census the parish had a population of 578, a decrease from 620 recorded at ...

Estate. The village is mentioned as ''Wridewellan'' in th
S1225
charter of 1040 AD where Thurketel grants the lands to

Bury abbey The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was ...

. All Saints Church is largely Norman but with Victorian alterations. Wordwell is also one of very few

Thankful Villages Thankful Villages (also known as Blessed Villages; ) are settlements in England and Wales from which all their members of the armed forces survived World War I. The term Thankful Village was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s; in ' ...

, that is to say one which lost no men during either World Wars but it is unclear whether any men left the village to serve in the first place. The church has carvings on benches and in stone. A mass grave, probably from the time of the Black Death, was found when electricity was provided to the church. Google Earth shows the outlines of buildings that once stood on the other side of the road.

References

External links

All Saint's Church
SuffolkChurches Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury {{Suffolk-geo-stub