Bradfield St. George is a 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 the

West Suffolk West Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * West Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * West Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral dist ...

district of Suffolk, England, about south of Bury St Edmunds. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is 'broad field'. The ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

'' records the population (including

Bradfield Combust Bradfield Combust (or Burnt Bradfield) is a village and former manor and civil parish, now in the parish of Bradfield Combust with Stanningfield in Suffolk, England, located on the A134 between Windsor Green and Great Whelnetham. In 1961 ...

and Bradfield St Clare) to be 76 people in 1086. In 2001, the population was 386 people (not including

and Bradfield St Clare). St George's Church contains an east window by the noted Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921) was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country's best known creators of decorative art for churches. Family and Early ...

The village has a village hall built in 1955 which holds many events like the village fireworks night, special occasions and Friday night dinner evenings (once monthly). The village had a forge; a wheelwright; a school; a post office; three pubs and a windmill, all of which, other than one of the pubs (Fox and Hounds), are now private houses. The Fox and Hounds closed in 2012 and is now The Solstice Wellbeing Centre providing psychotherapy; yoga; qigong, and meditation, and is also used by local tai chi and gongfu (kung fu) schools. The village is home to former

England Cricket The England cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cr ...

er and

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

commentator Nick Knight.

In literature

The village was the setting for

Adrian Bell Adrian Hanbury Bell (4 October 1901 – 5 September 1980) was an English ruralist journalist and farmer, and the first compiler of ''The Times'' crossword. Early life Bell was born at Stretford, Lancashire, son of Robert Bell (1865-1949), e ...

's book ''Corduroy'', published in 1930, though in the book Bell calls Bradfield "Benfield". ''Corduroy'' is the author's account of his life as a young man, forsaking the fashionable ballrooms and cocktail parties of Inter-war era Mayfair, to learn farming in Suffolk. Though unsentimental, ''Corduroy'' is at times thoughtful, humorous and wistful. Bell expertly depicts the joys, hardships and crises not just of farming, but of all rural life, made the more interesting for being told by a man who came to it as an outsider. Bell tells of ploughing, harvesting, livestock and grain markets, shooting, beating, ferreting and foxhunting, and the importance of nature and religion as twin pillars of the Suffolk countryman's life.

References

External links

Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury Thedwastre Hundred {{Suffolk-geo-stub