Brandiston 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 ...

near the centre of the county of

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, about two miles south-east of the small market town of Reepham, five miles south-west of the larger town of

Aylsham Aylsham ( or ) is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Bure in north Norfolk, England, nearly north of Norwich. The river rises near Melton Constable, upstream from Aylsham and continues to Great Yarmouth and the North Sea, ...

and 10 miles north-west of the city of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. For the purposes of local government, it falls within Broadland district. The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Guton lies within the parish.

Geography

The 2001 census recorded a population for Brandiston of just 44. The bulk of the parish is occupied by farmland, mainly arable. At the 2011 Census the population less than 100 and was included in the civil parish of Booton.

History

Brandiston's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the

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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for Brant's farmstead or settlement. In 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 ...

, Brandiston is described as a settlement of four households, with the village belonging to

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

. Brandiston is one of Norfolk's remaining 124 round-tower churches, which date from before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

. St Nicholas' Church was significantly re-modelled in the late Fourteenth Century and, again, in 1844 by Edward Blore at the request of the local Athill family. Today, the church is not in frequent use and is maintained by the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. In the 1850s, four almshouses were built for the benefit of the parishioners. These were funded by the generous donations of a William Gurney almost three-hundred years earlier. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Brandiston was home to

RAF Swannington Royal Air Force Swannington, or more simply RAF Swannington, was a Royal Air Force station located south of Cawston and north west of Norwich in Norfolk, England. It was opened in April 1944, being developed from the estate of Haveringland ...

. Throughout the war, Brandiston was home to the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

No. 85 Squadron RAF ("We hunt by day and night") , colors= , colors_label= Post-1950 aircraft insignia , march= , mascot= , equipment= , equipment_label= , battles= , anniversaries= , decorations= , battle_honours= Western Front, 1917–1918; France & Low Countrie ...

and the

Mosquitos Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

of No. 157 Squadron RAF. The aircraft fell into disuse after the war and was eventually sold in 1957, mostly returning to agricultural use.

Places of Interest

There is a small common in the west of the parish, surrounded by cottages that were originally built to house labourers for Guton Hall and The Grove in Booton. The remains of a stump cross are on the eastern boundary of the parish, on the Cawston-Norwich road.

War Memorial

St. Nicholas' Church holds a marble plaque commemorating the deaths of the two sons of the parish rector during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. They are listed as: * Lieutenant Preston A. A. Enright (1899-1918), No. 22 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps * Second-Lieutenant Anthony B. Enright (1896-1917), 17th Brigade Royal Field Artillery Imperial War Museum. (2022). Retrieved November 09, 2022. https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/19615

References

Broadland Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk {{Norfolk-geo-stub