Deopham 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

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

. Deopham is located 3.9 miles west of

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich off the A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through. The parish, one of Norfolk's largest, includes rural areas to ...

and 12 miles south-west 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 ...

History

Deopham'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 a homestead close to a deep body of water, likely the nearby Sea Mere. 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 ...

, Deopham is listed as a settlement of 75 households in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of Forehoe. In 1086, the village was divided between the estates of William de Warenne and Ralph de Beaufour.

RAF Deopham Green Royal Air Force Deopham Green or more simply RAF Deopham Green is a former Royal Air Force station located near Deopham Green north of Attleborough, Norfolk, England. United States Army Air Forces use RAF Deopham Green was built in 1942 and ...

opened in 1943 for use by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

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 ...

. The base was originally home rear echelon units until it was handed over to the 452nd Operations Group of the Eighth Air Force flying B-17 Flying Fortresses against strategic targets in Continental Europe. In October 1945, the base reverted to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

which closed the base in 1948 and allowed it to revert to agricultural use. Deophamgreen-9jul46

Geography

According to the 2011 Census, Deopham is a village of 541 residents living in 231 households. Deopham falls within the constituency of Mid Norfolk and is represented at

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

by George Freeman MP of the Conservative Party.

St. Andrew's Church

Deopham's parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew and has a church tower dating back to the Fifteenth Century. The interior of the church was largely remodelled in the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Notable Residents

Messenger Monsey- humorist and physician to the

Royal Hospital Chelsea The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. It is an ...

War Memorial

Deopham's war memorial takes the form of a carved marble plaque embossed with a crown and crucifix inside St. Andrew's Church. The memorial lists the following names for 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 ...

: * Lance-Corporal Percy R. Hurrell (d.1917), 1/4th Battalion,

Royal Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

* Private Alfred W. Barrett (1897-1915), 1st Battalion,

Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1959. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, by the merger of the 32nd (Cornwall Light ...

* Private Harry Kerry (1877-1915), 1st Battalion,

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

* Private Albert J. Morter (d.1918), 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment Clarke, C. (2022). Retrieved December 23, 2022. https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/56472

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk South Norfolk