Ditchingham 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 A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 ...

. It is located across the

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The "ey" part of the name means "river" thus the name is tautological. Course The source of the River Wavene ...

from Bungay, Suffolk.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. .

History

Ditchingham'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 the homestead or settlement of 'Dicca's' people. 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 ...

, Ditchingham is listed as a settlement of 36 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 Lodding. In 1086, the village formed part of the

East Anglian East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

estates of King William I. In 1855, an Anglican convent known as the Community of All Hallows was founded in Ditchingham by Lavinia Crosse and Reverend William E. Scudamore. The convent acted as a refuge for women in 'moral danger' and other destitute individuals. The community closed in 2018. Lilias Rider Haggard's novel, ''The Rabbit Skin Cap (1939)'' tells the life story of George Baldry, a local inventor and poacher. The picture on the front cover of the book is a painting by

Edward Seago Edward Brian Seago, RBA, ARWS, RWS (31 March 1910 – 19 January 1974) was an English artist who painted in both oils and watercolours. Early life The son of a coal merchant, Seago was born in Norwich and attended Norwich School. He was a se ...

of local schoolboy, Douglas Walter Gower. In later life, Gower discovered the tusk of a

woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...

near the

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repre ...

on Broome Heath which is now displayed in

Norwich Castle Museum Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...

. Much of the surrounding countryside is part of the estate centred on

Ditchingham Hall Ditchingham Hall is an English country house, near the village of Ditchingham in south Norfolk, England, which is set in about of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown. The Hall is about northwest of Ditchingham off the B1332 road between Bu ...

which was built in the Eighteenth Century and features gardens designed by Capability Brown. The Hall is the ancestral seat of the

Earl Ferrers Earl Ferrers is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for Robert Shirley, 14th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. The Shirley family descends from George Shirley (died 1622) of Astwell Castle, Northamptonshire. In 1611 he ...

and is currently in the possession of Robert Shirley, 14th Earl Ferrers.

Geography

The civil parish has an area of and in the 2011 Census had a population of 1,635 residents living in 739 households. Ditchingham falls within the constituency of

South Norfolk South Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Long Stratton. The population of the Local Authority District was 124,012 as taken at the 2011 Census. History The district was formed on 1 April 19 ...

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 Richard Bacon MP of the Conservative Party. A new two-member electoral ward called Ditchingham and Earsham was created for the 2019 district council elections, consisting of 5,132 people of voting age. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

St. Mary's Church

Ditchingham's parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary and boasts one of the tallest Fifteenth Century towers in South Norfolk. During the Nineteenth Century, the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was remodelled by

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country h ...

followed by a restoration of the chancel arch and nave roof by

Frederick Preedy Frederick Preedy (2 June 1820 – 28 March 1898) was an architect and glass painter in England. Life Preedy was born in Offenham near Evesham in Worcestershire and died at his son's home in Croydon. During his early life his family moved from ...

. St. Mary's has an interesting set of stained glass windows depicting Edmund Tudor with Lady Margaret Beaufort, a series of knights and a timeline of rectors of the church, the manufacturer of the windows are unknown. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Chicken Roundabout

Ditchingham's Chicken roundabout had been home to a group of feral chickens as early as the mid-1990s, cared for by a local man called Gordon Knowles. The number of birds living at the roundabout increased and declined over the years due to a range of factors including

Avian influenza Avian influenza, known informally as avian flu or bird flu, is a variety of influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds.

and theft. In 2010, the remaining chickens were given to a local animal charity with a plaque to Knowles' role in the local community being erected in 2012.

Amenities

Parravani's ice creams were established in the village in the early C20 and Lamberts Coaches are another long established local company.

Notable Residents

Sir John Hobart, 3rd Baronet Sir John Hobart, 3rd Baronet (20 March 1628 – 22 August 1683) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1683. Hobart was the son of Sir Miles Hobart (son of Sir Henry Hobart, 1 ...

(1628-1683)- English landowner and politician * Philip Bedingfield (d.1660)- English landowner and politician * Rr-Adm. Samuel Sutton (1760-1832)- British naval officer * William E. Scudamore (1813-1881)- English priest and historian * Lavinia Crosse (1821-1890)- founder of Community of All Hallows * James Franck Bright (1832-1920)- British historian * Sir H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925)- British author of

King Solomon's Mines ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the ...

and the Allan Quatermain Series * William Carr (1862-1925)- British biographer and historian * Lilias Rider Haggard (1892-1968)- British nurse and author * Lt-Col Victor Buller Turner VC- (1900-1972) British soldier and recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...

(1917-2019)- British literary editor and novelist *

Robert Shirley, 13th Earl Ferrers Robert Washington Shirley, 13th Earl Ferrers, (8 June 1929 – 13 November 2012), styled Viscount Tamworth between 1937 and 1954, was a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords as one of the remaining hereditary peers. H ...

(1929-2012)- British politician and peer * Kevin Steggles (b.1961)-

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

footballer *

Deb Murrell Deb Murrell (born 24 July 1966) is a British cyclist. She competed in the women's cross-country mountain biking event at the 1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta ...

(b.1966)- British cyclist * Jimmy Lewis (b.1967)-

cricketer

War Memorial

Ditchingham's war memorial is an almost unique memorial featuring the names of the fallen above a life-sized figure of a soldier lying in state cast in bronze, designed by

Francis Derwent Wood Francis Derwent Wood (15 October 1871– 19 February 1926) was a British sculptor. Biography Early life Wood was born at Keswick in Cumbria and studied in Germany and returned to London in 1887 to work under Édouard Lantéri and Sir Thomas ...

. 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 ...

: * Sergeant Herbert H. Bird (1886-1916), 2/6th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment * Sergeant Ernest W. Seeley (1882-1915), 6th Battalion,

South Lancashire Regiment The South Lancashire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment, which recruited, as its title suggests, primarily from the South Lancashire area, was created as part of the Childers Re ...

* Lance-Sergeant Hubert G. Strowger (d.1916), 2nd 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 ...

* Corporal Bertie A. Johnson (d.1918), 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment * Lance-Corporal Harold C. Edmunds (1896-1918), 1/1st Battalion,

Cambridgeshire Regiment The Cambridgeshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army, and was part of the Territorial Army. Originating in units of rifle volunteers formed in 1860, the regiment served in the Second Anglo-Boer War and the First and Secon ...

* Lance-Corporal Gordon C. Williams (d.1918), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Gunner Harry Runicles (1897-1916), 86th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery * Gunner George A. Smith (1887-1917), 321st (Siege) Battery,

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

* Private Harold A. Fiske (1896-1915), A Company, Royal Army Service Corps * Private Ernest A. Reynolds (d.1916), 8th Battalion,

Border Regiment The Border Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot and the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot. After service i ...

* Private Ralph R. Butcher (d.1916), 2nd Battalion,

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

* Private Philip C. Simmons (1888-1916), 5th Battalion,

Royal East Kent Regiment The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...

* Private Daniel D. Fairhead (1891-1918), 34th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers * Private Jacob E. Kent (1889-1918), 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers * Private Sidney Bird (1888-1917), 76th Company,

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks ...

* Private Albert V. Gorbel (1890-1916), 1st Battalion,

Middlesex Regiment The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers R ...

* Private Reginald H. V. Dobbie (1888-1915), Wellington Infantry Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force * Private Augustus G. Williams (1885-1914), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Harry Codling (1895-1915), 1/4th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private William H. Norman (1886-1916), 8th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Arthur Gillingwater (d.1916), 9th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment * Private Harry A. Hale (d.1916), 1st Battalion,

Northamptonshire Regiment The Northamptonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1960. In 1960, it was amalgamated with the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment to form the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's O ...

* Private Kenneth R. Hamilton (1897-1916), 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment * Private Bertie Prior (d.1917), 2nd Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment * Private Alan G. Attoe (1900-1918), 20th (Training) Battalion, Rifle Brigade * Private Arthur L. Garrould (1881-1918), 15th Battalion,

Royal Scots The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I of Scotland. The regime ...

* Private George H. Hansy (d.1915), 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment * C. Gray * W. I. Sampson And, the following for 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 ...

: * Second-Lieutenant Jerome E. O. Treherne (1924-1944),

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1958, serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. The regiment was formed as a consequence of th ...

* Leading-Aircraftman James C. Lambert (1923-1941),

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 ...

* Gunner Frederick A. Plumb (1916-1941), 37th (Light) Anti-Aircraft Regiment,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

* Private William Reeve (1913-1941), 1st Battalion,

Hertfordshire Regiment The Hertfordshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army. Originating in units of Rifle Volunteers formed in 1859, the regiment served in the Second Anglo-Boer War and the First and Second Wor ...

* Private Sidney D. Fairhead (1920-1943), 5th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment Also featured on the war memorial is Nurse Mary Rodwell of

Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC; known as ''the QAs'') is the nursing branch of the British Army Medical Services. History Although an "official" nursing service was not established until 1881, the corps traces its heritage ...

who was killed when ''

HMHS Anglia SS ''Anglia'' was a steam ship requisitioned for use as a hospital ship during the First World War. On 17 November 1915 she hit a mine laid by the German U-boat, ''UC-5''. History ''Anglia'' was built by Wm Denny & Brothers of Dumbarton, Scot ...

'' hit a sea mine close to Folkestone. Smith, L. (2005). Retrieved December 24, 2022. http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/Ditchingham.html