Elveden is a village and civil parish 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 Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in eastern England. In 2005 it had a population of 270. The village is bypassed by the A11 between Cambridge and Norwich, which ran through the centre of the village prior to 2014.

Etymology

The name ''Elveden'' seems to come from Old English *''ælfa-dene'' 'elves' valley': the name appears, translated into Latin, as ''vallis nympharum'' 'valley of nymphs' in the mid-12th-century ''Miracula sancte Wihtburge''. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the village was often referred to as ''Elden.''

Tourism

Elveden Hall is the centrepiece of the Elveden Estate, a vast country estate that is now the family seat of the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

Guinness family,

Earls of Iveagh Earl of Iveagh (pronounced —especially in Dublin—or ) is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1919 for the businessman and philanthropist Edward Guinness, 1st Viscount Iveagh. He was the third son of Sir Benjamin Gui ...

. Formerly, it was the family home of

Maharaja Duleep Singh Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, GCSI (4 September 1838 – 22 October 1893), or Sir Dalip Singh, and later in life nicknamed the "Black Prince of Perthshire", was the last ''Maharaja'' of the Sikh Empire. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's youngest son, ...

, who is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew and St Patrick Church; his grave is visited by the

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

community who pay homage to the last ruler of the Sikh Empire. A

Center Parcs Center Parcs may refer to: * Center Parcs UK and Ireland Center Parcs UK and Ireland (formerly Center Parcs UK) is a short-break holiday company that operates six holiday villages in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, with each cover ...

holiday complex straddles the northern limit of the parish at

Elveden Forest Center Parcs UK and Ireland (formerly Center Parcs UK) is a short-break holiday company that operates six holiday villages in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, with each covering about of woodland. The company's first village opened ...

Elveden War Memorial

The Elveden War Memorial is a war memorial initially erected to the First World War dead. It is situated at the meeting of the three parishes of Eriswell,

Icklingham Icklingham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located about north-west of Bury St Edmunds, south-east of Mildenhall and south-west of Thetford in Norfolk. The village is on the A110 ...

and Elveden to which the monument honours. The names of the dead of each parish are listed separately on three of the sides of the column's base. To the original First World War listings there are also Second World War additions. The fourth (NW) side has a locked door that is used to access the inside of the column and via a spiral staircase to get to the upper parts of the monument. Small slits in the column's sides are used to light its interior and can be easily seen from the outside. It is a

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

tall, made of Weldon Stone and surmounted by an urn of

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

. Edward Cecil

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

, owner of Elveden, commissioned the architect Clyde Francis Young to design and build the column, which took 2 years to erect and was completed in 1921. It was listed in 1954 and is now a Grade II* listed structure. War monuments of this type and height are rare, and it is thought that the design was inspired by the Coke Column or Leicester Monument which is located at the relatively close

Holkham estate Holkham Hall ( or ) is an 18th-century country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for the 1st Earl of Leicester,The Earldom of Leicester has been, to date, created seven times. Thomas Co ...

in Norfolk. Perhaps in an act of one-up-manship, the Thetford monument is slightly taller than its close-by companion, but out of tact is shorter than Nelson's Column in London ( ) It is close to the A11, where there is a lay-by which can be used to visit the site.

Name appropriation

Operations "Elveden" and (coincidentally nearby) " Weeting" were investigations surrounding the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

''-implicated phone hacking allegations in July 2011.Statement from Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
/ref> It was specifically that arising from the allegations of bribes or offers of bribes to the police, for third parties' private conversation details.

References

External links

Suffolk Churches *Elveden Estate websit
Elveden Estate , Norfolk
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Forest Heath