Exning 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.
It lies just off the
A14 trunk road, roughly east-northeast of
Cambridge, and south-southeast of
Ely Ely or ELY may refer to:
Places Ireland
* Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely
* Ely Place, Dublin, a street
United Kingdom
* Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England
** Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formal ...
. The nearest large town is
Newmarket.
The most conspicuous building in Exning is the church of St Martin, which is visible from the A14.
History
Local lore reputes Exning to have been the capital of the
Iceni tribe and therefore the home of
Queen Boadicea
Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...
(Boudicca).
At the time of William the Conqueror, Exning was in Staploe Hundred. Later, the settlement was in the Liberty of Ely. When the powers of the Liberty were reduced, some of its territory returned to Suffolk, including Exning – albeit as a part of
Lackford Hundred
Lackford was a hundred of Suffolk, consisting of .
The hundred fills the north western corner of Suffolk and is triangular in shape, extending about in length on each side. It is bounded on the north by Norfolk, on the west by Cambridgeshire, an ...
, where it would remain until the Victorian period. For several centuries, the part of Suffolk centred on Exning was almost an enclave of the county within the confines of Cambridgeshire. The parish of Newmarket All Saints was transferred from Cambridgeshire to this virtual enclave in 1894, but it continued to be practically detached until boundary changes in the area widened considerably the "bridge" between it and the rest of Suffolk a hundred years later.
Exning is reputed to have been the birthplace of
Saint Ethelreda, to whom the
cathedral at
Ely Ely or ELY may refer to:
Places Ireland
* Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely
* Ely Place, Dublin, a street
United Kingdom
* Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England
** Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formal ...
is dedicated, though this is disputed.
A spring at Exning was named St Wendreda's Well, and a local legend had it that the seventh-century
Saint Wendreda used its water for healing. Newmarket jockeys used to take horses there to drink before a race.
is an early Victorian building which was frequently visited by Queen Mary.
During the
Second World War, the headquarters of
No. 3 Group
No. 3 Group (3 Gp) of the Royal Air Force was an RAF group first active in 1918, again in 1923–26, part of RAF Bomber Command from 1936 to 1967, and part of RAF Strike Command from 2000 until it disbanded on 1 April 2006.
No. 3 Group was fi ...
of
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
were located in Harraton House. Nearby Newmarket Heath, the northwest corner of which borders on Exning, was used as an airfield for, amongst others, Stirling III Bombers of
No. 75 (NZ) Squadron RAF. Little evidence remains of this chapter in Exning's history, apart from a single aircraft hangar on Heath Road,
Burwell (near the One Thousand Guineas Connect service station on the A14 trunk road) and a memorial plaque on the racecourse.
See also
*
Landwade
Landwade is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Exning, in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is 4 miles north of Newmarket. It was one of the smallest parishes in the county, it is only 1 kilome ...
, a neighbouring village that was formerly in Cambridgeshire but is now part of Exning parish
References
External links
Exning Parish CouncilExning history and picturesExning Cricket ClubExning parish churches
Villages in Suffolk
Forest Heath
Civil parishes in Suffolk
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