Helmingham 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
Mid Suffolk
Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council was based in Needham Market until late 2017, and is currently sharing offices with the Suffolk County Council in Ipswich. The largest town of Mid Suffolk is Stowmarket. ...
district of
Suffolk in eastern
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, 12 miles (20 km) east of
Stowmarket
Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket
Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 trunk road between Bury St Edm ...
, and 12 miles north (20 km) of
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
. It has a population of 170, increasing to 186 at the 2011 Census. It retains the same name by which it was recorded 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 ...
of 1086, namely ''Helmingheham'', meaning 'the village of Helm's people'.
[ Eilert Ekwall, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.232.]
Helmingham Hall
Helmingham Hall is a moated manor house in Helmingham, Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the Tollemache family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late medieval/Tudor style. ...
– a large red-brick quadrangular mansion – dates from the reign of Henry VIII. The ancient family of
Tollemache have been seated here from an early period after settling for a while at
Bentley soon after the
Norman conquest of England. A Lionel Tollemache married the heiress of the Helmingham family so acquiring this estate in the 15th century.
The village was the birthplace of Faith Emmeline Backhouse, mother of the war poet
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
In 1900, excavations in the
Rectory garden unearthed a cemetery, possibly Roman, containing some 25 graves.
[Campaign for Real Ale about Helmingham](_blank)
/ref>
Present day
The village is formed from the meeting of two roads, B1077 from the south-west to the north and B1079 from the south-east. Helmingham Hall is 500 metres west of this junction.
Its village church of St Mary's was first built as the estate church for the Hall.
The village appears never to have had a public house.Only Fools and Horses
''Only Fools and Horses....'' is a British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas ...
'', in the Christmas special "The Frog's Legacy
"The Frog's Legacy" is the sixth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom, ''Only Fools and Horses''. It was first broadcast on 25 December 1987. In the episode, the Trotters search for the hidden gold legacy of Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, an o ...
". Most of the episode (outside scenes) was filmed in nearby Ipswich, and the church seen where they search for the grave of “Freddy Robdahl” is St Mary's. The fact that it cuts to a beach scene is in fact clever editing.
References
*
Villages in Suffolk
Mid Suffolk District
Civil parishes in Suffolk
{{Suffolk-geo-stub
