Mendlesham is a village in
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 ...
with 1,407 inhabitants at the 2011 census. It lies north east of
Stowmarket and
from London.
The place-name 'Mendlesham' is first attested in the
Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ''Melnesham'' and ''Mundlesham''. The name means 'Myndel's village'.
Mendlesham is known for its large street fair which is held on every May Day
bank holiday
A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...
. Mendlesham has a popular community newsletter, and a goo
primary school There is one
public house in the village called 'The King's Head'. The village has a
fish and chip shop and Mendlesham Bakery, a '
Premier Stores'
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
with a
Post Office counter..
Nearby at is the
Mendlesham transmitting station
The Mendlesham transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated close to the village of Mendlesham, near the town of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, United Kingdom (). It is owned and operated by Arqiva.
It has a high ...
which broadcasts
Kiss 105-108 (previously Vibe FM) on 106.4 MHz and the
Digital One digital radio multiplex, and which was formerly used for VHF 405 line transmissions of
Anglia Television. The mast stands at the corner of the former
WWII airfield,
RAF Mendlesham
Royal Air Force Mendlesham, or more simply RAF Mendlesham, is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Stowmarket, Suffolk, England.
History
RAF Fighter Command use
Mendlesham airfield was built during 1943 and opened in late Decem ...
. This was used by the
RAF and US
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...
between 1943 and 1955, and once held a memorial to the US 34th Bomb Group. The memorial has now been moved to the churchyard of
St. Mary's in Mendlesham. Although some of the land has reverted to agriculture or is an industrial estate, one airstrip is now used by the Suffolk Coastal Floaters Hang Gliding Club.
There are two churches in the village, a small
URC chapel and the grand medieval church of St Mary the Virgin, built at a time when the village had a much larger population, as well as a
Baptist chapel in Mendlesham Green. Unlike many
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
churches today, there is a
mass (Communion) service held every day at St Mary's.
In 1531 , the Mendlesham Christian Brethren were a group of
Protestant dissenters, and two decades later, Adam Foster became a
Marian martyr, after he refused to attend a
Roman Catholic mass
The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass, "the same Christ ...
. He was condemned to be
burnt at the stake
Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment ...
by
John Hopton
John Hopton (died 1558) was a 16th-century Roman Catholic Bishop of Norwich.
He was a member of the Dominican Order by 1516, in Oxford. He was educated at the University of Bologna in Italy and at Oxford University, where he took a doctorate in ...
, the
Bishop of Norwich.
Mendlesham had the second station on the
Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, which ran from 1904 to 1952.
Mendlesham Manor is an Elizabethan
Manor House.
Close to Mendlesham is the
hamlet of Mendlesham Green, which contains Mendlesham Green Baptist Church.
The village was struck by
an F0/T1 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.
See also
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
References
External links
Mendlesham Parish Council- Mendlesham's official website
St Mary the Virgin Mendlesham
Villages in Suffolk
Mid Suffolk District
Civil parishes in Suffolk
{{Suffolk-geo-stub
