Herringfleet is a place and former

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 authority ...

in the north of the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

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 ...

. It is located north-west of

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

in the

East Suffolk East Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * East Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * East Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * East Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral dist ...

district. The parish was combined with

Somerleyton Somerleyton is a village and former civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of Lowestoft and south-west of Great Yarmouth in the East Suffolk district. The village is closely associated with Somerleyton Ha ...

and Ashby to create the parish of

Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet is a civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of Lowestoft and the same distance south-west of Great Yarmouth and is in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district. ...

in 1987. The western edge of Herringfleet is marked by the River Waveney. Prior to local government reorganisation in 1974, the former parish included the village of

St Olaves St Olaves is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated on the River Waveney, south-west of the town of Great Yarmouth and the same distance north-west of the Suffolk town of Lowestoft. It is within The Broads nation ...

to the north. This was combined with the parish of Fritton and the new parish of

Fritton and St Olaves Fritton and St Olaves is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The parish comprises the villages of Fritton and St. Olaves, together with the surrounding rural area.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . The ...

transferred to the county of

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 ...

. Previously the entire area south and east of the Waveney was part of Suffolk. Prior to the loss of St Olaves, the population of the former parish was 262 at the

1961 United Kingdom census The United Kingdom Census 1961 was a census of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland carried out on 23 April 1961. It was the first to ask about qualifications, migration status, and household tenure. It was also the first to u ...

. At the 1981 census it was 58 and the current population of Herringfleet is estimated to be around 50. There is no village centre, with the population spread across a number of scattered farms and small settlements. Much of the land within the area of the former parish is owned by the Somerleyton Estate.Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet
Healthy Suffolk, 2016. Retrieved 2021-03-13.Lound with Ashby, Herringfleet and Somerleyton Neighbourhood Plan
Lound Parish Council, 2018. Retrieved 2021-03-14.

History

St Olave's Priory in St Olaves - geograph

Herringfleet was occupied during the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

, and there have been archaeological finds made dating occupation to the neolithic period. At the Domesday survey a manor of one carucate was owned by the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

.Herringfleet
Open Domesday. Retrieved 2021-03-16. During the medieval period, a ferry was established across the Waveney at St Olaves. St Olaves Priory was founded nearby in about 1216 by Roger Fitz Osbert as an

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

priory. It was dedicated to

St Olav Olaf II Haraldsson ( – 29 July 1030), later known as Saint Olaf (and traditionally as St. Olave), was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title ''Rex Perpet ...

and operated until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, controlling the Herringfleet parish church as well as those at

Burgh St Peter Burgh St Peter is a village and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. The village is about northeast of Beccles in Suffolk. The village is about above sea level, sharing the same slight hill with Wheatacre about to ...

and Hales as well as land at Tibenham.St. Olave's Priory
List entry, Historic England. Retrieved 2021-03-16.Ruins of St Olave's Priory, Fritton and St Olaves
Norfolk Heritage Explorer,

Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is the top-tier local government authority for Norfolk, England. Its headquarters are based in the city of Norwich. Below it there are 7 second-tier local government district councils: Breckland District, Broadland Distr ...

. Retrieved 2021-03-16.History of St Olaves Priory

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. Retrieved 2021-03-16.Page W ed. (1975) 'Houses of Austin canons: Priory of Herringfleet', in ''A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2'', pp.100–101. London: Victoria County History.
Available online
at British History Online. Retrieved 2021-03-17.) The site is largely in ruins, although the undercroft survives in good condition. By around 1509 the first stone bridge across the Waveney had been built, possibly replacing a bridge first mentioned in 1298. This was replaced with a cast iron bowstring girder suspension bridge in 1847. The bridge is the only crossing point on the Waveney between

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

and

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

Henry Jerningham Sir Henry Jerningham KB (1509/10 – 6 September 1572) was an English courtier during the Tudor period. He was a Gentleman Pensioner during the reign of Henry VIII. In the succession crisis of 1553 he was one of the foremost supporters of M ...

owned the priory site by 1546 and a Tudor manor house was built on the site. By the 18th-century the manor was owned by the Leathes family, and Herringfleet Hall dates from this time, the new hall having been built to replace an older manor house to the south. A series of duck decoys are known to have been operated at

Fritton Decoy Fritton may refer to the following places in Norfolk, England: * Fritton, Great Yarmouth * Fritton, North Norfolk, a location near Ludham * Fritton (near Morning Thorpe) Morningthorpe (sometimes Morning Thorpe) is a village and former civil ...

at the north-east boundary of the former parish at this time and are believed to date from the 17th-century. The Great Yarmouth to Beccles railway line opened in 1859 and passed through the former parish, with a station at St Olaves. This operated until 1959. On the western edge of the former parish, Herringfleet Windmill, a timber smock drainpipe windpump, was built in about 1820. It is a Grade II* listed building and is within the area of The Broads national park. During

World War II 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 opposin ...

parts of the parish, including the area around Fritton Decoy, were used for training ahead of the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

in 1944. The

79th Armoured Division The 79th Armoured Division was a specialist armoured division of the British Army created during the Second World War. The division was created as part of the preparations for the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, D-Day. Major-General Percy Hob ...

used the site for the testing and development of amphibious DD tanks from 1943 and it was used until 1947 as part of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

's Assault Training and Development Centre, and later part of the Specialised Armour Development Establishment. Other areas in Herringfleet and the surrounding area were used as campsites for the units involved in training.

Church of St Margaret

The parish church, which is dedicated to St Margaret, is one of around 40

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshi ...

es in Suffolk. It dates from the medieval period, with the tower thought to date from the 11th-century at the latest, with a possibility of it dating from the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

period, although this is considered unlikely due to its construction in Caen stone.Hart
Herringfleet, St Margaret
Round Tower Churches Society. Retrieved 2021-03-16. The parish came under the control of St Olaves Priory after it was established in the 13th-century. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

doorway dates from the 12th-century and there are 12th- and 13th-century windows in both the nave and

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. Ove ...

. The church was restored from 1824 by the Leathes family and include Victorian stained glass windows as well as painted glass dating from as early as the 14th-century.Church of St Margaret
List entry, Historic England. Retrieved 2021-03-16. The church is a Grade I listed building. To bells hang in the tower, one cast by William and Alice Brend of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in 1611, the other by the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

in 1837.Herringfleet Tower details
Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 2022-03-10

Notes

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Former civil parishes in Suffolk Waveney District