Barnham 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

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 di ...

district of the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

about south of

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road (England), A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, coverin ...

and north of

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

on the A134. The village of Euston is to the east. According to the Swedish scholar

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (8 January 1877 in Vallsjö – 23 November 1964 in Lund) was a Swedish academic, Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to 1942 and one of the outstanding scholars of the English language in the firs ...

, the name of the village means "Beorn's homestead".

Prehistory

East Farm, Barnham, is an important archaeological site dating back to the

Hoxnian Stage __NOTOC__ The Hoxnian Stage was a middle Pleistocene stage of the geological history of the British Isles. It was an interglacial which preceded the Wolstonian Stage and followed the Anglian Stage. It is equivalent to Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS ...

of the

Lower Palaeolithic The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears ...

(about 400,000 years ago). Flint artefacts have also been found.Nick Ashton: ''Early Humans'',

New Naturalist The New Naturalist Library (also known as ''The New Naturalists'') is a series of books published by Collins in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Br ...

series (London: HarperCollins, 2017), pp. 128–132.

History

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 records that Barnham housed 35 families, which meant it was a large village by the standards of the time.Barnham
Open Domesday. Retrieved 25 January 2013. It was part of the holdings of Earl Hugh of Chester, having been held by

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

in 1066. The parish church, dedicated to St Gregory, was heavily restored in the 19th century.St Gregory, Barnham
Suffolk churches website. Retrieved 2013-01-25. The village used to be split into two parishes, divided between the liberties of St Edmund and of Thetford until 1639.St Martin, Barnham
Suffolk churches website. Retrieved 2013-01-25. Ruins of the other church, dedicated to St Martin, can still be seen. From 1808 to 1814, Barnham had a station in the London to Great Yarmouth shutter telegraph chain, which connected the Admiralty in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to its naval ships in the port of

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

. Barnham railway station on the

Thetford to Bury St Edmunds line The Thetford to Bury St Edmunds line is a closed railway between Thetford in Norfolk and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. It was a single line railway of . History Early proposals and the Bury St Edmunds and Thetford Railway Plans for a ...

closed in 1960. Barnham Windmill was a three-storey tower mill built in the village in 1821. It has been converted into residential accommodation.

RAF Barnham

RAF Barnham RAF Barnham (also called Barnham Camp) is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station situated in the English county of Suffolk south of the Norfolk town of Thetford. It is located to the north of the village of Barnham, Suffol ...

is located to the north of Barnham on Thetford Heath, along the A134 south of

. The station was opened in 1939 and used as a chemical weapons store during and after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In the 1950s, a nuclear weapons store facility was built on part of the site to store the UK's free-fall nuclear bombs for the Blue Danube project. The site is known to have been operational as a nuclear store in September 1956, commanded from

RAF Honington Royal Air Force Honington or more simply RAF Honington is a Royal Air Force station located south of Thetford near Ixworth in Suffolk, England. It was used as a bomber station during the Second World War and through the Cold War, hosting Han ...

, to the south, but it is believed to have stopped in 1963, after the development of the Blue Steel missile programme. The nuclear facility was closed in 1966 and became an industrial site. However, it is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

and several buildings on it have

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

status.Photo gallery: Nuclear bomb store in Suffolk on English Heritage at risk list
''Eastern Daily Press'', 11 October 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013. Barnham Camp remains a training site for the

RAF Regiment The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by Royal Warrant in 1942, the Corps carries-out security tasks relating to the protection of assets and personnel dedicated ...

as a satellite camp to RAF Honington.RAF Barnham (94 Maintenance Unit) Nuclear Bomb Store (Permanent Ammunition Depot)
Subterranea Britannica, 9 November 2003. Retrieved 21 January 2013.

Barnham Heath SSSI

Barnham Heath is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

to the east of the village. Its consist of

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

heath with a range of grassland and scrub habitats.Barnham Heath
, SSSI citation, Natural England. Retrieved 25 January 2013. It is an important bird habitat, including the protected

stone curlew The stone-curlews, also known as dikkops or thick-knees, consist of 10 species within the family Burhinidae, and are found throughout the tropical and temperate parts of the world, with two or more species occurring in some areas of Africa, Asia, ...

''(B. oedicnemus)''. Land surrounding the village also forms part of the Breckland Farmland and Breckland Forest SSSIs as well as the Barnham Little Heath and Thetford Heaths SSSI.

References

External links

* * {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury