Burston is a village 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. Burston is located north-east of Diss and south-west of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. On 1 April 1935, the parish of Shimpling and Burston were merged to form Burston and Shimpling.

History

Burston's name is of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

origin and derives from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

for a settlement or farmstead built around a landslip. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, Burston is recorded as a settlement of 41 households in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Diss. In 1086, the village was part of the estates of King William I and Robert Malet. The local pub, The Crown, dates back to the 17th century and still operates as a pub and restaurant. From 1914 to 1939, Burston was the scene of the longest strike in history when schoolteachers Tom and Annie Higdon went on strike in protest over unhygienic and inadequate schooling conditions for the local children. The children were instead invited to attend Burston Strike School, which was originally located on the village green before moving to the new school building in 1917. The building was funded by public subscription, with the patrons' names (including

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

) carved into bricks used to build the school. In 1949, the school building was registered as an educational charity and is currently operated by a board of trustees as a museum, visitor centre, village amenity and educational archive. A rally to commemorate the strike has been organised on the first Sunday of September every year since 1984 by the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general union, general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900 ...

and its successor organisation,

Unite the Union Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a trade union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus (trade union), Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. A general union ...

. On 10 July 1983, the parish was renamed "Burston and Shimpling". Other listed buildings within Burston include Manor Farmhouse (16th century), Crown Farmhouse (17th century), Red House (17th century) and Valley Farmhouse (17th century).

Geography

In 1931 the parish of Burston (prior to the merge) had a population of 279. This was the last time separate population statistics for Burston were collected in the census.

St. Mary's Church

Burston's parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary and dates from the 15th century. The tower collapsed in 1753 and was never rebuilt. St. Mary's is located on the junction of Diss Road and Mill Road and has been Grade II listed since 1959. The church was restored in the 19th century and again in 2013, and today boasts a set of royal arms from the reign of James I. Tom and Annie Higdon, leaders of the Burston Strike School, are buried side-by-side in the churchyard.

Amenities

Burston once had its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, with services on the Great Eastern Main Line between and London Liverpool Street. The station closed in 1966.

Notable Residents

* Annie Higdon (1864–1946) -schoolmistress, lived and worked in Burston. * Tom Higdon- schoolmaster, lived and worked in Burston.

Governance

Burston is part of the electoral ward of Bressingham & Burston for local elections and is part of the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

South Norfolk South Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. The largest town is Wymondham, and the district also includes the towns of Costessey, Diss, Harleston, Hingham, Loddon and Long Stratton. The council was based in Long S ...

. Burston is located in the constituency of Waveney Valley, which has been represented by Adrian Ramsay of the Green Party since 2024.

War memorial

Burston war memorial was unveiled in 2019 after a public subscription campaign and is a glass topped brick memorial on Church Green. The memorial lists the following names from the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

: And: Frederick G. Bryant.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Former civil parishes in Norfolk South Norfolk