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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the West Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk about south of

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24, ...

and north of Bury St Edmunds on the A134. The village of Euston is to the east. According to the Swedish scholar Eilert Ekwall, 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 (Pleistocene from million to 11,700 years BP) of the geological history of the British Isles. It was an interglacial which preceded the Wolstonian Stage and followed the Anglian Stage. I ...

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 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, on a variety of natural history topics relevant to the British Isles. The aim of the series at the start was: "T ...

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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

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 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 shutter telegraph chain, which connected the Admiralty in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to its naval ships in the port of Great Yarmouth.

Barnham railway station Barnham railway station is in Barnham, West Sussex, England around north of Bognor Regis. It is located on the West Coastway Line between Brighton and Southampton, down the line from via . The station and all services are operated by S ...

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 Opening The line was built and opened by the Bury St Edmunds and Thetford R ...

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 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 on Thetford Heaths. The camp is a sate ...

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

. The base 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, 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 opposi ...

. 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. Although used as a bomber station during the Second World War, RAF Honington is now the RAF Regim ...

, 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 and d ...

and several buildings on it have

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

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 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 to the east of the village. Its consist of Breckland 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