Denver 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 English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

. Denver is located south of Downham Market and 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 ...

. The village is located along the course of the River Great Ouse.

History

Denver'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 passage or crossing used by the Danes. Denver acted as the terminus for the Roman road the Fen Causeway, which began in Peterborough. 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 ...

, Denver is listed as a settlement of 43 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 Clackclose. In 1086, the village was part of the estates of William de Warenne. Denver Sluice controls the water levels between the tidal and non-tidal Great Ouse. In 1651, the first sluice to help with the drainage of The Fens was built by the Dutch architect Cornelius Vermuyden. The sluice was rebuilt after bursting in 1713. John Rennie the Younger built a sluice and bridge in 1834. It was enlarged in 1923 and the flood gates have been replaced several times. The four-arched bridge has its piers extended to form two locks. It is Grade II listed. Denver Sluice - geograph

Denver Windmill was built in the mid-nineteenth century and today not in use due to removal of the sails in 2017. Denver windmill - geograph

Denver Railway Station opened in 1847 as a stop on the Great Eastern Railway between King's Lynn and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. The station was closed to passengers in 1930. In October, 1942 a Short Stirling bomber aircraft crashed in the parish killing all eleven crewmen on-board. Denver station building side

Geography

According to the 2021 census, Denver has a population of 912 people which shows an increase from the 890 people listed in the 2011 census. Denver is located along the course of the River Great Ouse and at the junction of the A10, between

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 ...

and King's Lynn, and the A1122, between Outwell and Swaffham.

St Mary's Church

Denver's parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary and dates from the Thirteenth Century. St Mary's is located on Ryston Road and has been Grade II listed since 1951. St Mary's is largely built from carrstone and was heavily restored in the 1870s. The church features stained-glass installed by Ian Pace and a Victorian

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

Famous residents

* Robert Brady (1627-1700) academic and historian, born in Denver. * George William Manby (1765-1854) author and inventor, born in Denver. * Peter Sharpe (b.1944) Norfolk cricketer, born in Denver. * Andy English (b.1956) wood-engraver and educator, born in Denver.

In popular culture

In the novels of Dorothy L. Sayers, the fictional Duke of Denver's family seat is supposedly based on the village.

Governance

Denver an electoral ward 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 ...

of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by the Labour Party's Terry Jermy MP.

War memorial

Denver shares a war memorial with the nearby villages of Fordham, Ryston and Bexwell located on the village green taking the form of hexagonal stone column topped with a crucifix. The memorial lists the following names for Denver for 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 ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk