Honington, Suffolk
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Honington 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 ...
located in Bardwell Ward and Pakenham and Troston Wards of West Suffolk District Council,
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 ...
in eastern England It is near to the border with
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 ...
. It lies on the River Black Bourn, about 8 miles (13 km) from
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 ...
and 6 miles (10 km) from
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 ...
, Norfolk. Much of the farmland belongs to the estate of the Duke of Grafton. The village is known for its RAF station,
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 ...
. It is also near two joint RAF/
USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
airfields:
RAF Lakenheath Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, UK, north-east of Mildenhall, Suffolk, Mildenhall and west of Thetford. The insta ...
and
RAF Mildenhall Royal Air Force Mildenhall, or more simply RAF Mildenhall , is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station located near Mildenhall, Suffolk, Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a List of Royal Air Force stations, ...
. Honington was the birthplace of the
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
Robert Bloomfield Robert Bloomfield (3 December 1766 – 19 August 1823) was an English labouring-class poet, whose work is appreciated in the context of other self-educated writers, such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier and John Clare. Life Robert Bloomfield ...
. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1472.


Position

Honington is bordered to the north-east by Sapiston, to the north-west by Fakenham Magna, to the north by Euston, to the east by Bardwell, to the south-west by
Troston Troston is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England, five miles north-east of Bury St Edmunds. Its parish church contains rare mediaeval wall paintings, including dragon-slaying and the Martyrdom of St Edmund. The local pub, The Bull, h ...
, and to the south by Ixworth Thorpe.


History

The existence of the village is recorded 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 ...
. Before the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in the late 1530s, the land in the village was held by the abbot of the great monastery at Bury St Edmunds. The local lords of the manor were the dukes of Grafton in neighbouring Euston. The first Duke of Grafton, previously Earl of Euston, was Henry Fitzroy, the natural son of King Charles II by Countess of Castlemain. The third Duke of Grafton was briefly prime minister. The current Duke of Grafton is the 12th. The village's past residents include the pastoral poet
Robert Bloomfield Robert Bloomfield (3 December 1766 – 19 August 1823) was an English labouring-class poet, whose work is appreciated in the context of other self-educated writers, such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier and John Clare. Life Robert Bloomfield ...
, born in Honington in 1766. His first and best known poem is "The Farmers Boy". A biography of Bloomfield co-written by William Wickett, the headmaster of the village school at the time, was published in 1969. Bloomfield is buried at Shefford in
Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...
, where he spent the latter part of his life. RAF Honington opened on 3 May 1937, as one of six operational airfields within No 3 Group Bomber Command. "From Barren Rocks to Living Stones" records that Honington was able to play a part in accommodating British evacuees from the terrorism in Aden in 1967. This was a major British operation at the time. In 1994 flying operations stopped and the Honington Air Traffic Control Zone ceased to exist in preparation for Honington becoming the depot of the RAF Regiment. The station now sees only very occasional air traffic. On one occasion in recent years the runway and ground facilities were borrowed by the USAF for a short period while work was carried out on the runway at the nearby RAF Lakenheath.


Amenities

The parishes of Sapiston and Honington were combined in 1972. Although the Grade I listed St Andrew's Church, Sapiston, has been declared redundant, occasional services are still held there. All Saints' Church at Honington is one of eleven congregations in the Ixworth Deanery of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich that make up the Blackbourne Team. The church itself is a Grade I listed building. A Church of England primary school founded in the 19th century operates in the village. Honington has a public house, the ''Fox Inn''.


''Dad's Army''

This rural part of Suffolk proved to be an ideal location for the 1970s British TV show ''
Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
''. In common with much of the surrounding area, Sapiston and Honington were used for part of the series, in particular the episode " Things That Go Bump in the Night". The outside of the village school appeared as the church hall used for the Home Guard drill hall in a number of episodes. The TV director, producer and writer David Croft, co-writer of ''Dad's Army'', ''
'Allo 'Allo! ''Allo 'Allo!'' is a British sitcom television series, created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, starring Gorden Kaye, Carmen Silvera, Guy Siner and Richard Gibson. Originally broadcast on BBC1, the series focuses on the life of a Frenc ...
'', ''
Are You Being Served? ''Are You Being Served?'' is a British television sitcom that was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was created and written by David Croft (TV producer), David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. Croft also served as executive producer and television directo ...
'', ''
Hi-de-Hi! ''Hi-de-Hi!'' is a British sitcom created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and produced for the BBC. The programme initially began with a pilot on 1 January 1980 and aired for nine series between 26 February 1981 and 30 January 1988, and starre ...
'', etc., lived at Honington Hall until his death at his Portuguese holiday home on 27 September 2011.Simon Morgan-Russell: "Croft, David (1922–2011)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2015)
Retrieved 7 September 2015
/ref>


Notable residents

*
Robert Bloomfield Robert Bloomfield (3 December 1766 – 19 August 1823) was an English labouring-class poet, whose work is appreciated in the context of other self-educated writers, such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier and John Clare. Life Robert Bloomfield ...
(1766-1823), labouring-class poet * William Henry Bliss (1835-1909), scholar and clergyman * F. P. Raynham (1893-1954), pilot from the early days of aviation


References


External links

Pages including Honington from:
Kelly's Directory of Suffolk
1912
"''The Farmers Boy''"
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Dad's Army Civil parishes in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury