Langford 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 ...

, now in the parish of

Ickburgh Ickburgh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Ickburgh is located north of Thetford and west of Norwich. History Ickburgh's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for ''Icca's'' fortifica ...

, in the

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 ...

district, in the county of

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. The village is in the Norfolk battle training area of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

which is an area with restricted entry. Langford is about nine miles south of the town of

Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District and England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the U ...

. In 1931 the parish had a population of 34.

History

The village's name means 'Long ford'. Langford has an entry 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 ...

of 1086, in which it is recorded as Langaforde. The main landholder is named as Hugh de Montfort and the survey also states that there are two mills, a fishery, and two beehives. On 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Ickburgh.

Evacuation

During 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 ...

, the village was taken over by the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

when it was incorporated into the

Stanford Battle Area The Stanford Training Area (STANTA), originally known as the Stanford Battle Area, is a British Army training area in the English county of Norfolk. The area is approximately in size; it is some north of the town of Thetford and south-west ...

. The military ranges were needed to prepare Allied

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

for

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The ope ...

(the Battle of Normandy in 1944). Though some villagers were said to be happy to give up their homes to help the War effort,
Information about the Evacuation the majority were less than enthusiastic, with a number of heated village meetings and some refusing to leave the area.
Breckland exodus - the forced evacuation of the Norfolk Battle Area 1942:Part 1 This was the subject of a book ''Farming, on a Battle Ground'' written by Lucille Reeve, one of those who refused to leave, writing under the pseudonym ''A Norfolk Woman''. However at the close of World War II, the former villagers were never allowed to return to their homes by the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

. Most of the inhabitants of Langford were not landowners, and rented the houses and farmed the land belonging to the Walsingham estates. Though they had been promised that they could return to their homes after the war, the government later reneged on the promise and bought the land, threatening Walsingham with a

compulsory purchase order A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for ...

.
Breckland exodus - the forced evacuation of the Norfolk Battle Area 1942:Part 2 As the majority of the inhabitants were not landowners, they received very little in compensation, were put into

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

and many lost their livelihoods. They continued to fight for many years to return to their homes and farmland but the beginnings of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and the need for dedicated training areas removed all chances of a return. Since the evacuation, the village and its parish remain within the

's Thetford

training area. Access is not allowed without special permission.

The Parish Church of St Andrew

The parish church is a simple affair made up of two cells which date from the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

period.''Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East'',

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

and Bill Wilson, Langford entry. The church once had a medieval tower, but this was lost sometime in the 18th century. The bell turret is late Victorian, in a Norman style. The eaves of the church have curious carved faces on the east elevation: a grinning cat to the south, a wild man to the north.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Former populated places in Norfolk Ghost towns in England Former civil parishes in Norfolk Breckland District Forcibly depopulated communities in the United Kingdom during World War II