Rackheath 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 authority ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, and is roughly north-east of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

city centre. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,551 in 625 households at the 2001 census, increasing to a population of 1,972 in 762 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Broadland Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. The population of the local authority district taken at the 2011 Census was 124,646. Its council is based in Thorpe St Andrew. In 2013, Broadland wa ...

. It is the site of a proposed new eco-town. The villages name origin is uncertain 'Narrow landing place' or perhaps, 'hollow landing place' or 'narrow path landing place'. The A1151 Norwich to Wroxham Road runs through the parish dividing it in two. There is a small settlement (originally known as Great Rackheath or Rackheath Magna) near the 14th century listed church of All Saints (redundant since the 1970s) to the north, and the now much larger settlement of New Rackheath (but originally known as Little Rackheath or Rackheath Parva) to the south. All Saints church has a 12th-century

canonical sundial A tide dial, also known as a Mass or scratch dial, is a sundial marked with the canonical hours rather than or in addition to the standard hours of daylight. Such sundials were particularly common between the 7th and 14th centuries in Europe, at ...

on the south wall. New Rackheath contains the modern (1959) Holy Trinity Church as well as the 1930s

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style ''Sole and Heel'' public house, which is situated in the part of the village known locally as Slipper Bottom (or Slipper's Bottom). Rackheath's other pubs are the ''Racecourse Inn'', originally the ''Washington Hotel'', on Salhouse Road; and the ''Green Man'', on the Wroxham Road, which dates from before 1826 and closed in November 2011. Rackheath was the location of a

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 opposin ...

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

base, the most easterly and therefore the nearest to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

of all British wartime airfields. Near the village sign on Salhouse Road, next to the gate of Holy Trinity Church, is a memorial plaque to the 467th Bombardment Group, which consisted of four squadrons who flew

B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

Liberators from the base in support of the Allied advance across Europe. Part of the former airfield is now Rackheath Industrial Estate.

Rackheath Eco Town

In 2008, controversial proposals were made for a new eco-town containing over 5100 homes to be built in Rackheath and

Salhouse Salhouse is a village and civil parish in the Broads in the English county of Norfolk. It lies south of the River Bure and Salhouse Broad, about north-east of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population o ...

on farmland formerly the site of the Second World War

RAF Rackheath Royal Air Force Rackheath or more simply RAF Rackheath is a former Royal Air Force station located near the village of Rackheath, approximately north-east of Norwich, England. History Airfield construction began in 1943 for the United States ...

airfield. The proposals have attracted much criticism, mainly because the eco-town is to be built on a greenfield site, within a mile of

The Broads The Broads (known for marketing purposes as The Broads National Park) is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Although the terms "Norfolk Broads" and "Suffolk Broads" are correctly use ...

National Park. A local group calling themselves

SNUB A snub, cut or slight is a refusal to recognise an acquaintance by ignoring them, avoiding them or pretending not to know them. For example, a failure to greet someone may be considered a snub. In Awards and Lists For awards, the term "snub" ...

, or Stop Norwich UrBanisation, was set up to oppose these proposals. These proposals include the provision of a new railway station on the

Bittern Line The Bittern Line is a railway branch line in Norfolk, England, that links to . It passes through the Broads on its route to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the north Norfolk coast. It is named after the bittern, a rare bird found in t ...

. A halt for the village had been considered in the early days of the railway.Replies to parish council circular re proposed halt at Rackheath
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References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Rackheath

External links

{{authority control Broadland Villages in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk