Ditchingham
| Ditchingham | |
| Norfolk | |
|---|---|
 St. Mary's Church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TM340910 |
| Location: | 52°28’0"N, 1°26’37"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,823 (2021) |
| Post town: | Bungay |
| Postcode: | NR35 |
| Dialling code: | 01986 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Norfolk |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Waveney Valley |
Ditchingham is a village in Norfolk, found a mile and a half north of Bungay and twelve miles south-east of Norwich, along the course of the River Waveney.
The name is the village is Old English and is said to derive form an ancient lord or landowner: meaning 'Dicca's people's homestead'.[1]
The 2021 census recorded Ditchingham's population as 1,823
History
In the Domesday Book, Ditchingham is listed as a settlement of 36 households. In 1086, the village formed part of the East Anglian estates of The King.[2]
In 1855, an Anglican convent known as the Community of All Hallows was founded in Ditchingham by Lavinia Crosse and Reverend William E. Scudamore. The convent acted as a refuge for women in 'moral danger' and other destitute individuals. The community closed in 2018.[3]
L Rider Haggard's novel, The Rabbit Skin Cap (1939) tells the life story of George Baldry, a local inventor and poacher. The picture on the front cover of the book is a painting by Edward Seago of local schoolboy, Douglas Walter Gower. In later life, Gower discovered the tusk of a woolly mammoth near the long barrow on Broome Heath which is now displayed in Norwich Castle Museum.[4]
Much of the surrounding countryside is part of the estate centred on Ditchingham Hall which was built in the 18th century and features gardens designed by Capability Brown. The Hall is the ancestral seat of the Earl Ferrers.[5]
In the nineteenth century, a silk factory was built in Ditchingham which was later converted into a maltings and later use as a depot for the US Army during the Second World War. The building was severely damaged by fire in 1999 and is now in residential use.[6]
St Mary's Church
Ditchingham's parish church, St Mary, dates from the fifteenth century. St. Mary's is located on Church Lane and is a Grade I listed building.[7]
St. Mary's was restored in 1846 by Anthony Salvin and again in the 1870s by Frederick Preedy.The church has an interesting set of stained-glass windows depicting Edmund Tudor with Lady Margaret Beaufort as well as others which may have been imported from Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.[8]
Chicken Roundabout
Ditchingham's 'Chicken Roundabout' had been home to a group of feral chickens as early as the mid-1990s, cared for by a local man called Gordon Knowles. The number of birds living at the roundabout increased and declined over the years due to a range of factors including Avian influenza and theft. In 2010, the remaining chickens were given to an animal charity with a plaque to Knowles' role in the community being erected in 2012.[9]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Ditchingham) |
References
- ↑ "Key to English Place-names". http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Ditchingham.
- ↑ Ditchingham in the Domesday Book
- ↑ "All Hallows: Ditchingham convent to close after 150 years" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2018-02-25. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-43172433.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1004002: Long barrow and round barrows on Broome Heath (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1153041: Ditchingham Hall (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "MNF23024 - Norfolk Heritage Explorer". https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF23024.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1050612: Church of St Mary, Ditchingham (Grade I listing)
- ↑ "Norfolk Churches". http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/ditchingham/ditchingham.htm.
- ↑ "Tributes to ‘Ole Chicken Man of Bungay’ who catapulted roundabout into national spotlight" (in en). 2020-01-27. https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/20763987.tributes-ole-chicken-man-bungay-catapulted-roundabout-national-spotlight/.