Fritton, Suffolk

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Fritton
Suffolk
The Decoy Tavern, Fritton - geograph.org.uk - 773446.jpg
The Decoy Tavern near Fritton Decoy
Location
Grid reference: TG467000
Location: 52°32’31"N, 1°38’12"E
Data
Post town: Great Yarmouth
Postcode: NR31
Local Government
Council: Great Yarmouth

Fritton is a village and ancient parish in the very north-east of Suffolk, on the border with Norfolk. It is situated some seven miles south-west of the town of Great Yarmouth in that county, and nine miles north-west of Lowestoft.

Today the village forms part of the civil parish of Fritton and St Olaves.

History

Caldecott Hall, now a hotel rebuilt in the Victorian era, was a substantial manor house as early as the fifteenth century. It belonged to Sir John Fastolf, the original of Shakespeare's Falstaff. The Paston Letters record the bitter struggle between the Paston and Debenham families over its inheritance.

During World War II, Fritton Decoy was requisitioned by the 79th Armoured Division for the secret training tank crews of DD tanks, specially amphibious modified tanks, which would play a significant role in the D Day Landings of 6 June 1944. Between the spring of 1943 and the summer of 1945, over 2,000 men from a number of British, Canadian and American regiments / battalions came to Fritton Decoy to be trained in the operation of these tanks.

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Fritton, Suffolk)
Suffolk St Edmund badge.svg
 This Suffolk article is a stub: help to improve Wikishire by building it up.