# East Winch

East Winch is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.
The village is located 4.9 miles (7.9 km) south-east of King's Lynn and 34 miles (55 km) west of Norwich.

## History

East Winch's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for the eastern pasture farmstead.
In the Domesday Book, East Winch is listed as a settlement of 51 households in the hundred of Freebridge. In 1086, the village formed part of the East Anglian estates of King William I, Roger Bigod, Ralph de Tosny, Hermer de Ferrers and a freeman by the name of Rainer.
Crancourt Manor was a medieval residence of the Howard family, built as a fortified manor house. By the mid-nineteenth century, the manor was ruined apart from a single chimney stack, which remains the case today.
In May 1944, a de Havilland Mosquito of No. 23 Squadron RAF crashed within the parish after technical difficulties on a test flight from RAF Little Snoring. Both crew members (FO Charles J. Preece and FO Frederick H. Ruffle DFC) were killed.

## Geography

According to the 2021 census, East Winch has a population of 853 people which shows an increase from the 779 people listed in the 2011 census.
East Winch is bisected by the A47, between Birmingham and Lowestoft.

## All Saints' Church

East Winch's parish church was built in the Perpendicular style in the late-Fourteenth Century under the leadership of the Howard family, by the Eighteenth Century the church had largely fallen into disrepair until it was repaired under the oversight of George Gilbert Scott. All Saints' is located within the village on Church Lane and has been Grade II listed since 1960.
All Saints' features good examples of Nineteenth Century stained glass installed by Clayton and Bell depicting Christ as a shepherd and the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with a further depiction of the Resurrection by Ward and Hughes.

## Amenities

East Winch airfield was founded in 1986 by Colin and Peter Burman, initially for crop dusting. After this was banned in 2009 the airfield was repurposed for leisure use.

## Transport

East Winch railway station opened in 1846 as a stop on the Lynn and Dereham Railway between King's Lynn and Dereham. The station closed in 1968.

## Notable residents

* Sir William Howard (1225–1308)- English lawyer and justice
* Sir John Howard (c. 1366 – 1437)- English landowner, soldier and courtier
* Sir Osbert Lancaster (1908–1986)- English cartoonist, historian and author

## Governance

East Winch is part of the electoral ward of Gayton & Grimston for local elections and is part of the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.
The village's national constituency is North West Norfolk which has been represented by the Conservative's James Wild MP since 2010.

## War Memorial

East Winch's war memorial is a marble plaque in All Saints' Church which lists the following names for the First World War:
| Rank | Name | Unit | Date of Death | Burial/Commemoration |
| St1C | Robert B. Weston | HMS Queen Mary | 31 May 1916 | Portsmouth Naval Memorial |
| Pte. | Albert E. Reeve | 7th Bn., Bedfordshire Regiment | 25 Oct. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Albert Berry | 1st Bn., Essex Regiment | 13 Aug. 1915 | Helles Memorial |
| Pte. | Bertie T. Edwards | 1st Bn., Essex Regt. | 31 May 1917 | Villers-Faucon Cemetery |
| Pte. | James Reeve | 8th Bn., Norfolk Regiment | 1 Jul. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | William J. Brown | 9th Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 21 Mar. 1918 | Arras Memorial |
And, the following for the Second World War:
| Rank | Name | Unit | Date of Death | Burial/Commemoration |
| FSgt. | Sidney A. Berry | No. 10 Squadron RAF | 20 Dec. 1943 | Rheinberg War Cemetery |
| Pte. | Frederick E. J. Craske | 2nd Bn., Royal Norfolk Regiment | 25 May 1940 | Dunkirk Memorial |