# Feltwell

Feltwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.
Feltwell is located 11 miles (18 km) north-west of Thetford and 34 miles (55 km) south-west of Norwich.

## History

Feltwell's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a spring or stream with an abundance of mullein.
Feltwell has good archaeological evidence for Roman settlement, including two unidentified buildings, two villas and two bathhouses which prove the wealth of Feltwell during the Roman era.
In the Domesday Book, Feltwell is listed as a settlement of 124 residents in the hundred of Grimshoe. In 1086, the village was divided between the East Anglian estates of King William I, William de Warenne and the Abbey of St Etheldreda, Ely.
In August 1382 the poet John Gower purchased the manors of Feltwell in Norfolk and Moulton in Suffolk. They were then granted to Thomas Blakelake, parson of St Nicholas's, Feltwell, and others, at a rent of £40 annually for his life.
In 1944, an Avro Lancaster of No. 15 Squadron RAF crashed in the parish after a training flight from RAF Mildenhall, the crash site was excavated by the Anglian Aeronautical Preservation Society in 1982.

## Geography

According to the 2021 census, Feltwell has a population of 3,112 people which shows an increase from the 2,825 people listed in the 2011 census.
Feltwell sits along the B1112 between Stoke Ferry and Icklingham and the River Little Ouse.

## St. Nicholas' Church

St. Nicholas Church is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. St. Nicholas' is located within the village on Hythe Road. The church was largely rebuilt in the nineteenth century, after the collapse of the tower in 1898, under the direction of Frederick Preedy and was used for Catholic Mass during the Second World War for prisoners of war.

## St Mary's Church

Feltwell's active Church of England parish church, St Mary's, is also a Grade I listed building. It largely dates from the fifteenth century and was built after the site of earlier worship was severely damaged by fire. St Mary's displays East Anglia's finest examples of French stained-glass installed by the Parisian workshops of Édouard Didron and Eugene Oudinot, installed in the nineteenth century. The church was extended in the late-nineteenth century under the oversight, as with St Nicholas, of Frederick Preedy.
Among the memorials in the church is one to Lt-Col. Edward G. Hibbert of the Grenadier Guards, a veteran of the Crimean War and the Battles of Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol.

## RAF Feltwell

RAF Feltwell opened in 1937 for use by the Royal Air Force and, during the Second World War, hosted the Vickers Wellingtons of No. 37, No. 57 and No. 75 Squadrons RAF on strategic bombing missions of Continental Europe. After the war, Feltwell hosted Thor ballistic missiles for the RAF and was later leased to the United States Air Force. Today, RAF Feltwell is used as an accommodation estate for American servicepeople based at RAF Mildenhall. The base is notable for its three radomes, resembling giant golf balls, that dominate the local countryside.

## Amenities

Feltwell Primary School is named after Sir Edmund de Moundeford, a seventeenth-century Feltwell resident and politician. In 2022, the school was rated as 'Good' by Ofsted.
Feltwell's only remaining public house is called The Wellington, named after the Vickers Wellingtons that flew from RAF Feltwell during the Second World War, which dates from the eighteenth century and has in its history been used as a shop, an off-licence, a restaurant and, most recently, a wine-bar known as 'The Lodge.' The pub opened as The Wellington in 2014. The Chequers closed in 2017 having stood on its current site since the eighteenth century with significant renovation in 1930.
The village is also home to: a General Practice surgery & pharmacy; a veterinarian practice: a car garage and service station; two convenience stores; a hairdressers; a Chinese takeaway; a Fish and Chips takeaway and; a small amount of miscellaneous businesses close to the old snooker hall.

## Notable residents

* John Gower- (c. 1330 – 1408) poet, lord of the manor of Feltwell.
* Sir Edmund de Moundeford- (1596–1643) politician, died in Feltwell.

## Governance

Feltwell is an electoral ward for local elections and is part of the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy MP since 2024.

## War memorial

Feltwell's war memorial takes the form of a marble Celtic cross above a plinth, located inside St Mary's Churchyard. The memorial lists the following names for the First World War:
| Rank | Name | Unit | Date of Death | Burial/Commemoration |
| Sgt. | Edward Ellingford | 12th (Rangers) Bn., London Regiment | 9 Sep. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Cpl. | Arthur Southgate | 9th Bn., Norfolk Regiment | 18 Oct. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Cpl. | Albert J. Spencer | 2/5th Bn., Sherwood Foresters | 5 Apr. 1918 | Braine-le-Comte Cem. |
| LCpl. | Percy Wing | 2nd Bn., Loyal Regiment | 27 Jun. 1918 | Souvenir Cemetery |
| LCpl. | Albert E. Willett | 7th Bn., Norfolk Regiment | 17 Apr. 1917 | Hollybrook Memorial |
| Dvr. | Thomas S. Norbury | ASC att. 1/4th Field Ambulance RAMC | 15 Nov. 1918 | Lille Southern Cemetery |
| Dvr. | Thomas Smith | 34th Reserve Park, ASC | 9 Aug. 1918 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Gnr. | Percy W. Wright | 14th Bde., Royal Field Artillery | 25 Sep. 1918 | Brie British Cemetery |
| Gnr. | Fred Cooper | 61st (Trench Mortar) Bty., RGA | 2 Mar. 1916 | Menin Gate |
| Pte. | Alfred Wilson | 1st Cavalry Div. Ambulance, RAMC | 8 Aug. 1918 | Vis-en-Artois Memorial |
| Pte. | Ernest E. Laws | 11th Bn., Border Regiment | 2 Dec. 1917 | Tyne Cot |
| Pte. | William Peak | 2nd Bn., Coldstream Guards | 21 Oct. 1914 | Menin Gate |
| Pte. | Archibald Southgate | 1st Bn., Essex Regiment | 18 Jan. 1917 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Thomas W. Willett | 1st Bn., Essex Regt. | 13 Aug. 1915 | Helles Memorial |
| Pte. | James W. Whistler | 13th Bn., Royal Fusiliers | 1 Oct. 1917 | Tyne Cot |
| Pte. | Sydney Payne | 1st Bn., Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers | 20 Nov. 1917 | Cambrai Memorial |
| Pte. | Frederick J. Wilkin | 1st Bn., Lancashire Fusiliers | 4 Jun. 1915 | Helles Memorial |
| Pte. | Frederick W. Brown | 1st Bn., Norfolk Regiment | 4 Jun. 1916 | Faubourg Cemetery |
| Pte. | Bertie Coleman | 1st Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 14 Sep. 1914 | Jouarre Memorial |
| Pte. | Percy Vale | 1st Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 27 Jul. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Adrian Bartlett | 3rd Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 21 Feb. 1917 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Pte. | Walter A. C. Wilkin | 3rd Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 4 Apr. 1919 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Pte. | Charles W. Pearson | 8th Bn., Norfolk Regt. | Unknown | Unknown |
| Pte. | Harry E. Curtis | 9th Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 26 Sep. 1915 | Loos Memorial |
| Pte. | Thomas W. Gent | 9th Bn., Norfolk Regt. | 16 Sep. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Walter H. Bullen | 1st Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment | 25 Sep. 1915 | Loos Memorial |
| Pte. | Frederick W. Upcraft | 2nd Bn., Queen's Royal Regt. | 4 Sep. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Edwin G. Cracknell | 11th Bn., Suffolk Regiment | 17 Oct. 1917 | Tyne Cot |
| Pte. | George A. Baxter | 2/7th Bn., Worcestershire Regiment | 25 Aug. 1917 | Lijssenthoek Cemetery |
| Pte. | Percy Banham | 5th Bn., Yorkshire Regiment | 27 May 1918 | Soissons Memorial |
| Pte. | Charles W. Vincent | 9th Bn., Yorkshire Regt. | 16 Oct. 1916 | Tyne Cot |
| Rfn. | John T. Rolfe | 2nd Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps | 12 Nov. 1917 | Tyne Cot |
| Smth. | John E. Emmerson | 13th Bde., Royal Horse Artillery | 18 Jul. 1917 | North Gate Cemetery |
The following names were added after the Second World War:
| Rank | Name | Unit | Date of Death | Burial/Commemoration |
| Sgt. | G. Roy White | No. 103 Squadron RAF | 4 Jul. 1943 | Runnymede Memorial |
| AS | Henry G. Cordy | HMS Hostile | 23 Aug. 1940 | Chatham Naval Memorial |
| LCpl. | Edmund W. Lambert | Pioneer Corps | 10 Sep. 1944 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Pte. | Dorothy B. Lemon | ATS att. 151 Heavy Regt., RA | 1 Aug. 1942 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Pte. | Frederick W. Reeve | 1/6th Bn., Queen's Royal Regiment | 3 Aug. 1944 | Bayeux War Cemetery |
| Pte. | Peter T. Lawrence | Royal Norfolk Regiment | 23 Jul. 1945 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Pte. | Francis A. Manning | 6th Bn., Royal Norfolks. | 14 Jul. 1941 | St. Nicholas' Churchyard |
| Tel. | Raymond B. Walden | HMS Salmon | 14 Jul. 1940 | Chatham Naval Memorial |