# Emneth

Emneth is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.
Emneth is located 2.9 miles (4.7 km) south-east of Wisbech and 46 miles (74 km) west of Norwich, close to the course of the River Nene.

## History

Emneth's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for Eana's meeting place or meadow.
Emneth is not featured in the Domesday Book of 1086, probably because in the late-Eleventh Century this area of Norfolk was still flooded.
Emneth was the site of Hagbeach Hall, a medieval manor house demolished in 1887.
Emneth Railway Station opened in 1848 as a stop on the Bramley Line between Watlington and Peterborough railway station. The station closed in 1968 as a result of the Beeching cuts, however, the railway infrastructure still remains as a private residence. Today, the nearest railway station is at Downham Market for the Fen Line between King's Lynn and Peterborough.

## Geography

According to the 2021 census, Emneth has a population of 2,879 people which shows an increase from the 2,617 people listed in the 2011 census. The parish of Emneth also includes the smaller hamlets of Emneth Hungate and Holly End.
Emneth is bisected by the A47, between Birmingham and Lowestoft, and is close to the course of the River Nene.

## St Edmund's Church

Emneth's parish church is dedicated to Saint Edmund and dates from the Fifteenth Century. St. Edmund's is located within the village on Church Road and has been Grade I listed since 1951.
St Edmund's has good examples of Eighteenth-Century stained glass installed by Clayton and Bell and William Wailes. One of the stained-glass roundels in the church depicts Thomas the Tank Engine, in commemoration of its creator, Rev. W. V. Awdry, who served as Vicar of Emneth from 1953 to 1965. St Edmund's also has a good example of a bell-cote with six bells, and Angels and the Apostles carved into the tie-beams and hammerbeams.

## Notable Residents

* Reverend W. V. Awdry OBE- (1911–1997) clergyman and author of Thomas the Tank Engine, Vicar of Emneth.
* Tony Martin- (1944-2025) farmer, lived in Emneth.

## Governance

Emneth is part of the electoral ward of Emneth & Outwell 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

Emneth War Memorial is a stone column topped with a small Celtic cross in St. Edmund's Churchyard, which was unveiled on 16 May 1920. The memorial lists the following names for the First World War:
| Rank | Name | Unit | Date of Death | Burial/Commemoration |
| Capt. | John A. Markham | 1st Bn., East Yorkshire Regiment | 7 May 1915 | Strand Military Cemetery |
| 2Lt. | Leonard W. Brooks | No. 2 Squadron RFC | 6 Jul. 1917 | Bully-Grenay Cemetery |
| Sgt. | Frederick Neal | 1st Bn., Suffolk Regiment | 18 Feb. 1915 | Menin Gate |
| Sgt. | Frederick Day | 2nd Bn., Suffolk Regt. | 24 Sep. 1916 | West Walton Cemetery |
| A/Sgt. | John H. Claxton | 1st Bn., Norfolk Regiment | 14 Mar. 1915 | Menin Gate |
| Cpl. | Robert Lines | Royal Field Artillery | 10 Apr. 1916 | Beauval Cemetery |
| LCpl. | Archibald B. Crofts | 2nd Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps | 30 Nov. 1916 | All Saints' Churchyard |
| LCpl. | Ernest A. Edwards | 2/4th Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment | 8 Jun. 1917 | Thiepval Memorial |
| LCpl. | Reginald V. Green | 1st Bn., Middlesex Regiment | 19 Jun. 1918 | St. Edmund's Churchyard |
| Dvr. | John Chase | 72nd Bde., Royal Field Artillery | 27 Sep. 1918 | Mœuvres Cemetery |
| Pte. | George Laws | 1st Bn., Bedfordshire Regiment | 22 Aug. 1918 | Gommecourt Cemetery |
| Pte. | Len Brown | 1st Bn., Cambridgeshire Regiment | 22 Aug. 1917 | Locre Hospice Cemetery |
| Pte. | Oliver Hunter | 1st Bn., Cambridgeshire Regt. | 22 Mar. 1918 | Pozières Memorial |
| Pte. | Arthur Roper | 1st Bn., Cambridgeshire Regt. | 2 Jun. 1915 | Erquinghem-Lys Cemetery |
| Pte. | Ernest Killingsworth | 4/1st Bn., Cambridgeshire Regt. | 2 May 1919 | St. Edmund's Churchyard |
| Pte. | George W. Hurst | 8th Bn., East Surrey Regiment | 26 Feb. 1919 | St. Edmund's Churchyard |
| Pte. | Harry Glover | 4th Bn., Grenadier Guards | 25 Sep. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Stanley H. C. Lines | 2nd Bn., Hampshire Regiment | 28 Apr. 1917 | Étaples Military Cemetery |
| Pte. | Thomas Sharp | Labour Corps | 24 Nov. 1918 | St. Edmund's Churchyard |
| Pte. | Samuel F. Balderson | 7th Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment | 3 Jul. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Frank Moyses | 3rd Bn., Machine Gun Corps | 31 Aug. 1918 | Mory Abbey Cemetery |
| Pte. | Samuel Stokes | 25th Bn., M.G.C. | 29 Aug. 1917 | Wimereux Cemetery |
| Pte. | Charles W. Brewington | 16th Bn., Middlesex Regiment | 17 Apr. 1917 | Arras Memorial |
| Pte. | William Hanslip | 9th Bn., Norfolk Regiment | 18 Oct. 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Pte. | Arthur Hurst | 5th Bn., Northamptonshire Regt. | 19 Sep. 1918 | Vis-en-Artois Memorial |
| Pte. | William B. Smith MM | 2nd Bn., Suffolk Regiment | 19 Jul. 1916 | Montauban Cemetery |
| Pte. | William Jackson | 5th Bn., Suffolk Regt. | 2 Nov. 1917 | Menin Gate |
The following additions were made following the Second World War:
| Rank | Name | Unit | Date of Death | Burial/Commemoration |
| Capt. | Harold M. R. Norton | Glider Pilot Regiment | 24 Mar. 1945 | Reichswald Forest Cemetery |
| FO | Arthur R. Ludlow | No. 44 Squadron RAF | 18 Jul. 1943 | Runnymede Memorial |
| Sgt. | Neville W. Carlile | No. 82 Squadron RAF | 13 Jun. 1940 | Harlingen General Cemetery |
| LCpl. | Walter H. White | Corps of Military Police | 5 Apr. 1944 | All Saints' Churchyard |
| Acw. | Vera M. Matthews | Women's Auxiliary Air Force | 28 Dec. 1944 | St. Edmund's Churchyard |
| Dvr. | Joseph L. Mason | Royal Army Medical Corps | 1 Sep. 1944 | Cassino Memorial |
| Dvr. | Frank Farrow | Royal Army Service Corps | 28 Sep. 1944 | Gradara War Cemetery |
| Gnr. | Robert Bruce | 55 Anti-Tank Regt., Royal Artillery | 17 Jul. 1944 | Saint-Manvieu War Cemetery |
| Pte. | Charles H. Baxter | 2nd Bn., Cambridgeshire Regiment | 24 Jan. 1942 | Kranji War Memorial |
| Pte. | Leslie Wabe | 7th Bn., Cheshire Regiment | 18 Jan. 1944 | Minturno War Cemetery |
| Pte. | Richard R. Neal | 6th Bn., Royal Norfolk Regiment | 29 Sep. 1943 | Kanchanaburi War Cemetery |
| Pte. | Percy I. White | 2nd Bn., Suffolk Regiment | 19 Jan. 1944 | Chittagong War Cemetery |

## Gallery

* The old station house, now a private house
* Tomb Chest of Sir Thomas Hewar, by Nicholas Stone