page_title: Somerleyton
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Somerleyton / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial of hovercraft in the village Somerleyton
context_page_description: Somerleyton is a village of medieval origin and former civil parish in the English county of Suffolk, England. It is centred 4.5 miles north-west of Lowestoft and 5.7 miles south-west of Great Yarmouth. The land associated with the village is partly in The Broads National Park including its free moorings and marina on the River Waveney close to its public house. In 1961 the parish had a population of 377. Somerleyton is now in the civil parish of Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet which maintains a village hall elsewhere and cricket ground and tennis court in the village. Other amenities include a village shop and a railway station. In 1987 the parish was merged with Ashby and Herringfleet to form "Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet".
  Many of the houses are in the model village, which were built around a green that in medieval times until the 20th century belonged to Somerleyton Hall whose key owners have been the Jernegan family, Sir Morton Peto and the Lords Somerleyton. The latter were philanthropists with industrial wealth — a major infrastructure engineer/railway developer and family founded in carpet manufacturing respectively.
context_section_description: Somerleyton is described in the Domesday Book under the name of Sumerledetuna.
  Somerleyton Hall was established in 1240 and has been home to Admiral Sir Thomas Allin and Samuel Morton Peto, who oversaw the latest rebuilding in 1843. Peto also had the ancient Parish Church of St Mary rebuilt in 1854 but retaining many historic features including the 15th century tower; it is a Grade II* listed building, the middle of the three categories. This isolated church in a nearby field has seven stained glass depicting wise and serene figures and the twelve low panels of its medieval rood screen are finely painted. It mirrors in style and content that at Ranworth, Norfolk. From left to right, the saints are Michael, Edmund, Apollonia, Laurence, Faith, Thomas of Canterbury, Anne, Andrew, John, Mary Magdalene, Felix, Petronilla, Stephen, Dorothy, Edward the Confessor and George.
  Somerleyton was the home of Christopher Cockerell while he invented the hovercraft in his post-war career founding in Somerleyton a boatyard and hire business Ripplecraft — cabin cruisers for hire serving holidaymakers cruising the Norfolk Broads. Unveiled in 2010 the Hovercraft Column commemorates Cockerell's invention during this time.  The Waveney runs west of Somerleyton giving access to the Broads and a rail swing bridge crosses the river in the south-west. This can be viewed from the end of the un-metalled lane starting south of the 'Duke's Head'.
  A small brickworks in the village produced bricks such as for the building of Liverpool Street station before closing circa 1947. Ruins are beside the track which leads from Brickfields Cottages to the railway station; its last remaining chimneys were demolished with dynamite in about 1959.
  Until circa 1959 an additional pub, The Crown was open in the village officially an 'off-licence' meaning selling drinks for off-site consumption. The resident policeman, whose house was between Policeman's Loke and Somerleyton CP School, routinely made his approach known so that drinkers could have their pints hidden under the bar in time to avoid prosecution. The village store, part of Waveney Co-operative Society and closed circa 1968, was on the opposite side of the road from The Crown adjacent to the village pond in the Street and operated a door-to-door delivery service for groceries via trade-bike and the milk delivery van. Both are now private houses as is The Reading Room, which was provided for the use of residents with snooker table etc. until being closed and converted to a dwelling circa 1968.
  A memorial to two airmen killed in a friendly fire incident during World War II is on Waddling Way, an un-metalled road east of the village which runs to Flixton, Lothingland, near Blundeston.  The aircraft was an RAF Mosquito nightfighter being flown by two young airmen of the United States Navy.  On 14 November 1944, British anti-aircraft fire mistakenly shot them down. They were chasing an air-launched V1 flying bomb.
  Somerleyton has maintained an untouched chocolate box appeal over the years, as a result of limited property development. The last being the aptly named Morton Peto development in the early 1990s.
caption: The Hovercraft Column is by the main road between St Olaves and Lowestoft near the edge of the parish
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-L1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2012:09:09 13:37:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-L1", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2012:09:09 13:37:47", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2484", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14498", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:09:09 13:37:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:09:09 13:37:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode, return light not detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "51/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2304", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1728", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2278", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}