Coordinates: 52°04′37″N 0°43′05″E / 52.077°N 0.718°E
| Long Melford | |
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  Long Melford
Long Melford shown within Suffolk |
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| Population | 3,675 [1] |
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| OS grid reference | |
| District | Babergh |
| Shire county | Suffolk |
| Region | East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Sudbury |
| CO10 | |
| Dialling code | 01787 |
| Police | Suffolk |
| Fire | Suffolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| European Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | South Suffolk |
| List of places: UK • England • Suffolk | |
Long Melford (or Melford, as it is known locally) is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately 16 miles (26 km) from Colchester and 14 miles (23 km) from Bury St. Edmunds. The parish also includes the hamlets of Bridge Street and Cuckoo Tye.
Its name is derived from the nature of the village's layout (originally concentrated along a 3 mile stretch of a single road) and the Mill ford crossing the Chad Brook (a tributary of the River Stour).
Long Melford is notable for its large collection of antiques shops and dealers[citation needed]
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History
The area now occupied by Long Melford has been occupied since at least 100 B.C..[citation needed] The village's layout was defined in Roman times[citation needed] with the empire building two roads thorough Melford, the main one running from Chelmsford through to Pakenham. Roman remains were discovered in a gravel pit in 1828,[2] a site now occupied by the village's football club.
The Manor of Melford was given to the Abbey of St.Edmundsbury by Earl Aflric in ca. 1050.[3] The village is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 which lists the manor of Long Melford as an estate of 600 hectares. The neighbouring Manor of Kentwell is also recorded. Following the dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the manor to Sir William Cordell.[3]
Landmarks
Long Melford is fairly unusual for a village in that it has a parish church of dimensions more suited to a cathedral. Originally completed in 1484, Holy Trinity Church is the one of the richest "wool churches" in East Anglia and is renowned for its flushwork, Clopton Chantry and some surviving medieval stained-glass.[4] Edmund Blunden, the World War I poet, is buried in the churchyard.
The village contains two stately homes, Kentwell Hall and Melford Hall (see Ha-ha), both in excellent states of repair, all built from the proceeds of the wool trade in the Middle Ages.
Transport
Long Melford once had a railway station on the Stour Valley Line, but this closed in March 1967 when the line was cut back to Sudbury. It is connected to several large towns by bus, notably Sudbury, Colchester, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill and Ipswich.
See also
References
- ^ Neighbourhood Statistics
- ^ Kelly (1900), Kelly's Directory of Suffolk, Kelly's Directories, Ltd., p. 259, http://www.historicaldirectories.org/EXE/tiff2png.exe/00005RE2.PNG?-i+-r+80+-g+4+-h+1,130,3+E%3A%5CZYIMAGE%5CDATA%5CHISTDIR%5CTIF%5CLU8FD8%7E1%5C00005RE2.TIF, retrieved on 2008-10-21
- ^ a b Kelly (1900), Kelly's Directory of Suffolk, Kelly's Directories, Ltd., p. 260, http://www.historicaldirectories.org/EXE/tiff2png.exe/00005RE3.PNG?-i+-r+80+-g+4+E%3A%5CZYIMAGE%5CDATA%5CHISTDIR%5CTIF%5CLU8FD8%7E1%5C00005RE3.TIF, retrieved on 2008-10-21
- ^ "Holy Trinity". The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. http://www.stedmundsbury.anglican.org/longmelford/. Retrieved on 2008-09-16.
External links
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