Sedgeford

Sedgeford is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, about 5 miles south of the North Sea and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the Wash. It is 36 miles north-west of Norwich. Its area of 6.6 square miles (17 km2) had a population, including Fring, of 613 at the 2011 Census.[1] This was an increase from 540 people and 224 households in the 2001 census.[2] For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. It lies in a predominantly agricultural valley with main crops of barley, wheat and sugar beat, in a belt of chalk with the small Docking river running through it. This and the many springs feeding it have ensured a good water supply for successive groups of settlers.

For the locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia, see Sedgeford, Queensland.

Sedgeford

Magazine, the old gunpowder store at Sedgeford
Sedgeford
Location within Norfolk
Area6.6 sq mi (17 km2)
Population613 (2011)
• Density93/sq mi (36/km2)
OS grid referenceTF712366
• London100 mi (160 km)
Civil parish
  • Sedgeford
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHUNSTANTON
Postcode districtPE36
PoliceNorfolk
FireNorfolk
AmbulanceEast of England

History

The village is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. Part of the church, built of flint and stone, is Anglo-Saxon in origin. It is one of 124 round-tower churches in Norfolk.

There is archaeological evidence that people have lived here from much earlier times. There are remains of Roman villas, pottery and a gold torc from the Iron Age, and many earlier finds, like Neolithic flint tools found in fields and gardens. Furthermore, it is crossed by two ancient roads – the prehistoric Icknield Way and the Roman-period Peddars Way.

Peddars Way
Sunset across Sedgeford to the Norfolk coast from Magazine Wood Peddars Way

Peddars Way, an ancient Roman road, runs through the top end of the village and leads directly onto the Norfolk Coast Path. After Fring, the national trail passes through the hamlet of Littleport, a small row of higgledy-piggledy cottages that now form part of the main village. The route takes walkers past a local landmark Magazine Cottage, built in the 17th century by the Le Strange family during the civil war as a gunpowder magazine. Legend has it that a secret tunnel ran from the old armoury to the church in the heart of the village. Today this small part of Peddars Way has derived its name from this historical building, with Magazine Wood and Magazine Farm just a few steps away. All these properties were formerly owned by William Newcombe-Baker, a local landowner whose estate formed much of the land surrounding the village. He was a founder member of NORMAC, the Norfolk machinery body that did much in the 20th century to bring modern mechanisation to arable farming in East Anglia. Magazine Wood was rebuilt in 2000. From this high vantage point on Peddars Way the sun can be seen setting over the sea – one of the few places this is possible on the east coast of Britain.

Peddars Way passes Magazine Wood and crosses the disused West Norfolk Junction Railway. Sedgeford had its own Sedgeford railway station on the line between Wells and King's Lynn, but it closed to passengers in 1952 and to goods in 1964.

Sedgeford St. Mary

The parish church, Sedgeford St. Mary, is one of 124 round-tower churches in Norfolk.

Archaeological project
Anglo Saxon era skeleton found at the Sedgeford Digsite in Norfolk, 2005.

The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) was established in 1996 to reconstruct the story of human settlement in the parish. Initially, it focused on the Anglo-Saxon cemetery located to the south of the modern village, but it is an ongoing project expanding to many other sites in the parish.

Sports

Sedgeford has a village football team, Sedgeford FC.

Bibliography
  • Website 1643 Civil War in Lincolnshire and Sir Hamon LeStrange
  • Neil Faulkner et al., eds, 2014, Digging Sedgeford: A People's Archaeology. Poppyland Publishing. ISBN 978-1909796089
  • Garry Rossin (2018) Sedgeford Aerodrome and the aerial conflict over North West Norfolk during the First World War. Poppyland Publishing. ISBN 978-1909796423

Notes
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  2. Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishesArchived 2017-02-11 at the Wayback Machine. Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Retrieved 20 June 2009.
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