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Herringfleet is a place and former civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is located 5.5 miles (8.9 km) north-west of Lowestoft in the East Suffolk district. The parish was combined with Somerleyton and Ashby to create the parish of Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet in 1987.[3]

Herringfleet
Herringfleet Windmill
Herringfleet Location within Suffolk
Area	5.2 km2 (2.0 sq mi) [1]
Population	50 (2011 est.)[2]
• Density	10/km2 (26/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TM475980
Civil parish	Somerleyton, Ashby and Herringfleet
District	East Suffolk
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Lowestoft
Postcode district	NR32
Dialling code	01502
UK Parliament	Waveney
List of places UK England Suffolk 52.524°N 1.650°E / 52.524; 1.650

The western edge of Herringfleet is marked by the River Waveney. Prior to local government reorganisation in 1974, the former parish included the village of St Olaves to the north. This was combined with the parish of Fritton and the new parish of Fritton and St Olaves transferred to the county of Norfolk. Previously the entire area south and east of the Waveney was part of Suffolk.[1][4]

Prior to the loss of St Olaves, the population of the former parish was 262 at the 1961 United Kingdom census.[1] At the 1981 census it was 58[lower-alpha 1] and the current population of Herringfleet is estimated to be around 50.[1][2] There is no village centre, with the population spread across a number of scattered farms and small settlements. Much of the land within the area of the former parish is owned by the Somerleyton Estate.[2][5][6]

History

Herringfleet was occupied during the Roman period, and there have been archaeological finds made dating occupation to the neolithic period. At the Domesday survey a manor of one carucate was owned by the King.[1][7]

During the medieval period, a ferry was established across the Waveney at St Olaves. St Olaves Priory was founded nearby in about 1216 by Roger Fitz Osbert as an Augustinian priory. It was dedicated to St Olav and operated until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, controlling the Herringfleet parish church as well as those at Burgh St Peter and Hales as well as land at Tibenham.[8][9][10][11] The site is largely in ruins, although the undercroft survives in good condition.[9][10]

By around 1509 the first stone bridge across the Waveney had been built, possibly replacing a bridge first mentioned in 1298. This was replaced with a cast iron bowstring girder suspension bridge in 1847. The bridge is the only crossing point on the Waveney between Great Yarmouth and Beccles.[1][12]

Henry Jerningham owned the priory site by 1546 and a Tudor manor house was built on the site. By the 18th-century the manor was owned by the Leathes family, and Herringfleet Hall dates from this time, the new hall having been built to replace an older manor house to the south.[1][13][14] A series of duck decoys are known to have been operated at Fritton Decoy at the north-east boundary of the former parish at this time and are believed to date from the 17th-century.[15]

The Great Yarmouth to Beccles railway line opened in 1859 and passed through the former parish, with a station at St Olaves. This operated until 1959.[1][16] On the western edge of the former parish, Herringfleet Windmill, a timber smock drainpipe windpump, was built in about 1820. It is a Grade II* listed building and is within the area of The Broads national park.[5][6][17]

During World War II parts of the parish, including the area around Fritton Decoy, were used for training ahead of the Normandy landings in 1944. The 79th Armoured Division used the site for the testing and development of amphibious DD tanks from 1943 and it was used until 1947 as part of the British Army's Assault Training and Development Centre, and later part of the Specialised Armour Development Establishment.[18][19] Other areas in Herringfleet and the surrounding area were used as campsites for the units involved in training.[20][21][22]

Church of St Margaret

The parish church, which is dedicated to St Margaret, is one of around 40 round-tower churches in Suffolk.[lower-alpha 2] It dates from the medieval period, with the tower thought to date from the 11th-century at the latest, with a possibility of it dating from the Anglo-Saxon period, although this is considered unlikely due to its construction in Caen stone.[29] The parish came under the control of St Olaves Priory after it was established in the 13th-century.[11]

The nave doorway dates from the 12th-century and there are 12th- and 13th-century windows in both the nave and chancel. The church was restored from 1824 by the Leathes family and include Victorian stained glass windows as well as painted glass dating from as early as the 14th-century.[30][31] The church is a Grade I listed building.[30]

To bells hang in the tower, one cast by William and Alice Brend of Norwich in 1611, the other by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1837.[32]

Notes

References

External links

Media related to Herringfleet at Wikimedia Commons

• Website with photos of Herringfleet St. Margaret, a round-tower church

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