Sedgeford

Sedgeford is a small village with about 600 inhabitants on its electoral roll. It is in the county of Norfolk, East Anglia, about 6km south of the North Sea and 5km east of the Wash. It is north east of Cambridge (about 90km) and London (about 170km).

The village lies in a fertile valley in the belt of chalk covering this area, with the small Docking river running through it. This river and the many springs feeding it have always ensured a good water supply for successive groups of people who have settled near it in the past.

The village is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. Part of the church, built of flint and stone, is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and it is known from archæological 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 artefacts, like the Neolithic flint tools which are found in fields and gardens. Also it is crossed by two ancient roads - the prehistoric Icknield Way and the Roman-period the Peddars Way.

Amenities in the village include a pub, the King William IV, founded as the King's Arms in 1832 and which until 1990 still had a sawdust floor. The school caters for children up to the age of eleven and also accommodates a playgroup, 'Sedgeford pre school. There are two churches, St Mary's and the Methodist Church. A new village hall was completed in August 2000, and now provides a venue for a variety of activities.

Norfolk has long attracted artists and writers and Sedgeford is no exception. There are various opportunities to enjoy music, dance and drama: occasional concerts are held at St Mary's Church and there is a programme of events at the Village Hall, including performances by the local dramatic society, SADS.

This is a predominantly agricultural area, with barley, wheat and sugar beet as the main crops, although tourism has become increasingly important in recent years. Peddars Way, the ancient roman road runs through the top end of the village and leads directly onto the Norfolk Coastal path. After Fring, the national trail passes through the hamlet of Littleport, a small row of higgledy-piggledy cottages which 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. 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 land owner whose estate formed much of the land surrounding the village. He was also 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 and from this high vantage point on Peddars Way you can witness sunsets over the Norfolk coast at their most dramatic.

Peddars Way passes Magazine Farm and then crosses the old railway-line. Sedgeford formerly had its own Sedgeford railway station on the line between Wells and King's Lynn, but this is now closed.

Archaeological project

The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) was established in 1996 to reconstruct the story of human settlement in the parish. This is an ongoing project: further details can be found on the website - [http://www.sharp.org.uk www.sharp.org.uk] .

Bibliography

* Website 1643 Civil War in Lincolnshire and Sir Hamon LeStrange [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1643-lincolnshire.htm]

External links

* [http://www.roundtowerchurches.de/Karte/A2/Sedgeford_St_Mary/sedgeford_st_mary.html Website with photos of Sedgeford St. Mary] , a Round-tower church

* [http://www.magazinewood.co.uk/page3.htm Website with directory of Useful Information, Places to Stay, Places to Visit, Leisure and Recreational activities, What's On and more]

* [http://www.thekingwilliamsedgeford.co.uk/ Website with details of The King William Country Inn & Restaurant Sedgeford]

* [http://www.sedgeford.org.uk/ Sedgeford Village Online website]