- Source: Emneth
Emneth is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 2.9 miles (4.7 km) south-east of Wisbech, 12 miles (19 km) south-west of King's Lynn and 46 miles (74 km) west of Norwich, close to the course of the River Nene.
History
Emneth's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for Eana's meeting place or meadow.
Emneth is not featured in the Domesday Book of 1086, probably because in the late-Eleventh Century this area of Norfolk was still flooded.
Emneth was the site of Hagbeach Hall, a medieval manor house demolished in 1887.
Geography
According to the 2011 Census, Emneth has a population of 2,617 residents living in 1,150 households. Furthermore, the total area of the parish is 11.77 square kilometres (4.54 sq mi).
Emneth falls within the constituency of South West Norfolk in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.
The boundaries of the parish also includes the hamlets of Emneth Hungate and Holly End.
St Edmund's Church
Emneth's parish church is dedicated to Saint Edmund and dates from the Fifteenth Century. Built on the site of earlier Christian worship, the church is a good example of the architecture of the Perpendicular style. St Edmund's has good examples of Eighteenth-Century stained glass installed by Clayton and Bell and William Wailes. One of the stained-glass roundels in the church depicts Thomas the Tank Engine, in commemoration of its creator, Rev. W. V. Awdry, who served as Vicar of Emneth from 1953 to 1965. St Edmund's also has a good example of a bell-cote with six bells, and Angels and the Apostles carved into the tie-beams and hammerbeams.
Transport
Emneth railway station opened in 1848 as a stop on the Bramley Line between Watlington and Peterborough railway station. The station closed in 1968 as a result of the Beeching cuts, however, the railway infrastructure still remains as a private residence. Today, the nearest railway station is at Downham Market for the Fen Line between King's Lynn and Peterborough.
Emneth is bisected by the A47 between Birmingham and Lowestoft and the nearest airport is Cambridge International Airport.
Notable residents
Sir Henry Peyton, 2nd Baronet (1779–1854)- English politician
Rev. W. V. Awdry (1911–1997)- English clergyman and children's author
Tony Martin (born 1944)- English farmer
War memorial
Emneth's war memorial takes the form of a stone column topped with a small Celtic cross located inside St. Edmund's Churchyard. The memorial lists the following names for the First World War:
And, the following for the Second World War:
Gallery
References
Further reading
Mee, A. (1972). The King's England: Norfolk. London: Hodder and Stoughton, p.87. ISBN 0-340-15061-0
External links
Media related to Emneth at Wikimedia Commons