East Winch

East Winch is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 4.9 mi south-east of King's Lynn and 34 mi west of Norwich.

History
In the Domesday Book, East Winch is listed as a settlement of 51 households in the hundred of Freebridge. In 1086, the village formed part of the East Anglian estates of King William I, Roger Bigod, Ralph de Tosny, Hermer de Ferrers and a freeman by the name of Rainer.

Crancourt Manor was a medieval residence of the Howard family, built as a fortified manor house. By the mid-nineteenth century, the manor was ruined apart from a single chimney stack, which remains the case today.

In May 1944, a de Havilland Mosquito of No. 23 Squadron RAF crashed within the parish after technical difficulties on a test flight from RAF Little Snoring. Both crew members were killed.

Geography
According to the 2011 Census, East Winch has a population of 779 residents living in 350 households. The parish covers a total area of 19.95 km2.

East Winch falls within the constituency of North West Norfolk and is represented at Parliament by James Wild of the Conservative Party. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

All Saints' Church
East Winch's parish church was built in the Perpendicular style in the late-Fourteenth Century under the leadership of the Howard family, by the Eighteenth Century the church had largely fallen into disrepair until it was repaired under the oversight of George Gilbert Scott. All Saints' features good examples of Nineteenth Century stained glass installed by Clayton and Bell depicting Christ as a shepherd and the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with a further depiction of the Resurrection by Ward and Hughes.

Amenities
East Winch airfield was founded in 1986 by Colin and Peter Burman, initially for crop dusting. After this was banned in 2009 the airfield was repurposed for leisure use.

Transport
East Winch railway station opened in 1846 as a stop on the Lynn and Dereham Railway between King's Lynn and Dereham. The station closed in 1968.

Notable residents

 * Sir William Howard (1225–1308)- English lawyer and justice
 * Sir John Howard (c. 1366 – 1437)- English landowner, soldier and courtier
 * Sir Osbert Lancaster (1908–1986)- English cartoonist, historian and author

The village war memorial takes the form of an inscribed marble Roll of Honour and is located inside the church. The memorial lists six names as fallen during the First World War.