Emneth

Emneth is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 2.9 mi south-east of Wisbech, 12 mi south-west of King's Lynn and 46 mi 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 km2.

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:


 * Capt. John A. Markham (1887–1915), 1st Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment
 * 2nd-Lt. Leonard W. Brooks (1885–1917), No. 2 Squadron RFC
 * Sgt. John H. Claxton (d.1915), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
 * Sgt. Frederick Neal (1883–1915), 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
 * Sgt. Frederick Day (d.1916), 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
 * Cpl. Robert Lines (d.1916), Royal Field Artillery att. 11th (Northern) Division
 * L-Cpl. Archibald B. Crofts (1890–1916), 2nd Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps
 * L-Cpl. Ernest A. Edwards (1891–1917), 2/4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
 * L-Cpl. Reginald V. Green (1897–1918), 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment
 * Dvr. John Chase (d.1918), 72nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
 * Pte. George Laws (1892–1918), 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment
 * Pte. Len Brown (d.1917), 1/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment
 * Pte. Oliver Hunter (1898–1918), 1/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment
 * Pte. Arthur Roper (1895–1915), 1/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment
 * Pte. George W. Hurst (1900–1919), 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment
 * Pte. Harry Glover (d.1916), 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards
 * Pte. Stanley H. C. Long (1895–1917), 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
 * Pte. Thomas Sharp (1888–1918), Agricultural Company, Labour Corps
 * Pte. Samuel F. Balderson (1895–1916), 7th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
 * Pte. Frank Moyses (d.1918), 3rd Company, Machine Gun Corps
 * Pte. Samuel Stokes (1895–1917), 25th Company, Machine Gun Corps
 * Pte. Charles W. Brewington (1896–1917), 16th (Public Schools) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment
 * Pte. William Hanslip (1881–1916), 9th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
 * Pte. Sydney E. Killingsworth (d.1918), 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment
 * Pte. Arthur Hurst (1893–1918), 5th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment
 * Pte. William B. Smith MM (1899–1916), 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
 * Pte. William Jackson (d.1917), 5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment

And, the following for the Second World War:


 * Cpt. Harold M. R. Norton (1922–1945), Glider Pilot Regiment
 * F/O. Arthur R. Ludlow (1922–1943), No. 44 Squadron RAF
 * Sgt. Neville W. Carlile (1917–1940), No. 82 Squadron RAF
 * L-Cpl. Walter H. White (1913–1944), Royal Military Police
 * Dvr. Joseph L. Mason (d.1944), Royal Army Medical Corps
 * Dvr. Frank Farrow (1918–1944), Royal Army Service Corps
 * Gnr. Robert Bruce (1919–1944), 55th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery
 * Pte. Charles H. Baxter (1918–1942), 2nd Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment
 * Pte. Leslie Wabe (1906–1944), 7th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
 * Pte. Richard R. Neal (1920–1943), 6th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
 * Pte. Percy I. White (1909–1944), 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
 * Vera M. Matthews (1920–1944), Women's Royal Air Force