Redenhall with Harleston

DistrictShire countyRegionCountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townHARLESTONPostcode districtIP20Dialling code01379PoliceNorfolkFireNorfolkAmbulanceEast of England UK Parliament 52°24′N 1°18′E / 52.4°N 1.3°E / 52.4; 1.3

Redenhall with Harleston is a civil parish in the South Norfolk district of the English county of Norfolk, comprising the town of Harleston and the neighbouring village of Redenhall. It covers an area of 13.73 km² (5.30 sq mi), and had a population of 4,058 in 1,841 households at the 2001 census,^[1] the population increasing to 4,640 at the 2011 census.^[2]

History

Many Georgian residences and much earlier buildings, with Georgian frontages, line the streets of Harleston.^[3][4]

The village of Redenhall was mentioned in the Domesday Book, as part of the Lands of the King that Godric holds, in the Half Hundred of Earsham. It states that in King Edward the Confessor' time, Rada the Dane held Redenhall, and that his holding was roughly 700 acres, upon which there were forty subordinate tenantries with six plough-teams. The Domesday Book only makes brief reference to Harleston saying that the Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds was lord here then.

The parish includes two Church of England churches. In the town centre is the church of St John the Baptist, the present building being completed in 1872. The town's landmark clock tower, was designed and commissioned in 1876 from George Grimwood of Weybread, at a cost of £325 whilst the clock itself was supplied and fitted by Messers Gillet & Bland of Croydon at a cost of £90. The tower is on the edge of the site of the old chapel of ease, demolished in 1873, to the much larger medieval Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Redenhall, the mother church of the parish.^{[citation needed]}

Redenhall and Harleston railway stations previously connected these settlements by rail with Tivetshall St Margaret and Beccles on the Waveney Valley Line. Redenhall Station closed in 1866, and Harleston in 1953; the whole railway line has been taken up.

Harleston Sancroft Academy is located in Harleston, and is the main state-funded school for the parish and surrounding area.

Governance

The civil parish has a town council.

Notable people

• Samuel Fuller, a Pilgrim on the Mayflower
• Edward Fuller, a Pilgrim on the Mayflower
• Henry Ward, recipient of the Victoria Cross

References

Further reading

• Notes on the Parish of Redenhall with Harleston in the County of Norfolk, complied chiefly from the records in the Town Chest. by Charles Candler, 1896.

External links

• Redenhall with Harleston Town Council