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Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the West Suffolk District of Suffolk. It is on Suffolk's border with the county of Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, 3 miles (4.8 km) from Sudbury, approximately 16 miles (26 km) from Colchester in Essex and 14 miles (23 km) from Bury St. Edmunds. It is one of Suffolk's "wool towns" and is a former market town. The parish also includes the hamlets of Bridge Street and Cuckoo Tye. Its name is derived from the nature of the village's layout (originally concentrated along a 3-mile stretch of a single road) and the "Mill ford" crossing the Chad Brook (a tributary of the River Stour). Long Melford has three tiers of local authority governance; Long Melford Parish Council, Babergh District Council, and Suffolk County Council. Its electoral ward is, unsurprisingly, called "Long Melford". The ward includes nearby Alpheton and had a total population of 3,774 at the 2011 Census. [edit] History
By the end of the 17th century, cloth production had become important for the second time in the area as many new entrepreneurs started to produce a range of materials known as 'Bays and Says', similar to baize and serge. These were lighter, cheaper types of cloth than the traditional woollen broadcloths that had been made in the 15th and 16th centuries. Once again, many of the cloth merchants became extremely wealthy and for some years prosperity returned to Melford. Soon after the beginning of the 19th century, a range of new industries such as horsehair weaving, an iron foundry, a flax works and coconut matting production started in Melford. By 1851, there were three horsehair manufacturers in Melford employing over 200 men, women and children. During the 1880s, a series of wage cuts in the coconut matting industry caused widespread anger and eventually resulted in strike action. Feelings ran high, culminating in a riot breaking out on polling day in December 1885, during which considerable damage was caused throughout the village. Troops were summoned from Bury St Edmunds to restore order; they arrived by train and marched from Melford station to read the Riot Act from the steps of the Police Station. During World War II, Long Melford was a location for American and Allied service personnel, who flew B24 and B17 aircraft from two large bomber stations, RAF Lavenham and RAF Sudbury, located nearby. Troops from, amongst others, the Berkshire and Black Watch Regiments, were billeted and garrisoned within the village. Injured airmen, troops from the D-Day landings and prisoners of war were treated at the large nearby 136th Station Hospital, located between Long Melford and Acton. Band leader Glenn Miller and his orchestra briefly visited Long Melford and played to injured airmen, invited locals and hospital staff at the 136th hospital in 1944. German prisoners of war were interned at a camp near the 136th Station Hospital, and Italian prisoners were located at a camp at the nearby Essex village of Borley. USAF personnel from bases at Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Wethersfield airbases often lived within Long Melford. By the end of the war, two B24 Liberators, one B17 Flying Fortress and one RAF de Havilland Mosquito had crashed in the parish with over twenty persons killed or injured. Numerous pillboxes and temporary gun emplacements were constructed in the village during the war, and in 2012 a previously unknown underground bunker room was located. According to the Remembrance Plaque at Holy Trinity Church, ninety-six serving villagers were killed in World War One, and eleven during World War Two. Wikipedia also contains an historical description of its parish church. [edit] Research Tips
[edit] Suffolk Information
For those whose families may have wandered over the county borders:
[edit] British Government Information
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