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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Thornham Magna, a civil parish, is the larger sister village of Thornham Parva on the former estate of Thornham Hall, the Henniker family seat, in Suffolk. It is about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Eye and close to the A140 road from Norwich to Ipswich.
The two villages, both mentioned in Magna Carta, are a mile or two apart in an area of mostly arable farming and cattle grazing on the water meadows through which the River Dove flows. Their combined population, as reported by the UK censuses, was approximately 170 in 2001 and 210 in 2011.
Thornham Magna has several oak-beamed, thatched Tudor houses, a forge workshop, and a village hall. The Four Horseshoes pub is grade II* listed; the building dates to the 15th century.
The village church, St Mary Magdalene, was the Henniker family church. It was originally built in the 14th century to replace a 12th-century church, with a Decorated chancel and Perpendicular additions and a green man carved above the porch entrance. In the 1850s it was extensively remodelled in Victorian Gothic style. (Further details in Wikipedia.)
Thornham Hall, at Thornham Magna, was built in the Tudor period on an E-shaped plan. It was remodelled in the 17th century, and again in the second half of the 19th century when it was designed to resemble a French château. After the First World War most of the estate was sold and the 95-room hall was first let, then reduced greatly in size and the remainder adapted as a modern house. It was requisitioned during the Second World War to house prisoners of war and then let to a school for problem children. In 1954 it was destroyed by fire. The current house, built in 1956 in historical style, is still in the hands of the Henniker family.
Research tips
- A map of Suffolk from 1900 provided online by A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography) can be enlarged to view individual parishes. Careful inspection will usually lead to the discovery of smaller hamlets founded before 1900. The rural districts (marked with their names printed in blue) are those in existence in 1900, not those introduced in 1934. The more ancient hundreds are marked in red. Most (but not all) parish names are underlined in red.
Suffolk Information
- Suffolk Family History Society A community of people who are interested in the local and family history pertaining to Suffolk.
- Suffolk Archives (Record Office) ( e-mail archives@suffolk.gov.uk) - The Suffolk Archive has branches in Ipswich (at The Hold, 131 Fore Street, Ipswich, IP4 1LR), Bury St. Edmunds (at 77 Raingate Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 2AR) and Lowestoft (at Lowestoft Library, Clapham Road South, Lowestoft, NR32 1DR). Includes: a good-looking website, research services and publications.
- Suffolk Churches This is an excellent guide to most of the Suffolk Churches with lots of pictures and descriptions of the architecture and history. It includes many chapels. If you have trouble visiting Suffolk to see where your ancestor were baptised, married and buried, or even those who want to just add to their knowledge, this is the site for you.
For those whose families may have wandered over the county borders:
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British Government Information
- The National Archives or "TNA" - More than 850,000 Probate Wills from 1610-1858 (PCC wills dating back to 1670 have been completed). Free access to indexes but copy of a will costs £10.00. (Ancestry has an index to wills published after 1858.) Access also available to the Domesday Book, World War One Diaries and various other information. Their catalogue called Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country including County Record Offices. Over 9 million records are available for download.
- The British Library - This vast collection contains millions of bibliographic records, British newspapers, many now digitised and searchable on-line and much more.
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission - The database lists the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations world-wide where they are commemorated. The register can also be searched for details of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action in the Second World War.
- General Register Office - provides official copies of birth marriage & death certificates for England & Wales.
- FreeBMD - provides Civil Registration index information for England and Wales. The transcribing of the records, by volunteers, is ongoing and contains well over 279 million records at August 2020. Records are complete from 1837 to 1983. Later records are not complete.
- FreeCEN - provides a "free-to-view" online searchable database of the UK census returns from 1841 to 1891. The transcribing of the records, by volunteers, is ongoing and contains well over 39 million records at August 2020. At that time Suffolk records appeared to be only for the 1891 census and a few for the 1871 census.
- FreeREG - provides baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been transcribed, by volunteers, from parish and non-conformist church registers in the UK. There are over 49 million entries with just under 300,000 records for Suffolk at August 2020.
- Ministry of Defence (url not found)- provides information for obtaining details about service records post 1920
- Royal Air Force Museum (url not found) - for information on the archive and library research material available.
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