Place:Denham (near Eye), Suffolk, England

WARNING: Do not confuse Denham (near Eye) or "Denham, Mid Suffolk" with
(1) Denham (near Bury St. Edmunds) or "Denham, West Suffolk" (or with
(2) Denham, Buckinghamshire or
(3) Denholme, West Yorkshire).

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Denham (near Eye) is a village and civil parish in northern Suffolk. Located approximately 3 miles east of Eye, it is within the Mid Suffolk District. It shares its name with Denham (near Bury St. Edmunds), another Suffolk village to the southwest.

Denham's small population (137 in the 2011 UK Census) is rather scattered, but chiefly clustered along Hoxne Road and The Street, the latter marked on some maps as 'Denham Street'. Curiously, the parish boundary runs along both these roads meaning the majority of the houses in the parish are at its very edge.

The Street is one of over 100 roads so named in Suffolk, typically reserved for the main thoroughfare through a 'street village'. The Street in Denham is unusual in that it is now a no-through road, though it is reasonable to suggest that at one time it was the main street for Denham, and presumably led somewhere, perhaps to Redlingfield to the south.

The parish church of St John the Baptist (photograph in Wikipedia) is small but full of interest. It stands a little isolated from the main area of settlement, as is common in some East Anglian parishes. Chiefly dating from the 14th and 15th centuries it comprises the nave (with outward bowing walls), chancel, Victorian vestry and redbrick entrance porch. A west tower is thought to have been removed in the early 18th century - the 'new' west wall is chiefly built of red brick. The octagonal font has been restored and is very plain. In the sanctuary is a brass to Anthony Bedingfield, the third son of Sir Edward Bedingfield, 1574, with a palimpsest of Jacobus Wegheschede, c 1500. A bell turret contained a single bell, now to be found by the organ and inscribed I.D. 1614. 3 bells are recorded in 1553, suggesting the west tower still stood at the time. A north chapel has long been removed and the arch blocked in with brick. Here can be found memorials to the Bedingfield family. The building was in a rather parlous state (2009) but since then has been fully repaired chiefly using English Heritage funding.

White's Directory of 1844 lists 313 'souls' living in the parish. Apart from farmers, the only trades listed included a corn miller, wheelwright, blacksmith and two beerhouse keepers. By 1937 the situation had changed little except for the disappearance of the miller and addition of a grocery-cum-post office, though the population as of 1931 had fallen to 170. Since then the post office has closed and the only building used for community purposes (apart from the church) is the Village Hall, formerly a guard's hut for Horham Airfield.

Indeed, Denham sits amidst an historic landscape of WW2 airfields. Immediately to the east is the site of RAF Horham ('Horrum') airfield (so large that it straddled Denham, Horham and Hoxne parishes), used by the USAAF 95th Bomb Group from 1943 to 1945. Adjacent to Redlingfield Wood in Denham parish is the site of the airfield hospital which has been restored as a museum and a memorial those who served with the 95th in WW2. The Officer's Club at Horham airfield (the 'Red Feather Club', also within Denham parish) has been preserved and like the hospital is occasionally open over summer months. Rumour has it that Glenn Miller, the American Big 'swing' Band leader visited the old Green Man public house in Denham around the time he and his band played at Horham air base on September 10, 1944.

Other airfields near Denham included Eye (to the west), Thorpe Abbotts (to the north) and Mendlesham towards the south.

Research Tips

• The Bedingfield family mentioned above are found in WeRelate, some with the surname spelled Bedingfeld. This includes Anthony Bedingfield whose father was Sir Edmund Bedingfeld rather than Sir Edward Bedingfield.
• 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:

• Cambridgeshire & Huntingdon Family History Society - One of the three counties adjoining Suffolk. The Isle of Ely is included in their area.
• Essex Family History Society - Another of the three counties adjoining Suffolk, stretching south to the outskirts of London.
• Norfolk Family History Society - The third of the counties adjoining Suffolk. There was a realignment of the border in 1974.
• Romany & Traveller Family History Society - British family history society for people with Romany Gypsy, Traveller and Fairground roots.

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.