Place:Henham, Suffolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Henham from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HENHAM, a hamlet in Wangford parish, Suffolk; 4 miles E of Halesworth. Acres: 1,752. Real property: £1,995. Population: 161. Houses: 26. The manor belonged formerly to the Hoptons, and belongs now to the Earl of Stradbroke. Henham Hall, the Earl's seat, was built, in 1797, by James Wyatt; occupies the site of a previous mansion, burnt in 1773; and stands in an extensive well-wooded park. The hamlet forms a curacy with Wangford."

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

The name "Henham" means 'High homestead/village'. Henham was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Henham. At this time Ralph Baynard had the lordship. This subsequently passed to Robert Kerdeston and remained in his family until about 1440. It then passed to the de la Pole family.

Historically it was in the Blything Hundred and in the Deanery of Dunwich, (Dunwich North for the period 1868 to 1914, when that deanery was administratively divided in three).

There are some medieval remains of Henham village along with a moat and church located in Tuttles Wood.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 Henham became a civil parish in that year. At the same time the neighbouring hamlet of Wangford also became a distinct civil parish, but without ecclesiastical status.

On 1 April 1987 the parish was abolished and merged with Wangford to form Wangford with Henham.

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.
• This map shows the relative positions of Wangford and Henham as separate parishes in 1900.

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.[[Category:Wangford with Henham, Suffolk, England|[[Category:East Suffolk District, Suffolk, England