Long Melford

Prehistoric finds discovered in 2011 have shown that early settlement of what is now known as Long Melford dates back to the Mesolithic period, up to 8300 BC. In addition, Iron Age finds were made in the same year, all within the largely central area of the current village.

The Romans constructed two Roman roads through Long Melford, the main one running from Chelmsford to Pakenham. Roman remains were discovered in a gravel pit in 1828,[2] a site now occupied by the village's football club. In 1997, Roman finds were uncovered including complete skeletons (with one being in a stone coffin), part of the original Roman Road, and complete samian ware pottery in a villager's garden.[3]

In June 2013, some archaeological evidence of a Saxon and Bronze Age settlement in the northern area of the village was discovered by Carenza Lewis and her team from Cambridge University during a student dig.[4]

Long Melford has three tiers of local authority governance; Long Melford Parish Council, Babergh District Council, and Suffolk County Council. An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward includes Alpheton and has a total population at the 2011 Census of 3,774.[10]

The size and architecture of Holy Trinity Church make it unusual for a village parish church, and it was the only church in Suffolk to receive five stars in Simon Jenkins' book "England's Thousand Best Churches". The church dates from the reign of Edward the Confessor; it was then substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497 by John Clopton of Kentwell Hall. It is one of the richest "wool churches" in East Anglia and is noted for its flushwork, Clopton chantry chapel and the Lady Chapel at the east end, as well as one of the finest collections of medieval stained-glass of any village church in England.[11] Edmund Blunden, the World War I poet, is buried in the churchyard.[12] Next to the church is the Hospital of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, an almshouse founded by William Cordell in 1573 and restored in 1847.[13]

The village contains two stately homes, Kentwell Hall and Melford Hall, both visited by Queen Elizabeth I, and all built from the proceeds of the wool trade in the Middle Ages. Kentwell Hall and Holy Trinity Church were financed by the Clopton family, in particular by John Clopton.[14] Both Kentwell Hall and Melford Hall are open to the general public, with Melford Hall being a National Trust property.

The village has 100 listed buildings, including many of the inns that were built along its main street.[15] The village's history is recorded in the Long Melford Heritage Centre, and contains finds uncovered in the July 2011 Long Melford Dig. There are also displays of old photographs, and ancient finds from the village, including a collection of locally found Roman artefacts.[16]

The village contains one school, Long Melford Church of England Primary School. Opened in 1974, it has been part of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Multi Academy Trust since 2016.[17] The village's previous school was built in 1860, in the Elizabethan style, enlarged in 1895 and is now a community centre.[18]

Long Melford once had a railway station on the Stour Valley Line, but this closed in March 1967 when the line was cut back to Sudbury. It is connected to several large towns by bus, notably Sudbury, Colchester, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill and Ipswich.

Long Melford has a Non-League football club, Long Melford F.C., which plays at the Stoneylands ground, just off St Catherine's Road. They are members of the Eastern Counties League Premier Division following promotion as champions of Division One in the 2014/15 season.

Until the 1980s a prominent feature of the village's large, elongated village green was a group of great elms that included one of the largest in England.[19][20][21] These trees were included in a 1940 painting by the watercolourist S. R. Badmin in his picture 'Long Melford Green on a Frosty Morning', now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[22]

Long Melford has a large water meadow on the approach to Liston and a network of footpaths. Among these paths is the Melford Walk, which follows the route of the disused railway line before joining the Valley Walk path to Sudbury. The Suffolk Cycle Route also passes through the village. Located at the southern end of the village next to the River Stour at Rodbridge Corner is Long Melford Country Park. This was formed by gravel excavations for nearby airfields during the second world war, leaving some large, attractive lakes with wildlife habitats and walking areas for visitors.

The Long Melford Big Night Out Guy Fawkes Night fireworks event is held annually in November at Melford Hall.

Long Melford was visited by Daniel Defoe, who mentioned the village in his book A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain. Defoe wrote, "Near adjoining to it [Sudbury] is a village call'd Long-Melfort, and a very long one it is, from which I suppose it had that addition to its name; it is full of very good houses, and, as they told me, is richer, and has more wealthy masters of the manufacture in it, than in Sudbury itself."[23]

Between 1962 and 1967 Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten organised a series of Bach Weekends at Holy Trinity Church,[24][25] with guests including the English Chamber Orchestra.[26] A performance of Christmas Oratorio from 1967 was recorded for BBC Television.[27]

The Bull Hotel in Long Melford

The Bull Hotel in Long Melford features in the BBC documentary The World of John and Yoko.[28] Melford village, and many of the buildings surrounding it were used as settings for the BBC television series Lovejoy.[29] The 1968 film Witch Finder General and Terry Jones's film Wind in the Willows were both partially shot in Long Melford. The frontage of Kentwell Hall was digitally added into the 2005 film, The Chronicles of Narnia. The Long Melford Dig was filmed and documented in Michael Wood's 2012 BBC series The Great British Story. In early July 2014, Kentwell Hall was used as a location for the filming of Tulip Fever.

Long Melford was rated by a Times article in September 2015, as being one of the Top Ten most desirable villages in Britain.

• Sir Roger Martyn Lord Mayor of London 1567 was born here
• The World War I poet Edmund Blunden lived, and is buried, in Long Melford;
• The opera singer Mignon Nevada died here
• racing driver Richard Seaman lived at Kentwell Hall during part of his childhood.
• England international footballer William Cobbold was born in the village,[30]
• editor of The Times, Henry Wickham Steed.[31]
• The notorious 17th century witch-hunter John Stearne, one of the two main instigators of the Bury St Edmunds witch trials, grew up in Long Melford.[32]
• The children's author Beatrix Potter was a cousin of Ethel, Lady Hyde Parker, of Melford Hall, and was a frequent visitor there between 1899 and 1916.[33]
• In the 20th century, artist Francis Bacon was a regular visitor to Long Melford, and his longtime companion and heir John Edwards subsequently bought a house there.[34]
• The lawyer and Liberal Democrat peer Andrew Phillips, Baron Phillips of Sudbury was born in Long Melford.[35]
• Anne Cullen, the actress who originated the part of Carol Tregorran in the radio soap The Archers, lived in Long Melford until her death in 2015.[36]
• Charles John Drew was murdered by his namesake son in his house on the high street in 1740.

• Ambrose, Ernest; Melford Memories. Recollections of 94 Years (LM Historical & Archaeological Society, 1972), reprinted 2013
• Blunden, Edmund; The Great Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford (W.S. Cowell, 1966) - illus. John Piper
• Cole, Kate J.; Sudbury, Long Melford and Lavenham through Time (Amberley, 2015)
• Garnett, Oliver; Melford Hall. National Trust Guide (National Trust, 2005)
• Goyder, Rosemary et al.; A Sermon in Stone: the 500th Anniversary Book of Long Melford Church (Lavenham Press, 1983)
• Paine, Clive; Sudbury, Lavenham and Melford: Photographic Memories (Francis Frith Co., 2005)
• Parker, Sir William; Hand-Book to the Ancient Painted Glass, in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford, Suffolk (Pawsey & Hayes, 1888)
• Parker, Sir William; The History of Long Melford (Wyman & Sons, 1873)
• Wall, Barry L.; Long Melford through the Ages: A Guide to the Buildings and the Streets (East Anglian Magazine, 1986)
• Wigmore, Elizabeth (ed.); Long Melford: the last 2000 years (LM Historical & Archaeological Society, 2000)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Long Melford.

• Village website