Feltwell

Feltwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 11 mile (18 km) north west of Thetford and 34 mile (55 km) south west of Norwich.

Feltwell's name is of Anglo Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a spring or stream with an abundance of mullein. Feltwell has good archaeological evidence for Roman settlement, including two unidentified buildings, two villas and two bathhouses which prove the wealth of Feltwell during the Roman era. In the Domesday Book, Feltwell is listed as a settlement of 124 residents in the hundred of Grimshoe. In 1086, the village was divided between the East Anglian estates of King William I, William de Warenne and the Abbey of St Etheldreda, Ely. In August 1382 the poet John Gower purchased the manors of Feltwell in Norfolk and Moulton in Suffolk. They were then granted to Thomas Blakelake, parson of St Nicholas's, Feltwell, and others, at a rent of £40 annually for his life.

According to the 2011 Census, Feltwell has a population of 2,825 residents living in 1,235 households. Furthermore, the parish has a total area of which makes it the largest parish in Norfolk.

St Nicholas Church is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. St Nicholas was largely rebuilt in the nineteenth century, after the collapse of the tower in 1898, under the direction of Frederick Preedy. The church was used for Catholic Mass during the Second World War for prisoners of war.

Feltwell's active Church of England parish church, St Mary's, is also a Grade I listed building. It largely dates from the fifteenth century and was built after the site of earlier worship was severely damaged by fire. St Mary's displays East Anglia's finest examples of French stained glass installed by the Parisian workshops of Édouard Didron and Eugene Oudinot, installed in the nineteenth century. The church was extended in the late nineteenth century under the oversight, as with St Nicholas, of Frederick Preedy. Among the memorials in the church is one to Lt Col. Edward G. Hibbert of the Grenadier Guards, a veteran of the Crimean War and the Battles of Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol.

RAF Feltwell opened in 1937 for use by the Royal Air Force and, during the Second World War, hosted the Vickers Wellingtons of No. 37, No. 57 and No. 75 Squadrons RAF on strategic bombing missions of Continental Europe. After the war, Feltwell hosted Thor ballistic missiles for the RAF and was later leased to the United States Air Force. Today, RAF Feltwell is used as an accommodation estate for American servicepeople based at RAF Mildenhall. The base is notable for its three radomes, resembling giant golf balls, that dominate the local countryside.

Feltwell Primary School is named after Sir Edmund de Moundeford, a seventeenth century Feltwell resident and politician. In 2022, the school was rated as 'Good' by Ofsted. Feltwell's only remaining public house is called The Wellington, named after the Vickers Wellingtons that flew from RAF Feltwell during the Second World War, which dates from the eighteenth century and has in its history been used as a shop, an off licence, a restaurant and, most recently, a wine bar known as 'The Lodge.' The pub opened as The Wellington in 2014. The Chequers closed in 2017 having stood on its current site since the eighteenth century with significant renovation in 1930. The village is also home to: a General Practice surgery & pharmacy; a veterinarian practice: a car garage and service station; two convenience stores; a hairdressers; a Chinese takeaway; a Fish and Chips takeaway and; a small amount of miscellaneous businesses close to the old snooker hall.