Long Melford

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Long Melford
Long Melford shown within Suffolk
Population	3,675^[1]
OS grid reference	TL8646
District	Babergh
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Sudbury
Postcode district	CO10
Dialling code	01787
Police	Suffolk
Fire	Suffolk
Ambulance	East of England
European Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	South Suffolk
List of places: UK • England • Suffolk

Coordinates: 52°04′37″N 0°43′05″E / 52.077, 0.718

Long Melford (or Melford, as it is known localy) is a large, ancient village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, on the border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately 16 miles from Colchester and 14 miles from Bury St. Edmunds. The parish also includes the hamlets of Bridge Street and Cuckoo Tye.

Its name is derived from the nature of the village's layout (originally concentrated along a 3 mile stretch of a single road) and the Mill ford crossing the Chad Brook (a tributary of the River Stour).

Long Melford is famous for its large collection of antiques shops and dealers.

1 History
2 Holy Trinity Church
3 Stately Homes
4 Transport
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The area now occupied by Long Melford has been occupied since at least 100 B.C.. The village's layout was defined in Roman times, with the empire building two roads thorough Melford, the main one running from Chelmsford through to Pakenham.

The village is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 which lists the manor of Long Melford as an estate of 600 hectares, belonging to the Abbey of St.Edmundsbury. The neighbouring Manor of Kentwell is also recorded.

[edit] Holy Trinity Church

Long Melford is fairly unusual for a village in that it has a parish church of dimensions more suited to a cathedral. Holy Trinity Church, towards the northern end of the village, boasts a celebrated example of a three hares motif in stained glass. Edmund Blunden, the World War I poet, is buried in the churchyard.

[edit] Stately Homes

Holy Trinity Church

The village contains two stately homes, Kentwell Hall and Melford Hall (see Ha-ha), both in excellent states of repair, all built from the proceeds of the wool trade in the Middle Ages.

[edit] Transport

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.