Fakenham Magna

Fakenham Magna
A 1945 map of Fakenham Magna
Fakenham Magna is located in Suffolk
Fakenham Magna
Fakenham Magna
Location within Suffolk
Population152 (2001)[1]
167 (2011)[2]
Civil parish
  • Fakenham Magna
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townThetford
Postcode districtIP24
PoliceSuffolk
FireSuffolk
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Suffolk
52°21′14″N 0°48′18″E / 52.354°N 0.805°E / 52.354; 0.805
Signpost in Fakenham Magna

Fakenham Magna (or Great Fakenham) is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. The meaning of the word 'Fakenham' can be split into two: 'Faken' and 'ham', both of which derive from Old English. The former refers to somebody by the name of 'Facca', with the latter meaning 'a village / a homestead', making the direct translation 'Facca's homestead'.[3][4] 'Magna' translates from Latin as 'great', hence the alternative name of the village of 'Great Fakenham'. During World War Two, however, the village was referred to as 'Little Fakenham', which was used to avoid confusion with the larger civil parish of Fakenham in Norfolk.[4]

Located on the A1088 road around eight miles north-east of Bury St Edmunds and four miles south-east of Thetford, in 2011 its population was 167.[5] The village lacks nearly all basic amenities (such as a shop, a school and a doctor's surgery), with the main features being the Church of St Peter,[6] and the Wildwood Gallery. A small river, the Blackbourne, runs along the east of the village. The RAF Honington airfield covers much of the western part of the parish. A poem, "The Fakenham Ghost",[7] was set in Fakenham Magna - written by the poet Robert Bloomfield who was born in the nearby village of Honington.[4]

In the 1870s, Fakenham Magna was described as "a parish in the district of Thetford and county of Suffolk; on the river Brandon, 5¾ miles SSE of Thetford r. station".[8]

  1. ^ "Civil Parish population 2001". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  2. ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Fakenham Magna". Key to English Place Names. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  4. ^ a b c "Parish: Fakenham Magna" (PDF). Suffolk Heritage. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Fakenham Magna (Parish): Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  6. ^ "Fakenham Magna". The Blackbourne Team. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  7. ^ Bloomfield, Robert. "The Fakenham Ghost". Public Domain Poetry. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  8. ^ Marius Wilson, John (1870–72). Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton and Co.