Great Glemham

Last updated

Great Glemham
Great Glemham - Church of All Saints.jpg
All Saints' Church
Suffolk UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Great Glemham
Location within Suffolk
Area7.77 km2 (3.00 sq mi)
Population224 (2011)
•  Density 29/km2 (75/sq mi)
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Saxmundham
Postcode district IP17
Dialling code 01728
Police Suffolk
Fire Suffolk
Ambulance East of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Suffolk
52°12′14″N1°25′26″E / 52.204°N 1.424°E / 52.204; 1.424

Great Glemham is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, England, a mile and a half to the west of the A12 and roughly equidistant between Framlingham and Saxmundham.

Contents

The parish takes the shape of an irregular triangle formed by two clay ridges flanking rolling countryside through which runs the channel of a seasonal watercourse, the Gull, flowing NW to SE to join the upper River Alde, which forms the village's eastern boundary.

The civil parish had a population of 224 at the 2011 Census. [1] The centre of the village is a Conservation area with numerous historic and listed buildings including its Grade I listed church, The Crown Inn, Crown House and K6 telephone box.

The place-name 'Glemham' is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Gl(i)emham, in the manors of Edwin Grim and Spearhafoc of Glaimham. Eilert Ekwall comments: "The first element of the names is possibly Old English glēam 'merriment'..." By analogy with Glandford in Norfolk, 'Glemham' could mean the 'village where sports were held'. [2]

Glemham House was built by Samuel Kilderbee in 1814 [3] to the designs of Thomas Hopper [4] and is the seat of the Earls of Cranbrook and Gathorne-Hardy family. With strong connections between the family and Benjamin Britten, the house hosted some of the earlier and more intimate performances of the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts including a notable recording by Julian Bream and Peter Pears. An earlier Glemham House, located closer to the village itself, had in the late eighteenth century been the home of George Crabbe, the author of the poem The Borough which formed the basis of Britten's 1945 masterpiece Peter Grimes .

Britten worked closely with another Glemham resident, the librettist Eric Crozier, on many of his operatic compositions including The Little Sweep . Although set at nearby Iken Hall, the child characters in this work were transplanted from Glemham House, at that time the home of Jock and Fidelity Cranbrook. Both personal friends of the composer, Fidelity was also chair of the newly formed Aldeburgh Festival. Britten and Crozier adopted the names and personas of Jock and Fidelity's children and nephews for the opera, and the opera is "affectionately dedicated to the real Gay, Juliet, Sophie, Tina, Hughie, Jonny and Sammy – the Gathorne-Hardys of Great Glemham, Suffolk." [5]

Notable residents

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Pears</span> English tenor (1910–1986)

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldeburgh</span> Coastal town in Suffolk

Aldeburgh is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk, England, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Aldeburgh Festival of arts at nearby Snape Maltings, which was founded by Britten in 1948. It also hosts an annual poetry festival and several food festivals and other events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldeburgh Festival</span> Arts festival in England

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Crabbe</span> English poet, surgeon, and clergyman (1754–1832)

George Crabbe was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Cranbrook</span> Title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Earl of Cranbrook is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1892 for Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, Viscount Cranbrook. The title is named after Cranbrook in the county of Kent. The Gathorne-Hardy family seat is Great Glemham House, near Saxmundham, Suffolk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoxford</span> Village in East Suffolk, England

Yoxford is a village in East Suffolk, England, close to the Heritage Coast, Minsmere Reserve (RSPB), Aldeburgh and Southwold. It is known for its antique shops and for providing the setting for a Britten opera.

<i>Peter Grimes</i> 1945 opera by Benjamin Britten

Peter Grimes, Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem The Borough. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional small town that bears some resemblance to Crabbe's – and later Britten's – home of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on England's east coast.

Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, Half an Arch, he received the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 2005. He also wrote novels and children's literature. He subsequently worked in advertising and publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snape Maltings Concert Hall</span>

Snape Maltings Concert Hall is an arts complex on the banks of the River Alde at Snape, Suffolk, England. It is best known as one of the main sites of the annual Aldeburgh Festival. It is now one of two headquarters for Britten Pears Arts, with the other being The Red House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iken</span> Village in Suffolk, England

Iken is a small village and civil parish in the sandlands of the English county of Suffolk, an area formerly of heathland and sheep pasture. It is near the estuary of the River Alde on the North Sea coast and is located south east of Snape and due north of Orford. To its west is Tunstall Forest, created since the 1920s by the Forestry Commission and now part of the Sandlings Forest.

Aldeburgh in Suffolk, was a parliamentary borough represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessor bodies.

Eric Crozier OBE was a British theatrical director, opera librettist and producer, long associated with Benjamin Britten.

<i>The Little Sweep</i>

The Little Sweep, Op. 45, is an opera for children in three scenes by the English composer Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Eric Crozier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Evans (mezzo-soprano)</span> English mezzo-soprano

Nancy Evans OBE was an English mezzo-soprano who had a notable career as a concert and opera singer. She is particularly associated with Benjamin Britten who wrote his song cycle, A Charm of Lullabies, and the role of Nancy in his opera Albert Herring for her.

Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all. It is a registered charity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Peter and St Paul's Church, Aldeburgh</span> Church in Aldeburgh, England

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Aldeburgh is a Grade II* listed parish church in the Church of England in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

Caroline Gathorne-Hardy, Countess of Cranbrook is an English aristocrat and campaigner on food quality issues. She is the wife of Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Kilderbee</span>

The Reverend Samuel Kilderbee (1725–1813) was a churchman, lawyer, and town clerk of Ipswich, now remembered chiefly for being a life-long friend of Thomas Gainsborough. He had a successful career as an attorney, in particular representing Nathaniel Acton in many legal transactions. In 1755, during the period of political turmoil in Ipswich, he was installed as Town Clerk, a position he retained until 1767. It is unclear if the Gainsboroughs had known the Kilderbees before Gainsborough’s move to Ipswich after his London training, but it is certainly possible. The Kilderbee family had been living for several generations in Framlingham, while Gainsborough was from Sudbury, on the other side of Ipswich. Once they did meet, they became firm friends until the end, although, as with much of Gainsborough’s life, direct evidence is scanty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook</span> British zoologist

Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook,, styled Lord Medway until 1978, is a British zoologist, biologist, naturalist, and peer. Since 1956, he has been active in the fields of ornithology, mammalogy, and zooarchaeology, and has influenced research and education in Southeast Asia. His career focus was on swiftlets and other small Southeast Asian birds, as well as on mammals, including orangutans.

References

  1. ↑ "Great Glemham - Nomis - Official Labour Market Statistics". www.nomisweb.co.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  2. ↑ Ekwall, Eilert (1960). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (Fourth ed.). Oxford. pp. 197–198. ISBN   0-19-869103-3. OCLC   400936.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Glenham House (1230219)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  4. ↑ Historic England. "National Heritage List". historicengland.org.uk. Historic England. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  5. ↑ "Britten Thematic Catalogue". brittenproject.org. May 1949.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Great Glemham at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.