Didlington

{{Infobox UK place

| country = England

| coordinates = {{coord|52.544831|0.626654|display=inline,title}}

| official_name = Didlington

| population =

| area_total_km2 = 11.07

| population_ref =

| shire_district = Breckland

| shire_county = Norfolk

| region = East of England

| constituency_westminster = South West Norfolk

| post_town = Thetford

| postcode_district = IP26

| postcode_area = IP

| dial_code = 01842

| os_grid_reference = TL7821097350

| static_image = St Michael's church, Didlington - geograph.org.uk - 396589.jpg

| static_image_width = 240px

| static_image_caption = St Michael's Church

}}

Didlington is a village and civil parish in the Breckland district of the English county of Norfolk.

Didlington is located {{Convert|11|mi|km}} north-west of Thetford and {{Convert|29|mi|km}} west of Norwich.

History

Didlington's name is of mixed Anglo-Saxon origin deriving from the Old English for 'the farm or settlement of Duddel's people.'{{Cite web |title=Key to English Place-names |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Didlington |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=kepn.nottingham.ac.uk}}

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Didlington is recorded as a settlement of 51 households in the hundred of South Greenhoe. In 1086, the village was part of the estate of William de Warenne and Ralph de Limesy.{{Cite web |title=Didlington {{!}} Domesday Book |url=https://opendomesday.org/place/TL7796/didlington/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=opendomesday.org}}

Didlington Hall was once the residence of William Tyssen-Amherst, Baron Amherst who amassed a significant Egyptological collection.{{Cite book |last=Parkinson |first=R. B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0tgsihijEYC&pg=PA231 |title=Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories |date=2009-02-17 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-2547-5 |language=en}} The house was re-modelled between 1879 and 1886 by Richard Norman Shaw and was used by the 7th Armoured Division during the Second World War. The house was demolished in the 1950s, though the stables and clock-tower remain.{{Cite web |last=Kingsley |first=Nick |date=2014-05-11 |title=Landed families of Britain and Ireland: (122) Tyssen-Amherst (later Cecil) of Didlington Hall and Foulden Hall, Barons Amherst of Hackney |url=https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2014/05/122-tyssen-amherst-later-cecil-of.html |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=Landed families of Britain and Ireland}}

Geography

As the parish has a minimal population, it has been recorded in census data along with the nearby parish of Ickburgh.{{Cite web |title=Didlington (Parish, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastofengland/admin/breckland/E04006107__didlington/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.citypopulation.de}}

The village is located along the River Wissey.

St. Michael's Church

Didlington's parish church is dedicated to Saint Michael and dates from the Fourteenth Century. St. Michael's has been Grade I listed since 1960.{{NHLE |desc=CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, Didlington |num=1305343 |access-date=2025-01-02 }}

St. Michael's was heavily restored in the Victorian era and still hosts a set of royal arms from the reign of Queen Victoria alongside a font made of Purbeck Marble dating from the Thirteenth Century.{{Cite web |title=Norfolk Churches |url=http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/didlington/didlington.htm |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.norfolkchurches.co.uk}}

Governance

Didlington is part of the electoral ward of Bedingfield for local elections and is part of the district of Breckland.

The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy MP since 2024.

War Memorial

Didlington's war memorial is a small plaque inside St. Michael's Church which lists the following names for the First World War:{{Cite web |title=Geograph:: Denton to Dunton cum Doughton :: War Memorials in Norfolk |url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/War-Memorials-in-Norfolk/6#denton-to-dunton-cum-doughton |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.geograph.org.uk}}

class="wikitable"

!Rank

!Name

!Unit

!Date of Death

!Burial/Commemoration

Pte.

|Albert R. Corbett

|1st Bn., Essex Regiment

|22 Apr. 1917

|Cologne Southern Cemetery

Pte.