HIGHAM: West Suffolk Parish #6 of 103

WEST SUFFOLK PARISH #6: HIGHAM

Higham – “High Enclosure”

This week in West Suffolk we’re in Higham, a peaceful, rural estate village located just to the East of Newmarket close to the A14. Its northern boundary is coincidental with the Icknield Way, and its crossed by the Ipswich to Ely railway line, upon which Higham used to have a station. The village is split into three distinct mini settlements, namely Lower Green, Middle Green and Upper Green, and bang in the middle of them all is St Stephen’s church, the work of Sir George Gilbert Scott.

The major part of the parish and its buildings are the property of the Higham Estate, acquired by the Barclay family in the early 19th century. Before they arrived, Higham was associated with Denham and the Dukes of Gloucester. The local population was few and dispersed, engaged mainly in agriculture and dairy farming with some horse breeding and poultry. The Barclay family would change that somewhat, engaging in a programme of welfare and social improvement.

Much of the population soon found themselves employed directly or indirectly by the Higham Estate who built cottages for them at Middle Green and Lower Green. They also built three not just one, but three schools. So lets have a look at what its like today. Spoiler alert though folks, its a pretty one!

Let’s go!

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#Higham, #Suffolk, #WestSuffolk, #BuryStEdmunds, #Newmarket, #Churches, #GeorgeGilbertScott, #Barclay, #Thatch, #Halls, #Cycling, #Railways, #Turnpike, #TollHouse, #Fire, #Research,

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Toll House:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1037619

Brooms Barn:
https://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/site/broomsbarn

Station:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higham_railway_station_%28Suffolk%29

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-37332082

Conservation Area Appraisal:
https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/planning/Conservation/upload/Adopted-Higham-Green-working-draft-jan09.pdf

Mill Farm:
https://themovemarket.com/tools/propertyprices/mill-farm-bury-st-edmunds-ip28-6nz#email-signup

Lodge Farmhouse Barn:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1037620

War memorial:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/4553

Church:
http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/highamsteve.htm

Demographics:
https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastofengland/admin/west_suffolk/E04009149__higham/

Rightmove:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/higham-12600.html?page=1

Some of the following music tracks may appear in this video:
Brendan Perkins – “Foxsnow” (B. Perkins)

Brendan Perkins – “Mickey’s House” (B. Perkins)

The Keyhouse – “Voices” (H. Flunder)

The Keyhouse – “Circles” (H. Flunder)

Helen Flunder – “Sun” (H. Flunder)

Helen Flunder – “Angels” (H. Flunder)

Helen Flunder – “C Song” (H. Flunder)

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Hello my name is Andy and I Am The Village Idiot I’m armed with a car and a GoPro and an unhealthy amount of time on my hands I’m using that time to attempt to visit every civil Parish in England you’re watching the West suffk series 103 parishes set in some of the most

Beautiful English country side and there’s some good ones in this area shall we go have a look of course welcome back to West suffk again folks for round six now this is the smallest one that I’ve got planned to do today day and you can probably tell from

Looking behind me that this one ain’t really got a lot look at this it’s just like a baron Road on either side isn’t it well I’m pretty sure there are some landmarks on this that we can have a little bit of a talk about I better get

Out of the way this car welcome to the Parish of Hyim Here’s my disclaimer for people who may be watching me for the first time I say things as I would in my native accent and dialect as a result I may not pronounce things in the same way as the locals do remember I’m a visitor it’s impossible to know everything leave me a

Comment spin me a like and Bash that subscribe button let’s get to today’s Parish video hyim High enclosure this week in West suffk we’re in hyim a peaceful rural estate village located just to the east of New Market close to the A14 its northern boundary is coincidental with

The nne way and it’s crossed by the IP switch to elely railway line upon which ham used to have a station the village is split into three distinct mini settlements namely lower green middle green and upper green and bang in the middle of them all is St Steven’s Church

The work of s George Gilbert Scott the major part of the parish and its buildings are the property of the H estate acquired by the Barkley family in the early 19th century before they arrived hyim was associated with Denim and the Dukes of Gloucester the local population was few and dispersed engaged

Mainly in agriculture and dairy farming with some horse breeding and poultry thrown in the the Barkley family would change that somewhat engaging in a program of welfare and social Improvement much of the population soon found themselves employed directly or indirectly by the H estate who built cottages for them at middle green and

Lower green they also built not just one but three schools so let’s have a look at what it’s like today spoiler alert though folks it’s a pretty one let’s Go Despite being one of the smallest Villages we’ve hit so far in West suffk Transportation has always been important to this place hyam was once on a Turnpike Road the one that connected New Market to Berry St Edmonds this building just south of the modern A14 was the

Tall house one of the parish’s listed buildings passing under the road just South of it is the IP switch to elely railway line still very much an active route connecting the two major UK settlements ham once had a railway station on this line which closed in the

1960s it was unique because it had an exceptionally large good shed which dealt with heavy agricultural traffic in the early 20th century until it was withdrawn in 1964 in September 2016 the good shed caught fire and was demolished the next day due to the risk of the building collapsing onto the line the

Station also dealt with traffic from brooms Barn experimental station part of the Institute of arable crops research this is just outside the parish boundary but it’s considered to be within hyim Village we begin on what is an unnamed Road at this point between the settlements of lower green and middle

Green that there is the old parsonage right next to St stev’s church this is the 19th century work of celebrated architect Sir George Gilbert Scott this is his only complete Church in suffk and it’s believed to be the only one he ever built with a round Tower I was wondering

How long it would be before we encountered one of them out here there are 38 in the county this tower has Echoes of a Norman one a few miles away at little saxum the church is the very reason why hyim exists as a civil Parish today it

All goes back to the mid 19th century when it was originally part of gazley and it’s historically been all about farming even though it’s tiny and surrounded by lush green Countryside in the 1850s the Industrial Revolution was increasing the size of the village this gave the Church of England cause for

Concern because non-conformism followed the movement so in 1861 a separate Parish was created and Scott was commissioned to do the church after a gentle amble North we come to lower green here’s the war memorial a granite Obelisk occupying the green itself there are 17 names on it

From both world wars lower green is a collection of farmhouses on two roads one is higham road which leads to gazley whilst the other is a dead end called Pages Lane in the early morning sunshine this area looked magnificent there’s a reason why people love the suffet countryside it’s peaceful and beautiful

With fabulous isolated farm buildings it’s the stuff of rural dreams hyim has a total of six listed buildings with the exception of the old parsonage and the Church of St Steven they’re all within lower green one of them is this 17th century thatch Barn located at lodge Farmhouse according to its listing

It was once larger but it was truncated at some point in the 20th century thatch buildings always make a place look countryfied the gorgeous roof of South Farm certainly helped prove that point although it’s a dead end for vehicles PA’s Lane becomes a foot path and heads off into the suffer Countryside that’s

Where we’re going I’ll tell you something the suffer Countryside ain’t half beautiful when the sun’s on it you couldn’t really appreciate it could you in those first few episodes of this West suff series because of the rain and the wind but now it’s sort of calmed down a bit and the

Sun’s come up on this second day it’s absolutely fantastic and I love it it’s brilliant it’s brilliant so peaceful and so quiet look at this for a house by the way another thatch building so what we’re doing here is We are following a foot path Pages Lane has turned into a

Foot path and what this does is it goes around the back of the village effectively and comes out in a little Hamlet called upper green when we reach upper green we’re then heading back towards the church where we started so it makes a nice little Loop you wouldn’t

Know would you that there are three settlements in this place it’s quite amazing I suspect at one time hyam was a much bigger place where the path Jinx to the left is a massive patch of Earthworks the thatch CES we’ve just passed has a well in its grounds too

This next part of the Walk was simply stunning check out out this view this is looking towards gazley and All You Can See For Miles is lush green Countryside with Rolling Hills and Open Fields I was thankful the awful weather from the day before had subsided even so the rain had

Left its Mark I had to trudge my way through this muddy Paddock to reach upper green so this is upper green which isn’t too dissimilar to lower green but here there are much bigger and grander houses upper green might be familiar to you if you’re a cyclist it’s on sustrans Route

51 which connects Colchester to Huntington via Felix sto next we have Hall farm and the old Hall is next door this should not be confused with ham Hall that’s in the other ham near ipswitch rounding off upper green is the three-story Mill Farm covering almost 4,000 ft this is the most expensive

Property in the village at well over2 million an old school one of three which H has had to its name is next as we hit middle green the center of H’s population and the location of several interesting buildings as we mentioned earlier much like elsewhere in suffk nonconformity was strong here and a

Baptist Chapel was built in 1836 it was rebuilt in 1879 and here it stands today a Gospel Hall was also built in 1908 like the school the vast majority of the older houses here in 19th century constructed by the Barkley family quaint little cottages for their estate

Workers middle green isn’t all that big you can be through it in less than 5 minutes at the Northern end of civilization is a parish notice board and a phone box this area is also the location of the former post office and Village shop which is now closed ham

Also has no Pub but it used to it was located in Upper green and it was called the lamb in these facilities may be gone now but the locals still refer to the picturesque pool at this end of the village as the post office Pond there

Exists the potential to make this into a focal point within the village okay and we’re almost back to the church where we began it just goes to show doesn’t it that a place such like as high which is very very small out here in the suffet countryside can

Be just as interesting as going to a big town or a big city like for example Baron Edmonds or ipswitch or Felix or milen hall or New Market you know what I’ve got enough out of this this Village to last me a lifetime and after driving through

Middle green it was off to the neighboring Village in total it took me an hour from start to finish here one of the most enjoyable so far on this trip next up in West suffk we’ll be exploring the place that was once H’s parent

Parish I wonder if it was going to be as good as this was see you There Thanks for watching this video folks don’t forget to like this episode if you haven’t already it really makes a difference with YouTube if you’re new here subscribe to the channel for more videos like this and give us a share too if you’ve got friends who’d like it you

Can find all the links to my social media accounts below as well as my buy me a coffee page where you can donate to the channel also if you’ve enjoyed this episode have a look at some more videos in this series until next time I’ve been

Andy also known as The Village Idiot and I’m out