Homersfield

South Elmham St. Mary, known as Homersfield, is a small village located on the banks of the River Waveney in Suffolk, UK, on the border with Norfolk. It is one of The Saints. It is the home of the oldest surviving concrete bridge in Britain, a 50-foot span built in 1870 by the Adair estate. It was restored during the 1990s by a partnership between the parish council and various local authorities and heritage bodies.

The village is centred around a small green, around which lie houses from various periods, including a number of traditional thatched houses.

Although the village once had a post office and village shop, only the Black Swan pub now remains, a free house serving Adnams ale and food. There also was once a water mill sited just outside of the village on the road towards St Cross. This was demolished in the 1930s after the Waveney became too silted up to run the mill. A modern house, built in the approximate style of the previous mill, was built around 1999.

Homersfield is bordered by a strip of woodland in which sits the flint-built village church. Behind the woodland is a large lake, the site of a former gravel pit. Although once open as an amenity to the village, it is now a private fishing lake.

External links

* [http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=191 Homersfield Bridge at Engineering Timelines]