Horham

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 52.305
longitude= 1.249
official_name= Horham
population =
shire_district= Mid Suffolk
region= East of England
shire_county = Suffolk
constituency_westminster= Central Suffolk and North Ipswich
post_town= EYE
postcode_district=
postcode_area=
dial_code=
os_grid_reference= TM2172

Horham is a village in Suffolk County England, in the East Anglia region of eastern England. The village contains an old church, St. Mary of Horham. Horham is on B1117, approximately halfway between Eye and Stradbroke.

History

A World War II airbase, RAF Horham, was located in Horham. The American Eighth Air Force, 95th Bomb Group, and the 334th Bomb Squadron flew from Horham. A portion of the runway is still visible. The Red Feather Club has been restored and a World War II museum is in the same building. Also, there is another museum which was formerly the hospital.

The Mid Suffolk Light Railway was built at the turn the last century to serve the villages, and agriculture, of Mid Suffolk. The terminus of the MLSR, or ‘Middy’ as it was affectionately called, was at Haughley Junction, where the station was enlarged in 1903 to cope with this additional role. The MLSR was a standard gauge railway built to take light traffic from Haughley to Mendlesham, Brockford, Kenton, Aspall, Horham and Laxfield. The railway opened in 1904 and was extended for freight only to Cratfield in 1906. The original idea was to push the line across to Southwold, providing a link from the Midlands through to the North Sea at Southwold. It was also to join with the East Suffolk Railway, which ran via Debenham and Otley to Ipswich, but these links were never built.Originally there were cattle docks provided at every station except Haughley, but these also fell into disuse as agriculture turned from cattle to corn. In World War l, part of the link to Kenton and Debenham, which had been started, was lifted because the materials were more urgently needed elsewhere and this effectively ended any hopes of completing the original scheme. The line was never to be a profitable enterprise and when, along with the Great Eastern Railway, it was swallowed up by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1924, it remained virtually independent within the new grouping, simply because the LNER did not want to take it on. The only economy that they did eventually insist on was the closure of the MLSR Haughley East Station and the centralisation of the operation on the old GER station in November 1939. The original MLSR station was flattened.

The village is very old, some say it was a viking settlement. There are some houses that are known to have been built in the 15th century. The old Dragon Inn - now known as Dragon House - is believed to date back to about 1525.

External links

* [http://www.dissexpress.co.uk/ Diss Express] - village's local newspaper website
* [http://www.95thbg-horham.com/ Horham Airbase of the 95th Bomb Group web site]