 |
 |
|
|
| |
Great Massingham is one of Norfolk’s most attractive villages and is located approximately 40 miles west of Norwich and 13 miles east of King’s Lynn. It has one of the most impressive greens in the country with several large ponds, home to the ‘dabbling ducks’, which have their origins as the fish ponds for an 11th century Augustinian Abbey. There are also connections with Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who was educated in the village and built the breathtaking Houghton Hall nearby. It is possible that the origins of Great Massingham date back as far as the 5th Century AD when the area was inhabited in the wake of the Roman withdrawal, by a group of Angles and Saxons whose leader’s name was thought to be Maesron. The ‘family’ of settlers were called Maersings, hence ‘Maersingham – later spelt as Massingham.
|
|
|
|
|
|
