Wilby, Norfolk

Wilby Hall is a country house north of the village of Wilby, in the civil parish of Quidenham, in Norfolk, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building on 9 February 1984. The house dates to the late-16th century.

Quidenham Hall is a country house at Quidenham in Norfolk, England.

Quidenham is a small rural village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of 22.51 km2 (8.69 sq mi) and had a population of 576 in 183 households at the 2001 census, falling to a population of 560 living in 189 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Breckland. It is situated 10 miles (16 km) north-east of the town of Thetford and 24 miles (39 km) south-west of the city of Norwich. The placename "Quidenham" is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as "Cuidenham", and means "Cwida's ham or village". The name "Cwida" corresponds to the Old High German name "Quito". There is a local tradition that Queen Boudica or Boadicea is buried in Quidenham. Quidenham Hall is now a monastery of Carmelite nuns. A hospice for sick children occupies the site of some former staff cottages on the property. It is run independently of the monastery under the management of the East Anglian Children's Hospices (EACH), a registered charity under the patronage of the Princess of Wales. The church of St Andrew is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk. Quidenham was the location of the music festival Play Fest, which ran for two years from 2011 until 2013. The civil parish includes the historic parish and still separate settlement of Wilby, which has its own historic church. Further, the old parishes of Eccles and Hargham now form part of Quidenham civil parish, each with their own historic church still in existence. Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit is partially located in Quidenham parish, albeit 2 miles (3.2 km) to the north-west of the village. Eccles Road railway station, on the Breckland Line between Cambridge and Norwich, is a similar distance to the north of the village.

Eccles Road railway station is on the Breckland line in the east of England, serving the villages of Eccles, Quidenham and Wilby in Norfolk. The line runs between Cambridge in the west and Norwich in the east. Eccles Road is situated between Harling Road and Attleborough, 104 miles 36 chains (168.1 km) from London Liverpool Street via Ely. The station is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station. Some East Midlands Railway also stop at Eccles Road. The station takes its name from being outside of the now abandoned original village of Eccles although the church Eccles St. Mary still stands and is one of 124 original round-tower churches in Norfolk. A new settlement, also called Eccles, has developed around the station. The station is situated in the civil parish of Quidenham, about 2 miles (3 km) north of that village, and 1 mile (1.5 km) north-east of Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit. The station is unstaffed and has two platforms, adjacent to a level crossing. Wooden level crossing gates used to be opened and closed manually by a signaller in the local signal box, which is dated 1883. However, in 2012 the signal box was closed and the crossing was renewed with automatic barriers controlled from Cambridge. The redundant signal box stands across the road from the westbound (Cambridge) platform, and was expected to be demolished when the barriers were replaced in 2017.

Kenninghall and Banham Fens with Quidenham Mere is a 48.4-hectare (120-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Banham, in Norfolk, England. This site in the valley of the River Whittle has a lake, tall fen, wet woodland and calcareous grassland. Springs feed an area of fen grassland dominated by purple moor grass, blunt-flowered rush and black bog-rush. The site is private land with no public access.

Old Buckenham Fen is a 34.5-hectare (85-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Attleborough in Norfolk.This valley fen has cattle grazed wet meadows, species rich reedbeds, a mere and dykes. Flora in wetter areas include ragged robin, marsh thistle and ladies smock.Most of the site is private land but there is a public footpath in the south-west corner.

Kenninghall is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England, with an area of 5.73 sq mi (14.8 km2) and a population of 950 at the 2011 census. It falls within the local government district of Breckland. Home to the kings of East Anglia, after the Norman invasion of 1066 William the Conqueror granted the estate to William of Albany and his heirs as a residence for the Chief Butler of England.

East Anglia is an area in the East of England. It comprises the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with Cambridgeshire and Essex also included in some definitions. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in what is now Northern Germany.

The Kingdom of the East Angles (Old English: Ēastengla Rīċe; Latin: Regnum Orientalium Anglorum), formally known as the Kingdom of East Anglia, was a small independent kingdom of the Angles during the Anglo-Saxon period comprising what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps the eastern part of the Fens, the area still known as East Anglia. The kingdom formed in the 6th century in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain and was one of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy. It was ruled by the Wuffingas dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries, but the territory was taken by Offa of Mercia in 794. Mercia control lapsed briefly following the death of Offa but was reestablished. The Danish Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia in 865, after taking York it returned to East Anglia, killing King Edmund ("the Martyr") and making it Danish land in 869. After Alfred the Great forced a treaty with the Danes, East Anglia was left as part of the Danelaw. It was taken back from Danish control by Edward the Elder in 917 and incorporated into the Kingdom of Wessex in 918.

The Iceni ( eye-SEEN-eye, Classical Latin: [ɪˈkeːniː]) or Eceni were an ancient tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the area of the Corieltauvi to the west, and the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes to the south. In the Roman period, their capital was Venta Icenorum at modern-day Caistor St Edmund.Julius Caesar does not mention the Iceni in his account of his invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 BC, though they may be related to the Cenimagni, whom Caesar notes as living north of the River Thames at that time. The Iceni were a significant power in eastern Britain during Claudius' conquest of Britain in AD 43, following which they allied with Rome. Increasing Roman influence on their affairs led to revolt in AD 47, though they remained nominally independent under king Prasutagus until his death around AD 60. Roman encroachment after Prasutagus' death led his wife Boudica to launch a major revolt from 60–61. Boudica's uprising seriously endangered Roman rule in Britain and resulted in the burning of Londinium and other cities. The Romans finally crushed the rebellion, and the Iceni were increasingly incorporated into the Roman province.

Guiltcross Rural District was a rural district in Norfolk, England from 1894 to 1902. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Guiltcross rural sanitary district. It lay in the southern part of the county between Thetford and Diss and took its name from the ancient Guiltcross hundred. In 1902, Guiltcross RD was abolished and its territory divided between Thetford, Wayland and Depwade RDs.

Swangey Fen, Attleborough is a 48.4-hectare (120-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Attleborough in Norfolk. It is part of the Norfolk Valley Fens Special Area of Conservation.Part of this site is spring fed fen with diverse flora, including grass of Parnassus, marsh helleborine and several rare mosses. The fen is surrounded by wet woodland and grassland.Much of this site is private but there is public access to an area formerly managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust off Fen Street