Terrington St Clement

infobox UK place
country = England
static_

static_image_caption =
latitude=52.754603
longitude=0.294788
official_name = Terrington St Clement
population = 3,902 [cite web | publisher = Office of National Statistics | url = http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=796887&c=PE34+4PQ&d=16&e=15&g=470786&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1202162711234&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 | title = Neighbourhood Statistics - Terrington St. Clement CP (Parish) | accessdate = 4 February | accessyear = 2008]
shire_district = King's Lynn and West Norfolk
shire_county = Norfolk
region = East of England
constituency_westminster = North West Norfolk
post_town = KING'S LYNN
postcode_district = PE34
postcode_area= PE
dial_code=01553
os_grid_reference= TF548199

Terrington St Clement is a large village in Norfolk, in the UK. It is situated in the drained marshlands to the south of The Wash, 7 miles west of King's Lynn, Norfolk, and 5 miles east of Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, on the old route of the A17 trunk road. The parish covers an area of seventeen square miles, nearly 4,450 hectares (11,000 acres). Much of the farm land is of alluvial silt and clay which has been reclaimed from the sea amounting to approximately half of the total parish area.Terrington St Clement has grown substantially and is reputed to be the largest village in Norfolk [cite web | publisher = Norfolk-Norwich.com | url = http://www.norfolk-norwich.com/norfolk/villages/t/terrington-st-clement.php | title = Norfolk Villages - Terrington St Clement | accessdate = 4 February | accessyear = 2008] .

Village Life

Terrington St Clement has a wide selection of amenities, including a supermarket, farm shop, two doctor's surgeries, a post office, newsagents, Indian restaurant and takeaway, fish & chip shop, pizza parlour, hairdressers and two estate agents in addition to the well-known Marshland Stores, a traditional hardware store with a very large range of products. It also has a village hall, scout hut, and two pubs, The King William and The Wildfowler, both of which serve food.

The village is linked to King's Lynn and Spalding, Lincolnshire by a half-hourly bus service, and to Wisbech by a less frequent bus service that skirts the south of the village.

Terrington St Clement has state run primary and secondary schools. The secondary school was the centre of some press attention, firstly when its erstwhile head, Richard Wealthall, was singled out for praise and a visit from Prime Minister Tony Blair, and again subsequently when Mr Wealthall was found to have been guilty of bullying and nepotism. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/4639660.stm Head teacher guilty of bullying] BBC News Report, 23 January 2006] Meanwhile, the primary school has also attracted some unwanted press attention when it was placed into special measures in 2007 by Ofsted. [ [http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/Ofsted-report-shocks-Terrington-school.3201409.jp Ofsted report shocks Terrington school] Report in Lynn News, 15 September 2007]

History

In AD 970 Godric gifted part of the lands of Turrintonea to the monks of Ramsey Abbey. The name Terrington comes from the early Saxon “Tun” meaning enclosure or homestead of Tir(a)s people. The settlement is referred to in the Domesday Book as Tilinghetuna.

By the medieval period the small settlement which began on raised ground on the edge of the marsh had grown substantially. The magnificent Parish Church, dedicated to St Clement (i.e. Pope Clement I), known as the "Cathedral of the Marshland", was built in the 14th century by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington, who founded Gonville Hall (now Gonville and Caius College) at Cambridge University.

Methodists arrived in the village in 1813 and during the Victorian era the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel [http://www.terrington.org.uk] and Primitive Methodist Chapel were established along with a Salvation Army headquarters and 3 other mission chapels. A lively shopping centre had developed by the beginning of the 20th century, but most of the independent traders have now disappeared, along with all but two of the village's pubs.

There was once a Terrington railway station serving the settlement, but this is now closed.

Famous People

* Edmund Gonville, rector of the parish, 1342-51.

* Terrington St Clement is also the birthplace of the legendary socialite, 'Richard Wilkin' (AKA Dickman). He was born in the village in 1746 and died there 1783. He was known up and down the lands during that time in somewhat mythical status partly due to his habit of exposing himself whenever around Goats.

References

External links

[http://www.any-village.co.uk/main.asp?SiteID=AVUK&SpecID=Terrington+St+Clement Terrington St Clement Community Website]