Walberswick
Encyclopedia
Walberswick is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
on the Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
coast in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, across the River Blyth
River Blyth, Suffolk
The River Blyth is a river in Suffolk, England, with a tidal estuary between Southwold and Walberswick.It can be crossed by pedestrians by a public footbridge called the Bailey Bridge about a mile upstream from the sea or by the Walberswick rowing boat ferry between 9am-5pm daily.The estuary mouth...
from Southwold
Southwold
Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...
. Coastal erosion and the shifting of the mouth of the River Blyth meant that the neighbouring town of Dunwich
Dunwich
Dunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago but the harbour and most of the town have since disappeared due to coastal erosion. Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast, and...
was lost as a port in the last years of the 13th century. Following a brief period of rivalry and dispute with Dunwich
Dunwich
Dunwich is a small town in Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB.Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1500 years ago but the harbour and most of the town have since disappeared due to coastal erosion. Its decline began in 1286 when a sea surge hit the East Anglian coast, and...
, Walberswick became a major trading port from the 13th century until World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The British Open Crabbing Championship is held yearly to raise funds for charities. Almost half of the properties in the village are holiday homes.
Highlights
The name Walberswick is believed to derive from the Saxon Waldbert – probably a landowner – and “wyc” meaning shelter or harbour. At the top of the village is the 15th century St. Andrew's Church. The size of the St. Andrew's ruins demonstrate how large the parish once was.With over 1000 acres (4 km²) of heath and marshland protected within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
, Walberswick has good varied local habitats for birds. The village and surrounding beach and marshland have long attracted residents drawn from the arts, film and media. In the 1890s and 1900s the village became associated with Philip Wilson Steer
Philip Wilson Steer
Philip Wilson Steer OM was a British painter of landscape and occasional portraits and figure studies. He was a leading figure in the Impressionist movement in Britain.-Life and work:...
and his circle of English Impressionists
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
. It was home to the noted artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and artist. He was a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and also the main representative of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable influence on European design...
from 1914. It was also the birthplace of Oscar nominated documentary film maker Humphrey Jennings
Humphrey Jennings
Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organization...
famous for his World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
documentaries.
The World War Two defences
British anti-invasion preparations of World War II
British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in...
constructed around Walberswick have been documented. They included a number of pillboxes
British hardened field defences of World War II
British hardened field defences of World War II were small fortified structures constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. They were popularly known as pillboxes by reference to their shape.-Design and development:...
, landmines and flame fougasse
Flame fougasse
A flame fougasse is a weapon. It is a type of mine which uses an explosive charge to project burning liquid onto a target. The flame fougasse was developed by the Petroleum Warfare Department in Britain as an anti-tank weapon during the invasion crisis of 1940...
installations. The beaches were protected with extensive barriers of scaffolding
Admiralty scaffolding
Admiralty scaffolding, also known as Obstacle Z.1 or sometimes simply given as beach scaffolding or anti-tank scaffolding, was a British design of anti-tank and anti-boat obstacle made of tubular steel. It was widely deployed on beaches of southern England, eastern England and the south western...
.
The ornate metalwork sign to the village was erected in 1953 in commemoration of the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
of Queen Elizabeth II.
Considering its size, an inordinate number of British celebrities own or have owned holiday homes in the village including the late Sir Clement Freud and his wife Jill, and their daughter, Emma Freud
Emma Freud
Emma Vallencey Freud OBE is an English broadcaster and cultural commentator.-Early life:Emma Freud was born on 25 January 1962 and is the daughter of politician and broadcaster Sir Clement Freud and June Flewett. She is the great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud...
and her husband Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
. Martin Bell
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
, and Geoffrey Palmer
Geoffrey Palmer (actor)
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:...
, maintain properties here while Paul Heiney
Paul Heiney
Paul Heiney has been a radio broadcaster or television reporter in the United Kingdom for over thirty years.-Early life:...
and Libby Purves
Libby Purves
Libby Purves OBE is a British radio presenter, journalist and author. A diplomat's daughter, she was educated at convent schools in Israel, Bangkok, South Africa and France, and then Beechwood Sacred Heart School in Tunbridge Wells.Purves won a scholarship to St Anne's College, Oxford, where she...
live nearby. The village is the setting for Esther Freud
Esther Freud
Esther Freud is a British novelist.-Life and career:Born in London, Freud is the daughter of painter Lucian Freud and Bernadine Coverley and is a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, and returned to London at the age of sixteen to train as an...
's novel, The Sea House, thinly disguised as 'Steerborough' - presumably a coded reference, or in-joke, towards one-time resident, Philip Wilson Steer
Philip Wilson Steer
Philip Wilson Steer OM was a British painter of landscape and occasional portraits and figure studies. He was a leading figure in the Impressionist movement in Britain.-Life and work:...
(see above). Esther Freud
Esther Freud
Esther Freud is a British novelist.-Life and career:Born in London, Freud is the daughter of painter Lucian Freud and Bernadine Coverley and is a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, and returned to London at the age of sixteen to train as an...
is the cousin of Emma Freud
Emma Freud
Emma Vallencey Freud OBE is an English broadcaster and cultural commentator.-Early life:Emma Freud was born on 25 January 1962 and is the daughter of politician and broadcaster Sir Clement Freud and June Flewett. She is the great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud...
and the niece of Sir Clement Freud has a house in nearby Southwold
Southwold
Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...
.
The village is famous for its annual crabbing competition - The British Open Crabbing Championship, held every August. The person who catches the single heaviest crab within a period of 90 minutes is declared the winner. The proceeds go towards strengthening Walberswick's sea defences.
A derelict windmill
Westwood Marshes Mill, Walberswick
Westwood Marshes Mill is a Grade II listed tower mill at Walberswick, Suffolk, England which is derelict.-History:Westwood Marshes Mill was built in the late 18th century, possibly in 1798. It was worked by wind until 1940 and then damaged when used for target practice during World War II. The mill...
stands on the marshes near Walberswick.
Railway
Walberswick had a railway station on the Southwold RailwaySouthwold Railway
- External links :* * * *...
but the line and station closed on 11 April 1929.
External links
- British Open Crabbing Championship http://www.walberswick.ws/crabbing/