Helmingham

Coordinates: 52°10′23″N 1°12′11″E / 52.173°N 1.203°E / 52.173; 1.203

Helmingham is a village in Suffolk, England, 12 miles (20 km) east of Stowmarket, and 12 miles north (20 km) of Ipswich. It has a population of 170. It retains the same name by which it was recorded in Domesday.

Helmingham Hall - a large red brick quadrangular mansion - dates from the reign of Henry VIII. The ancient family of Tollemache have been seated here from an early period after settling for a while at Bentley soon after the Norman conquest. A Lionel Tollemache married the heiress of the Helmingham family so acquiring this estate in the 15th century.

The village was the birthplace of Faith Emmeline Backhouse, mother of the war poet John Gillespie Magee, Jr..

In 1900, excavations in the Rectory garden unearthed a cemetery, possibly Roman, containing some 25 graves.

Present day

The village is formed from the meeting of two roads B1077 from the south-west to the north, B1079 from the south-east. Helmingham Hall is 500 metres west of this junction.