Bradfield St George

Bradfield St. George
Bradfield St. George Location within Suffolk
Population	420 (2011)
District	St Edmundsbury
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Land	England
Sovereign state	Vereinigtes Königreich
Post town	Bury St Edmunds
Postcode district	IP30
Dialling code	01284
Police	Suffolk
Fire	Suffolk
Ambulance	East of England

Bradfield St. George is a village and civil parish in the St Edmundsbury district of Suffolk, England. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is the wide field. The Domesday Book records the population of Bradfield St. George in 1086 to be 76 this includes Bradfield Combust and Bradfield St Clare. The village is about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Bury St Edmunds.

In 2001, the recorded population of Bradfield St. George was 386 people (not including Bradfield Combust and Bradfield St Clare)

The village has a village hall which was built in 1955 that has music broadcasting and legal sales of alcohol licences, and most notably holds the annual village barn dance.

The village was the setting for Adrian Bell's book Corduroy, published in 1930, though in the book Bell calls Bradfield "Benfield". Corduroy is the author's account of his life as a young man, forsaking the fashionable ballrooms and cocktail parties of Inter-war era Mayfair, to learn farming in Suffolk.

Though unsentimental, Corduroy is at times thoughtful, humorous and wistful. Bell expertly depicts the joys, hardships and crises not just of farming, but of all rural life, made the more interesting for being told by a man who came to it as an outsider. Bell tells of ploughing, harvesting, livestock and grain markets, shooting, beating, ferreting and foxhunting, and the importance of nature and religion as twin pillars of the Suffolk countryman's life.

The village is home to former England Cricketer and Sky Sports commentator Nick Knight

External links

Media related to Bradfield St George at Wikimedia Commons