Mildenhall, Suffolk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the town of Mildenhall, Suffolk. There is also an article on the village of Mildenhall, Wiltshire.

Mildenhall is a small market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It has a population of around 11,500 people. The town is located some 18 km north-west of the town of Bury St. Edmunds, 30 km north-east of the city of Cambridge, and 60 km north-west of Suffolk's county town of Ipswich.^[1] Mildenhall has 5 schools, 2 Primary schools, 2 Middle/secondary schools and 1 High,Upper or College school. The Primary Schools are called St. Mary's Primary School and Great Heath School; The Middle Schools are called College Heath Middle School and Riverside Middle school; And the High School is called Mildenhall College of Technology. "MCT" as it is known locally has a sixth form for students who have left the standard curriculum and who want a different option to college or university. The large Royal Air Force base, RAF Mildenhall, is located immediately outside the town. The base is used by the United States Air Force, as the headquarters of its 100th Air Refueling Wing and 352nd Special Operations Group.

The town centres around the market place with its 16th century hexagonal market cross and town pump; the town's market is held here on every Friday. The Mildenhall Museum in the centre of the town contains displays of times past, the local wildlife, the history of the RAF base, and information on the Mildenhall Treasure. The town has an array of family owned stores from a butcher, to a traditional fish and chip shop, to a pet shop with supplies and small animals.^[2] The parish council has also constructed a controversial new bus station in the style of the market cross.

[edit] Archaeology

Main article: Mildenhall Treasure

Mildenhall is perhaps most famous for the discovery in 1943 of the Mildenhall Treasure. Now at the British Museum, the treasure is a hoard of Roman silver objects buried in the 4th century. In 1946 the discovery was made public and the treasure acquired by the British Museum; Roald Dahl wrote an article about the find which was published firstly in the Saturday Evening Post, and later as "The Mildenhall Treasure" in his short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.^[3]^[4] The region between Devil's Dyke and the line between Littleport and Shippea Hill shows a remarkable amount of archaeological findings of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. ^[5]

[edit] References

^ Ordnance Survey (2006). OS Explorer Map 226 - Ely & Newmarket. ISBN 0-319-21857-0.
^ Mildenhall, Suffolk. East Anglia Towns and Villages. Retrieved on May 4, 2006.
^ The Mildenhall Treasure. Mildenhall Museum. Retrieved on May 4, 2006.
^ Dahl, Roald (1995). The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, 5th edition, London: Penguin Group, 215. ISBN 0-14-037348-9.
^ Hall, David [1994]. Fenland survey : an essay in landscape and persistence / David Hall and John Coles. London; English Heritage. ISBN 1-85074-477-7. , pp. 81-88.