The village of Metfield is situated in the Waveney valley on the Norfolk/Suffolk border and dates back to Saxon times. The name ‘Metfield’ is derived from ‘meadow field’ (medfield), a mowed area created when forests were cleared to provide areas of settlement.

Throughout its history, this small rural village community has been closely involved in agricultural work, with wheat, barley, oil seed rape and sugar beet being the main crops grown in the area.

Centuries ago, the rural way of life was harsh and life expectancy short – with mothers and babies often dying during childbirth. It is also certain that Metfield would have suffered great loss of life at the time of the Black Death in the mid-1300s.

In January 2018, there were around 400 inhabitants of Metfield, though according to the 1841 census its population had at one time peaked at 700.

The manorial Jermy family lived in the village for over 300 years. Sir John Jermy was granted the title of Lord of the Manor in 1325. He owned Metfield Hall and arable and common land. Other wealthy landowners included the Adair, Henniker and Micklethwaite families. These families owned most of the land, farmhouses and cottages that were rented to tenant farmers.

Famers and labourers would have had to pay tithes (a tenth of their crops) to the landowners and the church, despite having barely enough to feed their own families.

For those in dire need, the Poor House (now School House) took in paupers who could not clothe or support themselves.

Metfield was always self-sufficient. Much of the work in the village was land-related – blacksmiths, harness makers, weavers, shoemakers, farm labourers, cattlemen, stockmen and horsemen all worked on or for the many small farms. A brick kiln and field along with three corn mills around the village also provided work.

There had once been as many as four beer houses within the village (in 2018 there is not even a single pub), as well as six shops – butcher, greengrocer, fishmonger, draper, post office and general stores. Only the latter remains – Metfield Stores – having been rescued by the community in 2005/6 from threatened closure.

Like so many other villages during the Second World War, Metfield was ‘invaded’ by the USAAF. Service personnel arrived in Metfield in 1943 to build an aerodrome. Hundreds of labourers worked and lived in wooden huts along the Fressingfield Road during this period, as it had to be built in great haste to accommodate the imminent arrival of USAAF 491st Bombardment Group (Heavy). It was operational from 1943–4 and accommodated almost 3,000 service personnel.

On 15 July 1944, an accident caused a massive explosion at the bomb dump, with loss of life and aircraft, leaving the airbase unable to operate for a short while.

To find out more about this, why not buy a copy of Christine Brennan’s book METFIELD Tales From a Suffolk Village 1928–2017? It is available from Metfield Stores and other retail outlets. For full info, go to the book’s website.

Following the war years, as more money became available, the village was provided with sewage, electricity, water and telephones. Many of the houses and cottages were renovated. But, in the late sixties, farm labourers left the land in droves to work in the newly built factories. Modern farm machinery – being more efficient – required fewer men to operate it.

In the early 1600s, many had emigrated from this area to seek a new life in New England. Colony settlers took local village and town names with them. In the 1990s, there were exchange visits between Metfield and its sister parish Medfield, Massachusetts.

Metfield celebrated the millennium in a number of ways:

• In the darkness of the evening of Friday 31 December 1999, villagers lit their own registered beacon to see in the new millennium.
• A group of residents created The Family Millennium Wood, planting one tree for each family living in the parish in the year 2000.
• A millennium map, beautifully designed and recording the surnames of families living in the village at the time, was given to each household.
• A time capsule was buried by village children in the churchyard by the base of the tower, filled with items supplied by the girl guides.
• A local writer, Frances Donnelly, was commissioned to write a millennium play for performance by local talent in the village hall

November 2017 saw the publication and launch of local author Christine Brennan’s long-awaited book of family memories and anecdotes about growing up and living almost her whole life in Metfield.

Nearly 200 guests attended the book launch party. To find out more, go to the book’s own website. Also, watch a short film made by Jonathan Brinton to support the publication of the book. Copies of the book are available at a number of retail outlets including Metfield Stores. Price £10.00.