Woolpit, Suffolk
Woolpit is a village in Suffolk, midway between the towns of Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket.
The village's name was first recorded c. 1000 as Wlpit. In the Doomsday Book it was recorded as Wlfpeta, and in the 11th. century the village was known as Wulpettas. The name derives from the Old English wulf-pytt, meaning 'pit for trapping wolves'. According to legend, Woolpit is the place where the last wolf in England was trapped in the 12th. century.
Before the Norman Conquest the village belonged to Ulfcytel Snillingr. Between 1174 and 1180, Walter de Coutances, a confidant of King Henry II, was appointed to Woolpit. After his death or retirement it was to be granted to the monks of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey who retained it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
The medieval writers Ralph of Coggeshall and William of Newburgh report that two children appeared mysteriously in Woolpit sometime during the 12th. century. The brother and sister were of generally normal appearance except for the green colour of their skin. They wore strange looking clothes and spoke in an unknown language. They appeared to be starving so the villagers offered to feed them, but they refused normal food. They were brought to the house of Sir Richard de Caine, at Wilkes, where it was found that they would only eat raw beans. Eventually, they learned to eat other food and lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after the children were baptised. The girl adjusted to her new life, but she was considered to be 'loose and wanton in her conduct'. After learning to speak English she explained that she and her brother had come from St Martin's Land, an underground world whose inhabitants are green.
Some researchers believe that the story of the green children is a typical folk tale, describing an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of another world. Others consider it to be a garbled account of a historical event, perhaps connected with the persecution of Flemish immigrants living in the area at that time.
It is thought that skin discolouration like that described could be the result of dietary deficiency anaemia, which would be corrected with an improved diet. A local tradition is that there are people alive today who are descended from the Green Children.
Until the Reformation St. Mary's church housed a richly adorned statue of the Virgin Mary known as 'Our Lady of Woolpit', which was an object of veneration and pilgrimage, perhaps as early as the 13th. century. It stood in its own chapel within the church, of which no trace survives but which may have lain at the east end of the south aisle, or more probably on the north side of the chancel in the area now occupied by the 19th. century vestry.
Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Woolpit seems to have been particularly popular in the 15th. and early 16th. century, and the shrine was visited twice by Henry VI, in 1448 and 1449. The statue was removed or destroyed after 1538 when Henry VIII ordered the taking down of 'feigned images abused with Pilgrimages and Offerings' throughout England. The chapel was demolished in 1551.
In the 15th. century and for some time afterwards, two fairs were held annually. The Horse Fair was held on two closes, or fields, on 16th. September. The Cow Fair was held on its own field on 19th. September, here toys, as well as cattle, were sold.
Sir Robert Gardiner, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was Lord of the Manor from 1597 to 1620. He founded an almshouse for the care of the poor women of Woolpit and nearby Elmswell. Gardiner's charity still exists today. On Gardener's death Woolpit passed to his grandnephew, Gardiner Webb, who died in 1674.
Records of brick production in Woolpit date back to the 16th. century, when Edward Duger and Richard Reynolds both had brick-kells, kell being a local word for a kiln. The bricks were very white and Frederic Shoberl suggested they were 'equal in beauty to stone'. In 1818 he remarked that most of the mansions in Suffolk were built from these bricks. Today only the quarry pits remain.
Mill Lane marks the site of a post mill which was demolished in about 1924. Another mill, which fell down in 1963, stood in Windmill Avenue.
The village sign was commissioned in 1977 to commemorate the Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee and is made of wrought iron. The sign has three main themes. The wolf on the right represents the origin of the village name, the church of St. Mary is in the middle and the Green Children are on the left.
Woolpit, Suffolk
Woolpit is a village in Suffolk, midway between the towns of Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket.
The village's name was first recorded c. 1000 as Wlpit. In the Doomsday Book it was recorded as Wlfpeta, and in the 11th. century the village was known as Wulpettas. The name derives from the Old English wulf-pytt, meaning 'pit for trapping wolves'. According to legend, Woolpit is the place where the last wolf in England was trapped in the 12th. century.
Before the Norman Conquest the village belonged to Ulfcytel Snillingr. Between 1174 and 1180, Walter de Coutances, a confidant of King Henry II, was appointed to Woolpit. After his death or retirement it was to be granted to the monks of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey who retained it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
The medieval writers Ralph of Coggeshall and William of Newburgh report that two children appeared mysteriously in Woolpit sometime during the 12th. century. The brother and sister were of generally normal appearance except for the green colour of their skin. They wore strange looking clothes and spoke in an unknown language. They appeared to be starving so the villagers offered to feed them, but they refused normal food. They were brought to the house of Sir Richard de Caine, at Wilkes, where it was found that they would only eat raw beans. Eventually, they learned to eat other food and lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after the children were baptised. The girl adjusted to her new life, but she was considered to be 'loose and wanton in her conduct'. After learning to speak English she explained that she and her brother had come from St Martin's Land, an underground world whose inhabitants are green.
Some researchers believe that the story of the green children is a typical folk tale, describing an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of another world. Others consider it to be a garbled account of a historical event, perhaps connected with the persecution of Flemish immigrants living in the area at that time.
It is thought that skin discolouration like that described could be the result of dietary deficiency anaemia, which would be corrected with an improved diet. A local tradition is that there are people alive today who are descended from the Green Children.
Until the Reformation St. Mary's church housed a richly adorned statue of the Virgin Mary known as 'Our Lady of Woolpit', which was an object of veneration and pilgrimage, perhaps as early as the 13th. century. It stood in its own chapel within the church, of which no trace survives but which may have lain at the east end of the south aisle, or more probably on the north side of the chancel in the area now occupied by the 19th. century vestry.
Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Woolpit seems to have been particularly popular in the 15th. and early 16th. century, and the shrine was visited twice by Henry VI, in 1448 and 1449. The statue was removed or destroyed after 1538 when Henry VIII ordered the taking down of 'feigned images abused with Pilgrimages and Offerings' throughout England. The chapel was demolished in 1551.
In the 15th. century and for some time afterwards, two fairs were held annually. The Horse Fair was held on two closes, or fields, on 16th. September. The Cow Fair was held on its own field on 19th. September, here toys, as well as cattle, were sold.
Sir Robert Gardiner, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was Lord of the Manor from 1597 to 1620. He founded an almshouse for the care of the poor women of Woolpit and nearby Elmswell. Gardiner's charity still exists today. On Gardener's death Woolpit passed to his grandnephew, Gardiner Webb, who died in 1674.
Records of brick production in Woolpit date back to the 16th. century, when Edward Duger and Richard Reynolds both had brick-kells, kell being a local word for a kiln. The bricks were very white and Frederic Shoberl suggested they were 'equal in beauty to stone'. In 1818 he remarked that most of the mansions in Suffolk were built from these bricks. Today only the quarry pits remain.
Mill Lane marks the site of a post mill which was demolished in about 1924. Another mill, which fell down in 1963, stood in Windmill Avenue.
The village sign was commissioned in 1977 to commemorate the Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee and is made of wrought iron. The sign has three main themes. The wolf on the right represents the origin of the village name, the church of St. Mary is in the middle and the Green Children are on the left.