Hempton

Hempton's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for Hemma's settlement.^[1]

In the Domesday Book, Hempton is listed as a settlement of 8 households in the hundred of Brothercross. In 1086, the village was part of the East Anglian estates of William de Warenne.^[2]

In 1135, an Augustinian Hospital was founded in the parish which, by 1200, had evolved into a Priory. The building was dissolved in the Sixteenth Century.^[3] Recent excavations, coupled with research of records, have established that the importance of this priory had been lost to history. The Priory had previously owned the mill and owned the bridge to Fakenham, together with the next nearby bridge at Ryburgh,.

Between 1797 and 1925, a watermill stood in Hempton along the banks of the River Wensum, which was eventually demolished by the East Suffolk and Norfolk Drainage Board. Locally, the mill was known as Goggs' Mill after the miller, Thomas Goggs, who operated the mill from 1850 to 1912.^[4][5]

According to the 2021 census, Hempton has a population of 523 people which shows an increase from the 505 people recorded in the 2011 census.^[6]

Hempton stands on the River Wensum and the A1065, between Mildenhall and Fakenham.

Hempton's parish church was built in 1856 by John Henry Hakewill at the request of the Reverend Charles Moxon. Holy Trinity is located within the village on The Green and has been Grade II listed since 2006.^[7] The church remains open for Sunday service every week.^[8]

Holy Trinity was later expanded in the 1950s by J.P. Chaplin using stone from the Church of St. Michael at Thorn which was destroyed during the Norwich Blitz.^[9]