Lakenheath

Transport

Lakenheath railway station, 3 mi north of the village, sees very little passenger service.

There are regular bus services to the neighbouring towns of Brandon, Mildenhall and Thetford plus buses to Bury St. Edmunds operated on school/college days which are available to the general public.

RAF Lakenheath

Main article: RAF Lakenheath

Lakenheath is host to the largest deployment of United States Air Force personnel in the United Kingdom: RAF Lakenheath. The social impact of the United States Air Force fighter airbase and its nearby sister, RAF Mildenhall, on the economy of Lakenheath and on the nearby towns and villages is important. The United States has maintained a presence in the community since bombers were stationed there during WWII conducting raids on Europe. The base has a population of around 6000 service personnel.

Prehistory and archaeology

During the Ice Age, the River Bytham flowed through the area that is now Lakenheath, depositing much of the modern geology found in the area.

Excavation of three early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at RAF Lakenheath between 1997 and 2002 uncovered a total of 394 inhumation and 17 cremation burials, including one 6th-century grave with a horse burial: a man was buried next to a fully armoured horse.

History

During the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, Sir John Cavendish, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge was pursued by rebels and caught and killed in Lakenheath.

The village was struck by an F0/T1 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Climate

Lakenheath has an oceanic climate similar to the rest of the region of East of England. It is therefore warmer and drier than the average climate of the British Isles due to its relative distance to the low-pressure dominated coastal weather systems of the Atlantic.

|Jan record high C = 16 |Feb record high C = 18 |Mar record high C = 22.8 |Apr record high C = 27 |May record high C = 29 |Jun record high C = 34 |Jul record high C = 34 |Aug record high C = 35 |Sep record high C = 31.1 |Oct record high C = 29.1 |Nov record high C = 18 |Dec record high C = 15 |year record high C = 35 |Jan record low C = −15.6 |Feb record low C = −13.3 |Mar record low C = −10.0 |Apr record low C = −6.1 |May record low C = −3.3 |Jun record low C = -1.7 |Jul record low C = 3.3 |Aug record low C = 2.6 |Sep record low C = 0.6 |Oct record low C = −5.0 |Nov record low C = −8.3 |Dec record low C = −13.9 |year record low C = −15.6 | access-date=31 March 2017|date=March 2017}}

References

References

1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Office for National Statistics.
2. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6659827.stm BBC News 17 May 2007]
3. [http://www.lakenheath.suffolk.sch.uk/Our%20School.htm Our School] {{webarchive. link. (29 September 2007)
4. {{usurped. (March 2024)
5. "Lakenheath Library {{!}} Suffolk Libraries".
6. [https://www.lakenheathvillagehall.org/the-lakenheath-community-centre The Lakenheath Peace Memorial Hall]
7. [http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/lakenheath.htm Lakenheath]
8. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/7813010.stm BBC News 6 January 2009]
9. "The Shotton Project".
10. (1999). "Death in England: An Illustrated History". Manchester UP.
11. Dunn, Alastair. (14 February 2024). "The Great Rising of 1381: the Peasants' Revolt and England's Failed Revolution.". Stroud, UK: Tempus.
12. "European Severe Weather Database".
13. "Météo climat stats Lakenheath records". Météo Climat.