Bradfield St George


Bradfield St. George is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, about south of Bury St Edmunds.
According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is 'broad field'.
The Domesday Book records the population to be 76 people in 1086. In 2001, the population was 386 people.
The village has a village hall built in 1955 which among other events holds the annual village barn dance.
The village also has a public house called The Fox and Hounds that hosts the annual Bradfield St. George village fair, which is usually held in July or August, every year. The pub has also held a 4-day Adnams Brewery beer festival, which was a huge success and by the 3rd day covered the costs spent on buying the beer, and so by the 4th day, all money made was profit for the pub.
The village is home to former England Cricketer and Sky Sports commentator Nick Knight.

In literature

The village was the setting for Adrian Bell's book Corduroy, published in 1930, though in the book Bell calls Bradfield "Benfield". Corduroy is the author's account of his life as a young man, forsaking the fashionable ballrooms and cocktail parties of Inter-war era Mayfair, to learn farming in Suffolk. Though unsentimental, Corduroy is at times thoughtful, humorous and wistful. Bell expertly depicts the joys, hardships and crises not just of farming, but of all rural life, made the more interesting for being told by a man who came to it as an outsider. Bell tells of ploughing, harvesting, livestock and grain markets, shooting, beating, ferreting and foxhunting, and the importance of nature and religion as twin pillars of the Suffolk countryman's life.