- Mildenhall, Suffolk
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This article is about the town in Suffolk. For the village in Wiltshire, see Mildenhall, Wiltshire.
Signpost in Mildenhall
Coordinates: 52°20′41″N 0°30′32″E / 52.34461°N 0.50890°E
Mildenhall 
Mildenhall, Church of St Mary
Mildenhall
Mildenhall shown within SuffolkPopulation 9,906 [1] (2001 Census) OS grid reference TL710748 - London 75 mi (121 km) Parish Mildenhall District Forest Heath Shire county Suffolk Region East Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town BURY ST. EDMUNDS Postcode district IP28 Dialling code 01638 Police Suffolk Fire Suffolk Ambulance East of England EU Parliament East of England UK Parliament West Suffolk Website www.mildenhall.suffolk.gov.uk List of places: UK • England • Suffolk Mildenhall is a small market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is run by Forest Heath District Council and has a population of 9,906 people. The town is near the A11 and is located 60 km (37 mi) north-west of county town, Ipswich.[2] The large Royal Air Force base, RAF Mildenhall as well as RAF Lakenheath, is located immediately north of the town. The base is used by the United States Air Force, as the headquarters of its 100th Air Refueling Wing and 352nd Special Operations Group.
Contents
The town
Mildenhall centres on a market place with a 16th-century hexagonal market cross and town pump. The town's market is held here on every Friday and originated as a weekly chartered market in, it is believed, the 15th century. The Mildenhall Museum in the centre of the town contains displays of local history and wildlife, the history of the RAF base, and information on the Mildenhall Treasure. In 1934, Mildenhall was the start point of the MacRobertson Air Race to Melbourne, in Australia. Mildenhall currently (2011) has its own radio station, ZACK FM, broadcasting on 105.3 FM; the transmitter is located at the top of St Mary's church and radiates 100 W. The station format is Classic Hits and broadcasts 24 hours a day with a mix of music, news and information[3] Mildenhall is mentioned in passing in the Pink Floyd song 'Let There Be More Light' on the 1968 album A Saucerful Of Secrets as a speculated location for first contact between humanity and extraterrestrial life.
Transport
The town has a bus station, which was completed in 2005. Mildenhall railway station was the terminus of the Cambridge to Mildenhall railway until its closure in 1962.
Education
Mildenhall has five schools: two primary schools, St. Mary's and Great Heath, two middle schools, College Heath and Riverside, and one upper school, Mildenhall College of Technology. The upper school also contains a sixth form.
Archaeology
Main article: Mildenhall TreasureMildenhall is perhaps most famous for the discovery in 1942 of the Mildenhall Treasure. Now at the British Museum, the treasure is a hoard of Roman silver objects buried in the 4th century. In 1946 the discovery was made public and the treasure acquired by the British Museum; Roald Dahl wrote an article about the find which was published firstly in the Saturday Evening Post, and later as "The Mildenhall Treasure" in his short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.[4][5] The region between Devil's Dyke and the line between Littleport and Shippea Hill shows a remarkable amount of archaeological findings of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.[6]
References
- ^ "Neighbourhood Statistics - Parish Headcounts". http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=799672&c=mildenhall&d=16&e=15&g=487572&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1210737380640&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ Ordnance Survey (2006). OS Explorer Map 226 - Ely & Newmarket. ISBN 0-319-21857-0.
- ^ Brookes, Geoff. "Robert Everett DSO". Stories in Welsh Stone. http://www.storiesinwelshstone.co.uk/roberteverett.html. Retrieved 29 Oct 2009.
- ^ "The Mildenhall Treasure". Mildenhall Museum. Archived from the original on May 2, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060502234649/http://www.mildenhallmuseum.co.uk/mildenhall_treasure.htm. Retrieved May 4, 2006.
- ^ Dahl, Roald (1995). The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (5th edition ed.). London: Penguin Group. pp. 215. ISBN 0-14-037348-9.
- ^ Hall, David (1994). Fenland survey : an essay in landscape and persistence / David Hall and John Coles. London; English Heritage. ISBN 1-85074-477-7., pp. 81-88.
External links
Boroughs or districts Major settlements Aldeburgh • Beccles • Brandon • Bungay • Bury St Edmunds • Carlton Colville • Clare • Dunwich • Eye • Felixstowe • Framlingham • Hadleigh • Halesworth • Haverhill • Kesgrave • Leiston • Lowestoft • Mildenhall • Needham Market • Newmarket • Orford • Saxmundham • Southwold • Stowmarket • Sudbury • Woodbridge
See also: List of civil parishes in SuffolkTopics Categories:- Market towns in Suffolk
- Forest Heath
- Towns in Suffolk
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