Rendham
Rendham is a village and civil parish on the B1119 road, in the East [Suffolk (district)|East Suffolk] district, in the English county of Suffolk. It is near the town Saxmundham and the village Sweffling.
Etymology
Rendham comes from Old English and Saxon. Rend is the Old English "rymed" meaning cleared. "Ham" is Saxon, meaning village. Rendham therefore means cleared village, taken from that the village being placed in a clearing by the River Alde, surrounded by woodland.Geography
Rendham lies on the River Alde, near its confluence with The Gull which diverts to Sweffling downstream from Rendham. The surrounding area is rural, farmland dotted with small areas of woodland. Rendham has two village greens called Rendham Green and The Knoll which are owned by the local Parish.Between 1870 and 1872, Rendham's location was described in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales:
Rendham has a healthy populace, the majority of the population in 2011 having very good health or good health. Only 41 people had fair, bad or very bad health. Most people in Rendham have at least one qualification with only 32 people in 2011 not having one and 77 people having a level four qualification or above. Most of Rendham in 2001 was aged between 30 and 59 with only a small proportion of younger people compared to 20-year-olds and over making 202 of the population with 116 of those people as stated before being between 30 and 59. 61% of the population in 2011 was Christian.
Rendham has traditionally been a farming village with the majority of males in the past being employed in agriculture. In the 18th century, nearly all villagers were involved in agriculture in some way as farm workers, farmers or horticulturalists. By 1881, 46 males were involved in agriculture, more than all the other occupational orders combined at the time. Agriculture was key in the village due to its relative isolation from market towns such as Saxmundham meaning independent sources of food were needed. Occupational orders of females in 1881 is mainly unknown, however 19 were in domestic service or offices.
Most people in Rendham were employed in professional occupations in 2011. Associate Professional and Technical Occupations employed the next largest number of residents at 20. Managers, directors and senior officials make up 17 of Rendhams population. This is a change from 1881 where the majority of residents were employed under agriculture to support the food production of the village. This change could be down to two things. The first being population decline from 1881 to 2011 meaning not as many crops were needed and males moved from agriculture to other employment. The second is more likely and is due to the changing economy from 1881 to 2011. Between the years, the United Kingdom has gone from a primary sector based economy where industry revolves around farming and fishing, into one dominated by the tertiary sector based on services. People moved away from primary agriculture occupations into tertiary based jobs.
Nearly all of the housing in Rendham in 2011 was detached or semi detached. The number of detached houses shows the village is affluent and as stated previously is populated by people with professional occupations and high income. This affluence is demonstrated further by most houses having three bedrooms or more, the majority having three bedrooms and only 12 houses having one or two bedrooms. 130 people or 69.9% of the population in 2011 were living as a couple showing the spare rooms were probably used for visitors and not children as the number of children is low.