Hinderclay
Hinderclay is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It sits about 14 miles (23 km) south of Bury St Edmunds, in rolling farmland near the Little Ouse valley. Nearby villages are Thelnetham and Rickinghall. The parish includes the hamlet of Thorpe Street. In 2005 the population was around 340; in 2011 it was 326.
The parish church is St Mary and was thatched until 1842. Hinderclay Hall lies to the south of the village. A tower mill stood in The Street but was demolished in either 1920 or 1955. The village once had two pubs: The Bell (also known as Six Bells) near Bells Corner on Bells Lane, now Orchard House, and the Crown.
Near the edge of Hinderclay Wood there are remains of an early Iron Age settlement, and Roman pottery kilns have been found in the wood. In the Domesday Book the village is called Hilderclea, from an Anglo-Saxon name meaning “tongue of land in a river where the elder grew.”
The northern boundary of the parish is the River Little Ouse, which also marks the border with Norfolk. The land south of the river is known as Hinderclay fen. This fen used to be part of the Blo’ Norton and Thelnetham Fen Site of Special Scientific Interest, but drainage has reduced its wetland. The Little Ouse Headwaters Project aims to restore the area to a wetter state.
Hinderclay Lakes, about 0.9 miles (0.56 km) east of the village, are a popular fishing spot and are being created through peat extraction, with peat sold for gardening. Hinderclay Woods lie about 1.3 kilometers southwest of the village centre.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:54 (CET).