Waldringfield

The name Waldringfield is derived from the Old English words meaning 'open land of the family or followers of a man called Waldhere'.[4] The length of human habitation at Waldringfield is unknown but Iron Age finds such as pottery shards from the 1st century BC have been found locally.[5] Record of the settlement is found in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name 'Waldingafelda' [6] along with the name 'Minima Waldringafelda' (Lesser Waldringfield).[7]

The village had an industrial heyday from about 1860 to 1907. First, until about 1895, coprolite was dug up locally, washed and sifted on the beach and shipped by barge to be processed in factories in Ipswich, as part of the early fertiliser industry. Then, at the end of the nineteenth century, a cement making industry used mud from the river mixed with chalk brought in by barge from the Medway. Served by one hundred barges a month and employing twelve 'bottleneck' kilns, the industry survived until 1907. The kilns were demolished in 1912.[8]