East Ruston

East Ruston's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a farmstead or village with an abundance of brushwood, or shrubs.^[1]

In the Domesday Book, East Ruston is listed as a settlement of 87 households in the hundred of Happing. In 1086, the village formed part of the East Anglian estates of Ralph Baynard.^[2]

During the Second World War, East Ruston was the location of British Army roadblocks and a reserve training area in preparation for resistance of a German invasion of England.^[3]

According to the 2011 Census, East Ruston has a population of 595 residents living in 260 households. The parish has an area of 5.16 sq mi (13.4 km²).^[4]

East Ruston falls within the constituency of North Norfolk and is represented at Parliament by Duncan Baker MP of the Conservative Party. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of North Norfolk.

East Ruston's parish church was largely rebuilt in the Eighteenth Century on the site of previous worship and has been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust since the 1980s. There are good examples of Nineteenth Century stained glass, particularly a depiction of the Presentation of Christ by A. L. Moore.^[5]

The public house is called the Butchers Arms.^[6] East Ruston is the home to the noted East Ruston Old Vicarage garden which is open to the public.

The closest railway station to East Ruston is Worstead which provides Bittern Line services to Sheringham and Norwich. The nearest airport is Norwich International Airport.

• Richard Porson (1759–1808)- English classicist

East Ruston is named as Abe Slaney's hiding place in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Dancing Men.^[7]

East Ruston's war memorial takes the form of a short stone plinth topped with a Celtic cross, located in St. Mary's Churchyard. It lists the following names for the First World War:

• Second-Lieutenant Walter J. J. Brumbley MC (1898–1918), 3rd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
• Stoker-First-Class Reginald Bristow (1900–1919), HMS Bacchante
• Private Frederick J. Hilling (1886–1918), 190th (Trench Mortar) Battery, Bedfordshire Regiment
• Private George W. Riches (d.1917), 12th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
• Private Leslie W. Pointer (1897–1916), 1/9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
• Private Frederick G. Rump (1899–1918), 6th Battalion, Royal East Kent Regiment
• Private John Helsdon (1891–1916), 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment
• Private Clarence H. Pratt (1888–1916), 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
• Private John R. Hemp (1896–1916), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
• Private James Riches (1884–1917), 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
• Private Walter J. Cutting (1892–1917), 1/5th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
• Sapper R. Percival Taylor (1894–1917), 128th Company, Royal Engineers
• Sapper William H. Ward (d.1916), 209th (Field) Company, Royal Engineers
• Second-Hand Robert Spanton (1867–1917), H.M. Drifter Young Fred
• Trimmer Cecil V. Grimmer (d.1917), HMS Attentive
• Edward Eaton
• Charles Larkin
• William Rivers
• William Shepherd

And, the following for the Second World War:

• Sergeant Matthew Sculfer (d.1940), No. 21 Squadron RAF
• Sergeant Jack Dixon (1921–1945), No. 153 Squadron RAF
• Private Robert F. Pestell (1885–1943), Royal Army Ordnance Corps^[8]

  Media related to East Ruston at Wikimedia Commons