Barton Mills
Barton Mills is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is on the south bank of the River Lark. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is Corn farm by the mill.
The village was originally called Barton Parva. The name changed to Barton Mills in the eighteenth century.
The Domesday Book records the population of the village in 1086 to be 22 households.
The village is near the Fiveways Roundabout, a busy junction where the A11 London to Norwich trunk road, the A1065 towards North Norfolk and the A1101 roads meet.
The village was once the holiday retreat for Alexander Fleming, and there is a plaque on the wall outside his country home, The Dhoon, in the main street.
Barton Mills hosts a biannual Scarecrow Festival, held in July. The main road through the village is closed to traffic during the two-day-long festival, which includes musical bands, food, dancing, car boot sales at the local playing fields and viewing scarecrows created by local residents. This festival has been featured in Guinness Book of World Records, boasting the most scarecrows ever built at any one time. The record is currently held by the National Forest Adventure Farm near Burton on Trent.
