Talk:Oulton, Suffolk

The correct location of Oulton Village

The correct location of Oulton is "two or so miles northwest of the town of Lowestoft in Suffolk UK" and not to the west of Lowestoft. See the website of Oulton Parish Council here https://www.oultonpcsuffolk.info/the-village . They ought to know where it is. See also the map of Oulton Parish here https://awalkaroundoulton.weebly.com/the-parish-boundary.html and note that the place-name for Oulton village is to the north-east of the map, miles away from Oulton Broad. .

People keep assuming that Oulton is the area adjacent to Oulton Broad. The centre of the village is near the junction of Union Lane and the B1375. It is becoming engulfed by the Lowestoft suburbs. George Borrow describes living in Oulton, and his writings show that it is miles to the north of Oulton Broad, although his Wikipedia article misnames it as Oulton Broad. Remember that when Oulton and Oulton Broad were originally named, none of the Lowestoft suburbs existed, that Lowestoft itself would be no more than a village to modern eyes, and that the suburban areas were at that time fields or uncultivated. Presumably Oulton Broad was given that name because it was nearer Oulton than Lowestoft.

It appears that what the article describes is Camps Heath. 92.24.176.204 (talk) 12:10, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

The 1:25000 OS map has the words Camps Heath immediately underneath the words OULTON CP - and I mean literally right underneath. The article specifically describes the civil parish - anything else is pretty redundant when talking about this area. Camps Heath is very clearly part of the parish. If you look at historical maps the location of the label changes from around the church, to the area near Laurel Farm and then to the area around the old workhouse. In other words, it's quite difficult to describe. It's also worth mentioning that Oulton Broad was part of the parish until 1904 - after Borrow died. Blue Square Thing (talk) 12:46, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Adding: Lewis (1848) says three miles west of Lowestoft; White (1874) says two miles west; Kelly's (1900) also says two miles west. Blue Square Thing (talk) 13:50, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

The coordinates should be for the settlement its self[1]. Crouch, Swale (talk) 16:39, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Given the nature of the settlement, that's tricky in this case. The lead sentence only refers to it as a civil parish - I honestly don't recall if I wrote that sentence or not, but it's not unreasonable in the circumstances. Things are further complicated because on the 1:25000 scale map - the one that shows parish boundaries - the name is in a different place again - close to a kilometre away from where it is on the 1:50000 map. And, as I said above, the name has moved regularly on historical maps.

If you want a single point that hasn't changed, the church would be the best bet. Fwiw, anyone describing Oulton as a village is taking the piss. Blue Square Thing (talk) 16:59, 20 July 2021 (UTC)