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Great Livermere is a small village and parish in the St Edmundsbury Borough in the County of Suffolk in the East of England.

It is a small village of around 100 houses and a population of 182 situated approximately 4 miles to the North of Bury St Edmunds, which is the largest town in the borough noted for its historic market town, cathedral, abbey gardens along with its medieval ruined gardens.

 

The name 'Livermere' was first recorded in the year 907a.d making it one of the earliest of all recording to survive. 'Livermere' means the lake where rushes grew from pre 7th century Olde English 'laefor-mere'. Rushes were widely used for domestic situation incuding roofing, flooring and heating.

 

The following passage is part of a detailed description of Great Livermere which was published in the East Anglian Daily Times in November 1930 and in many ways it is still accurate in its description of Great Livermere in 2012:

..."We will journey to the village of Great Livermere, and this we find to be a pretty little plce, homely enough in its quiet suffolk way, and delightful beyond expression. For in this part of the county one can travel for miles amidst glorious parkland and green plantations, where the peculiar whir of a pheasant's wings, as it suddenly stirs into frightened action through the advent of a stranger, is pratically the only sign of life. Then almost withot warning a village appears, tucked away in the heart of this beautiful country, its cottages semmingly lost in the welter of sturdy trunks and quivering foliage".