In 1932, the village made national news when Charles Westren, a farmer at Elmsett Hall, refused to pay his tithe to the church.

This is remembered by the Tithe memorial opposite the church, on which it is inscribed (the inscription contains the spelling mistake "commerate" instead of "commemorate"): 1934.

To commerate the Tithe seizure at Elmsett Hall of furniture including baby's bed and blankets, herd of dairy cows, eight corn stacks and seed stacks valued at £1200 for tithe valued at £385.The incident was one of many across the country, and the events were documented by George Orwell in A Clergyman's Daughter.

[2] On the night of 11–12 May 1941, during a widespread German air raid on the district, a bomb demolished a row of cottages in the village and killed 10 civilians.

In 2005, Elmsett Greenlife Grove Scheme (EGGS) created a community wood near the school [5] There is a small grass airfield in the west of the parish.