The village's name, first recorded in the 10th century as Wlpit and later as Wlfpeta, derives from the Old English wulf-pytt, meaning "pit for trapping wolves".

[4] The medieval writers Ralph of Coggeshall and William of Newburgh report that two children appeared mysteriously in Woolpit sometime during the 12th century.

Eventually, they learned to eat other food and lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after the children were baptised.

[7] After learning to speak English she explained that she and her brother had come from St Martin's Land, an underground world whose inhabitants are green.

[6] Some researchers believe that the story of the green children is a typical folk tale, describing an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of another world, perhaps one beneath our feet or even extraterrestrial.

Others consider it to be a garbled account of a historical event, perhaps connected with the persecution of Flemish immigrants living in the area at that time.

Local author and folk singer Bob Roberts stated in his 1978 book A Slice of Suffolk that, "I was told there are still people in Woolpit who are 'descended from the green children', but nobody would tell me who they were!

Records of brick production in Woolpit date back to the 16th century, when Edward Duger and Richard Reynolds both had "brick-kells" (kell being a local word for a kiln).