diff --git a/docs/checksum32.rst b/docs/checksum32.rst
index 1d5522e2..5e682afc 100644
--- a/docs/checksum32.rst
+++ b/docs/checksum32.rst
@@ -22,3 +22,14 @@ Adler32
     .. automethod:: decode
     .. automethod:: get_config
     .. automethod:: from_config
+
+
+Fletcher32
+----------
+
+.. autoclass:: numcodecs.fletcher32.Fletcher32
+
+    .. autoattribute:: codec_id
+    .. automethod:: encode
+    .. automethod:: decode
+
diff --git a/docs/release.rst b/docs/release.rst
index 6f176b8c..90d62750 100644
--- a/docs/release.rst
+++ b/docs/release.rst
@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ Unreleased
 Enhancements
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-*
+* Add ``fletcher32`` checksum codec
+  By :user:`Martin Durant <martindurant>`, :issue:`410`.
 
 Fix
 ~~~
diff --git a/numcodecs/__init__.py b/numcodecs/__init__.py
index 53f3e795..1e3c8536 100644
--- a/numcodecs/__init__.py
+++ b/numcodecs/__init__.py
@@ -111,3 +111,6 @@
     register_codec(VLenUTF8)
     register_codec(VLenBytes)
     register_codec(VLenArray)
+
+from numcodecs.fletcher32 import Fletcher32
+register_codec(Fletcher32)
diff --git a/numcodecs/fletcher32.pyx b/numcodecs/fletcher32.pyx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..02f9319c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/numcodecs/fletcher32.pyx
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+# cython: language_level=3
+# cython: overflowcheck=False
+# cython: cdivision=True
+import struct
+
+from numcodecs.abc import Codec
+from numcodecs.compat import ensure_contiguous_ndarray
+
+from libc.stdint cimport uint8_t, uint16_t, uint32_t
+
+
+cdef uint32_t _fletcher32(const uint8_t[::1] _data):
+    # converted from
+    # https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/blob/main/plugins/H5checksum.c#L109
+    cdef:
+        const uint8_t *data = &_data[0]
+        size_t _len = _data.shape[0]
+        size_t len = _len / 2
+        size_t tlen
+        uint32_t sum1 = 0, sum2 = 0;
+
+
+    while len:
+        tlen = 360 if len > 360 else len
+        len -= tlen
+        while True:
+            sum1 += <uint32_t>((<uint16_t>data[0]) << 8) | (<uint16_t>data[1])
+            data += 2
+            sum2 += sum1
+            tlen -= 1
+            if tlen < 1:
+                break
+        sum1 = (sum1 & 0xffff) + (sum1 >> 16)
+        sum2 = (sum2 & 0xffff) + (sum2 >> 16)
+
+    if _len % 2:
+        sum1 += <uint32_t>((<uint16_t>(data[0])) << 8)
+        sum2 += sum1
+        sum1 = (sum1 & 0xffff) + (sum1 >> 16)
+        sum2 = (sum2 & 0xffff) + (sum2 >> 16)
+
+    sum1 = (sum1 & 0xffff) + (sum1 >> 16)
+    sum2 = (sum2 & 0xffff) + (sum2 >> 16)
+
+    return (sum2 << 16) | sum1
+
+
+class Fletcher32(Codec):
+    """The fletcher checksum with 16-bit words and 32-bit output
+
+    This is the netCDF4/HED5 implementation, which is not equivalent
+    to the one in wikipedia
+    https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/blob/main/plugins/H5checksum.c#L95
+
+    With this codec, the checksum is concatenated on the end of the data
+    bytes when encoded. At decode time, the checksum is performed on
+    the data portion and compared with the four-byte checksum, raising
+    RuntimeError if inconsistent.
+    """
+
+    codec_id = "fletcher32"
+
+    def encode(self, buf):
+        """Return buffer plus 4-byte fletcher checksum"""
+        buf = ensure_contiguous_ndarray(buf).ravel().view('uint8')
+        cdef const uint8_t[::1] b_ptr = buf
+        val = _fletcher32(b_ptr)
+        return buf.tobytes() + struct.pack("<I", val)
+
+    def decode(self, buf, out=None):
+        """Check fletcher checksum, and return buffer without it"""
+        b = ensure_contiguous_ndarray(buf).view('uint8')
+        cdef const uint8_t[::1] b_ptr = b[:-4]
+        val = _fletcher32(b_ptr)
+        found = b[-4:].view("<u4")[0]
+        if val != found:
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                f"The fletcher32 checksum of the data ({val}) did not"
+                f" match the expected checksum ({found}).\n"
+                "This could be a sign that the data has been corrupted."
+            )
+        if out:
+            out.view("uint8")[:] = b[:-4]
+            return out
+        return memoryview(b[:-4])
diff --git a/numcodecs/tests/test_fletcher32.py b/numcodecs/tests/test_fletcher32.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..76564e95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/numcodecs/tests/test_fletcher32.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import numpy as np
+import pytest
+
+from numcodecs.fletcher32 import Fletcher32
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "dtype",
+    ["uint8", "int32", "float32"]
+)
+def test_with_data(dtype):
+    data = np.arange(100, dtype=dtype)
+    f = Fletcher32()
+    arr = np.frombuffer(f.decode(f.encode(data)), dtype=dtype)
+    assert (arr == data).all()
+
+
+def test_error():
+    data = np.arange(100)
+    f = Fletcher32()
+    enc = f.encode(data)
+    enc2 = bytearray(enc)
+    enc2[0] += 1
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError) as e:
+        f.decode(enc2)
+    assert "fletcher32 checksum" in str(e.value)
+
+
+def test_known():
+    data = (
+        b'w\x07\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x85\xf6\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff'
+        b'i\x07\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x94\xf6\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff'
+        b'\x88\t\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00i\x03\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
+        b'\x93\xfd\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xc3\xfc\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff'
+        b"'\x02\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xba\xf7\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff"
+        b'\xfd%\x86d')
+    data3 = Fletcher32().decode(data)
+    outarr = np.frombuffer(data3, dtype="<i8")
+    expected = [
+        1911, -2427, 1897, -2412, 2440, 873, -621, -829, 551, -2118,
+    ]
+    assert outarr.tolist() == expected
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index cf950f40..14072445 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -198,6 +198,31 @@ def vlen_extension():
     return extensions
 
 
+def fletcher_extension():
+    info('setting up fletcher32 extension')
+
+    extra_compile_args = base_compile_args.copy()
+    define_macros = []
+
+    # setup sources
+    include_dirs = ['numcodecs']
+    # define_macros += [('CYTHON_TRACE', '1')]
+
+    sources = ['numcodecs/fletcher32.pyx']
+
+    # define extension module
+    extensions = [
+        Extension('numcodecs.fletcher32',
+                  sources=sources,
+                  include_dirs=include_dirs,
+                  define_macros=define_macros,
+                  extra_compile_args=extra_compile_args,
+                  ),
+    ]
+
+    return extensions
+
+
 def compat_extension():
     info('setting up compat extension')
 
@@ -265,7 +290,8 @@ def run_setup(with_extensions):
 
     if with_extensions:
         ext_modules = (blosc_extension() + zstd_extension() + lz4_extension() +
-                       compat_extension() + shuffle_extension() + vlen_extension())
+                       compat_extension() + shuffle_extension() + vlen_extension() +
+                       fletcher_extension())
 
         cmdclass = dict(build_ext=ve_build_ext)
     else: