Community

2 Community Perspective

A community perspective from the 1840s to 1920s contains entries for the community from the Suffolk Directories of White (1844) and Kelly (1929) and William Dutt’s gazeteer of Suffolk (1927; first prepared in the 1890s)

White

CHEDISTON, a small village in an acclivity near one of the tributary streams of the Blythe, 2 miles W. of Halesworth, has in its picturesque parish 433 souls, several scattered farmhouses, and 2378 acres of land, of which nearly two thirds are arable, and have a rich loamy soil. The manor and a great part of the soil belong to George Parkyns, Esq., who purchased the estate of the Plumer family about nine years ago, and resides at Chediston Park, which he has enlarged and beautified. The Hall was built by Wm. Plumer, Esq., and is a large and elegant mansion in the Tudor style, standing on a bold elevation in the park, and ornamented with towers, turrets, pinnacles, and an embattled pediment. Nearly all the full grown timber in the park has recently been cut down, but new plantations have been made. The Bishop, Birket, Robinson, and some other families, have small estates in the parish. The copyholds pay arbitrary fines. In a field, called the Grove, 2 miles W. of the church, are two moated sites, in one of which, a sword and two coins of the reign of Edward II were found a few years ago, when the mound was levelled, and the trees cut down. The Church (St. Mary) is an ancient fabric, and the living is a vicarage, valued in K.B. at £6. 7s. 6d., and united with Halesworth rectory in the patronage of Mrs. E. Badeley, and incumbency of the Rev. J. C. Badeley, L.L.B., who has here an old parsonage house and 60A. 2R. 15P. of glebe. G. Parkyns, Esq., is impropriator of the rectory, and receives a yearly modus of £230, as a commutation of tithes chargeable on those estates in the parish, which do not belong to him. The Town Estate, consisting of a farm of 30A, let for £26 a-year, has been vested in feoffees since the reign of Henry VII, for the repairs of the church and other charges to be imposed on the parishioners. The Almshouses for five poor families were given by Henry Claxton, in 1575, and rebuilt, in 1832. Attached to them is a piece of land let for 20s. The poor parishioners have an annuity of 20s. out of land, at Cookley, left by the Rev. Thos. Sagar, and about £17 a-year from Henry Smith's Charity for distributions of bread. Mr. Wm. Bray, of Great Russel street, London is clerk and treasurer of Smith's charity, which consists of an estate at Longney, in Gloucestershire.

Balls Robert, shoemaker

Balls Robert, wheelwright

Bishop Thos. land agent & valuer

Ingate John, corn miller

Parkyns Geo. Esq. Chediston Park

Stead Christopher, gamekeeper

Woolnough Jonth. vict. Wellington

FARMERS,

( '* are owners.)

Archer Harley

* Bishop Jonth. Corbyn

*Bishop Thomas

Blaxhill Samuel

Booth Wm.

Denny John

Fish John

Fryatt Lydia

Gibson Wm.

Ingate Charles

Ingate Chas. jun.

Read Samuel

Read Thomas

* Robinson Geo.

Seamans James

Sones John

Winter Robert

Wooluough Jas.

Kelly

CHEDISTON is a village and parish, a miles west from Halesworth, in the Eye division of the county, Blything hundred, petty sessional division and union, Halesworth and Saxmundham county court district, rural deanery of North Dunwich, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of St. Edmundsbnry and Ipswich. The church of St. Mary is a plain but ancient building of flint in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing five bells, three of which were recast in 1897, and a new bell added by the Misses M Tuck, of Halesworth, and in 1906 a fifth bell was added in memory of the Misses Tuck: the font is ancient and of octagonal form, with carved figures on its sides and at the base: the church was restored in 1895, at a cost of £600, and affords 150 sittings: a bell was added in 1911 at a cost of £50, in commemoration of the coronation of King George V. and Queen Mary. The register dates from the year 1630. The living is a vicarage, consolidated with the vicarage of Linstead Magna and Linstead Parva, joint, net yearly value £350, and a residence at Linstead Parva, in the gift of the Church Patronage Society, and held since 1927 by the Rev. David Twigg, of the London College of Divinity, who resides at Linstead Parva. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel, built in 1863. The Town farm, which was left for the repairs and expenses of the church, has now been sold; the money invested brings in about £44 yearly. Sagar's charity of £1 yearly, derived from land at Cookley, is given to twenty of the oldest poor belonging to the parish; Smith's charity, amounting to about £10 10s. per year, is given away in flour at Christmas. Almshouses for five poor persons, erected by Henry Claxton in 1575, were rebuilt in 1832. Chediston Hall, the residence of Eugene F. L. Leguen de Lacroix esq. is a mansion in the Elizabethan style, with pinnacled towers and an embattled parapet, and is situated on elevated ground in a pleasant park. The Grange is surrounded by a moat. Eugene Francois Louis de Leguen de Lacroix esq. is lord of the manor and chief landowner. The soil is clay; subsoil in the valley is gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans, turnips, mangold-wurtzel, and some land is in pasture. The area is 2,496 acres; the population in 1921 was 256.

Parish Clerk, Samuel Cady.

Post Office. Letters through Halesworth, which is the nearest M. O. & T. office

Dutt

Chediston (2 m. W. of Halesworth) The church here was originally E.E. It has a good Perp. font, some old wood carving, and a window with a shield of arms in the S. wall of the chancel. Note also (1) the l5th-cent. nave roof; (2) a fine 17th-cent.. altar table; and (3) two old chests. The Hall is an Elizabethan house; it has pinnacled towers and an embattled parapet