BLYTHBURGH

"BLYTHBURGH, a parish in the hundred of Blything, in the county of Suffolk, 4 miles to the W. of Southwold. Halesworth is its post town. It is pleasantly situated on the south side of the river Blythe, and includes the hamlets of Bulcamp and Hinton. It was anciently a place of some importance, having the privilege of a market and several fairs. It had also a priory of the Augustine order, founded, it is supposed, in the 12th century by the Abbot of St. Osyth, in Essex. It had a revenue at the Dissolution of about £48. The river Blythe, which has a course of about 15 miles, is navigable from Halesworth to Southwold, where it falls into the North Sea. The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Norwich, value £85, in the patronage of Sir John R. Blois, Bart. The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is in the Tudor perpendicular style of architecture; but was greatly damaged during the civil war of the 17th century, so that there are few remains of the monuments, paintings, and stained windows which formerly adorned it. Here is said to have been the tomb of Anna, king of East Anglia, whose remains were afterwards deposited at Bury St. Edmund's. Not far from the church are the traces of the old priory. There are also some remains of an ancient chapel. Westwood Lodge, an interesting Elizabethan mansion, is now a farmhouse. In the vicinity is Henham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Stradbrooke."

"BULCAMPS, a hamlet in the parish of Blythburgh, hundred of Blything, in the county of Suffolk, 3 miles to the S.E. of Halesworth. It is pleasantly seated on the river Blythe, not far from the East Suffolk section of the Great Eastern railway. This place was the scene of the battle in which Penda, King of Mercia, defeated and slew Anna King of East Anglia, and his son, in 654."

"HINTON, a hamlet in the parish of Blythburgh, county Suffolk, 4 miles S.E. of Halesworth."

Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2003