EAST BERGHOLT

"EAST BERGHOLT, a parish in the hundred of Samford, in the county of Suffolk, 6 miles to the S. of Hadleigh. Colchester is its post town. It is pleasantly situated on the borders of Essex, on the north bank of the navigable river Stour, not far from the Great Eastern railway. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich, and in the gift of the Master and Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The church, a beautiful specimen of perpendicular architecture, is dedicated to St. Mary. The tower was unfortunately never completed, and is raised but a little way above the magnificent arches upon which it was designed to rest. The five bells are consequently placed and rung in a low structure, called the "bellcage," standing in the churchyard. The Independents have a chapel in the village. Here is a church free school, founded about the close of the 16th century by Lettice Dykes, which has an income from endowment of about £70 per annum. The parish enjoys the benefit of several other charitable bequests, which produce about £112 a year, half of which is the income of the town land. The principal mansions are West Lodge, the residence of C. D. Halford, Esq., and Ackworth House, the seat of Sir T. Seaton, K.C.B. This village was the birthplace (1776) of the landscape-painter, J. Constable, who died in 1839; several of his best pictures are scenes in this neighbourhood.

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