WANGFORD NEAR SOUTHWOLD

"WANGFORD NEAR SOUTHWOLD, a parish and post town in the hundred of Blything, county Suffolk, 4 miles N.W. of Southwold, and 5½ N.E. of Halesworth. The village is situated on a branch of the river Blythe, on the road from London to Yarmouth. The parish includes the hamlet of Henham. Here was formerly a Cluniac priory, a cell to Thetford, founded by Doudo Asini, or by Eudo Dapifer, in the middle of the 12th century, and which at the suppression had a revenue valued at £30 9s. 6d. Traces of the buildings are still to be seen on the S. side of the church. The principal residence is Henham Hall. The living is a perpetual curacy with that of Henham annexed, in the diocese of Norwich, value £79. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, contains some monuments of the Stradbroke family. The register dates from 1660. The parochial charities produce about £5 per annum. There are National and day schools for both sexes, and a Sunday-school. The Independents and Primitive Methodists have each a chapel. The Earl of Stradbroke is lord of the manor."

"HENHAM, a hamlet in the parish of Wangford, hundred of Blything, county Suffolk, 4 miles N.E. of Halesworth, and 5 N.W. of Southwold. Wangford is its post town. The land is divided between arable and pasture. The living is a curacy annexed to that of Wangford, in the diocese of Norwich. Henham Hall, the seat of the Earl of Stradbroke, who is lord of the manor, is situated in the midst of an extensive park, well wooded with American oak. This structure is built on the site of an older one destroyed by fire in 1773, and came to its present owner through the Hopton family."

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