Lordship/Ladyship of Elmsett in the county of Suffolk

~~Price £7,000~~ Now £4,000

Brief Description:

Elmsett was first recorded in 995 as Ylmesaeton (Ylme – Elm, Saeten – dwellers). Sadly very few elms now exist, due to Dutch Elm Disease which in the late 1960s and 1970s destroyed all but a very few ‘treated’ trees. One ancient wood still remains in the village, namely the 22 acre Park Wood, a SSSI (site of special scientific interest).

At one time there were about 16 farms in the village, which, together with the Elmsett Mill, owned by the Ladbrook family since 1848, employed most of the village, and in the first part of the 20th Century Elmsett was fairly self-supporting.

tithe

Today there are few, but larger farms and the Mill has gone, replaced by a development of houses, and the majority of village inhabitants commute to Hadleigh, Ipswich, Colchester or London.

Opposite St Peter’s Church is the Tithe memorial, a rare and defiant memorial commemorating the seizure of goods at Elmsett Hall in May 1932 when Mr Charles Westren who farmed at Elmsett Hall refused to pay his tithe (or tax) to the Church and household goods and corn-stacks were impounded, making national news.
Elmsett boasts an attractive village green with a village sign and a large chestnut tree where once the village smithy had his forge.

Elmsett is a large agricultural village 7 miles W of the centre of Ipswich. The country here is rolling and arable, with much sugar beet grown. The village suffered casualties in 1941 when a bomb (possibly intended for Wattisham airfield, 3 miles to the NW) destroyed a row of cottages, and there has been some new building to replace them. The church is outside the village centre to the NE, and stands on ground that slopes steeply down to a tributary of the Belstead Brook to the N. The site has been partially levelled by building a steep embankment N of the churchyard and cutting into the slope on the S, for the foundations.

Hence the floor inside the nave is much lower than the ground to the S, where the entrance is.
St Peter’s has a nave, chancel and W tower. The nave is 12thc., with blocked lancets in the N and S walls and quoins visible at the SE angle. Other windows and the N and S doorways indicate campaigns in the 13thc., 14thc. and 15thc. A roofline on the tower shows that it was once steeper. Inside is a SE rood stair and an 18thc. timber W gallery now housing the organ. The S porch is timber-framed, probably 13thc. The chancel is 14thc., with a flowing three-light E window and lateral windows of 14thc. and 15thc. types and a 14thc. piscina. The chancel arch jambs may be 12thc., like the nave; the are plain with the simplest chamfered imposts. The arch itself is 13th -14thc. Both nave and chancel are of flint, all mortar rendered except for the chancel E wall. The tower is 13thc., with diagonal buttresses. It is of flint and the later battlemented parapet is rendered with mortar. The only Romanesque feature reported here is the font. The author is grateful to Robert Carr for making his report on the church available, and to Allan Mountfield.

History
Before the Conquest, Elmsett was held by Thegn Tovi as a manor with six carucates of land plus 40 acres . By 1086 it had passed to Roger d’Auberville. There was a church with 15 acres of land, and the soke was held by St Edmundsbury abbey. From 1275 toc.1425 the manor belonged to the Bohun family. In the will of Rev. Richard Glanville, proved in 1668, his manors of Elmsett, Offton and Somersham are bequeathed to his eldest son, also Richard.

Benefice of Elmsett with Aldham, Hintlesham, Chattisham and Kersey.