Kettlebaston

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Kettlebaston" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Kettlebaston
Shire county		Suffolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	IPSWICH
Postcode district	IP7
List of places UK England Suffolk 52°06′54″N 0°52′05″E / 52.115°N 0.868°E / 52.115; 0.868

Kettlebaston is a village and a civil parish with just over 30 inhabitants in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England, located around 3 miles (5 km) east of Lavenham. From the 2011 Census the population of the village was not maintained and is included in the civil parish of Chelsworth. It derives its name from Kitelbeornastuna, (Kitelbjorn's farmstead - O.Scand. pers. name + O.E. Tun), later evolving to Kettlebarston, (which is how the name is still pronounced), and finally to the current spelling. Its existence was first recorded in 1086 in the Domesday Book.

History

Once in an area of great wealth, the demise of the

slowly declined over the years, as did the population - from over 200 at its peak, to the point when the village was on the brink of extinction. By the 1960s, with the road no more than an unmade track, and no electricity or mains water supplies, (it still has no gas or main drains), Kettlebaston was barely standing. In the "Spotlight On The Suffolk Scene" article, of the Chronicle & Mercury in June 1949, it was noted that a great many houses were category five - derelict, and ready for demolition.

As the agricultural workers left the land in search of other jobs, due to the increased mechanisation of farm work, "outsiders" discovered the secluded beauty of the rural Suffolk countryside, and a new age dawned. The tiny workmen's cottages, which once housed huge families - and some stock and chickens according to local accounts - were lovingly renovated and converted, and the village was reborn, and went on to proudly win Babergh Best Kept Village, and runner up in the Suffolk Community Council Best Kept Village Competition, in 1989.

The village sign, bearing two crossed sceptres topped with doves, was erected to mark the

resumed the manor, although it was later regranted it was without the royal service.

Parish church

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has

Holy Table. It now lacks the small lead spire which once topped the tower.

Church bells of St Mary's Kettlebaston^[2]

Bell №	Weight	ate	Founder
Treble	5cwt	1636	John Darbie of Ipswich
Two	6cwt	1699	Henry Pleasant of Sudbury
Tenor	9wt 2qr	1567	Stephen Tonni II of Bury St Edmunds

Regarded as a place of

. Despite opposition, the church finally received electric heating and lighting in 2014.

The village today

The current village has no shop, school, or pub.

Notable residents

• Patrick Murdoch ( -1774); author, publisher and mathematician.

External links

• Kettlebaston Online (incorporating the Y2K Project). Contains a wealth of historical data and photographs relating to the village's past as well as current material.

References