|
Select
from the options below
|
Whats
New |
|
Check out the new
place histories added for: |
|
|
 |
|
Cratfield,
Suffolk
|
Cratfield
is a wide parish and village, on one of the tributaries of
the river Blyth. It is only three miles to the south east
of Metfield, but is away from major roads and remains a small,
quite and private place with Cratfield is very near Metfield,
laying only three miles to the south east. Even today this
settlement is away from major roads and remains a small, quiet
and private place with a population of about 250.
The town
is first mentioned as Cratafelda in the Domesday Book of 1086.
At the time it belonged to Ralf Baignard. Ralf forfeited his
honors some time after then, and they and their related dues
were awarded to Robert fitz Richard de Clare. Richard - whose
nephew was Gilbert, Earl of Pembroke, father of the legendary
Strongbow, Gilbert fitz Gilbert de Clare - was a Justiciary
of England, most likely recieved the grant as a direct result
of support in arms in 1076 of with William de Warenne against
the rebellious lords, Robert de Britolio, Earl of Hereford,
and Ralph Waher, or Guader, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, where
he "behaved with great gallantry".
Robert
the town and its honours to his daughter, Matilda "in maritagio".
She married William de Albini Brito and Cratfield later passed
to their son William de Albeneio in 1185.
The town
is noted for its church and windmill. The Church of St Mary
dates from the 1400s, and is renowned for its fine font, carved
with representations of the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic
Church and the Crucifixion, and unusually tall, it dates from
the 15th or early 16th century. Elsewhere is the clock-bell
in an oak frame, given to the church c.1400 by Wm Aleys, and
the pulpit which is dated
|
|
1617. The freestone
parapet of the tower was built in 1547 from the proceeds of the sale
of the church chalices, censers and crucifix.
The village
was subject to the seizure of religious and charitable assets by
the crown throught the Chantries Act of 1545 and 1548.
 |
The
town is unusual in that it is one of the few places where town
records survived the civil war years through the "Churchwardens'
Accounts of Cratfield, 1640-1660". From these records we
know that the town an area strongly sympathetic to Parliament,
and in the early years of the Civil War the parish was committing
significant resources in response to demands from both the King
and Parliament. They made modest payments, but the men were
levied to serve in the Parliamentary armies - primarily the
landless poor, not the substantial villagers who funded them.
What
is even more unusual is that the icon font in the Church of
St Mary survived the religious cleansing of 'superstitous imagery'
during this period. |
 |
The town was
relatively prosperous until the late 1700s. Up until that time,
it was located on the Low Road or the "Kings Highway"
connecting Heveningham to Ubbeston, but in the winter of 1793 -
1794 the bridge was swept away. The bridge was later rebuilt but
further up river, and the town decreased in importance, and lies
at the juncture of two unclassified roads - one between Metfield
and Laxfield and other between Fessingfield and Heveningham.
|
The ecclesiastic
census of 1801 shows a small but still relatively vibrant
town, with a total of 97 inhabited houses and 111 families
within these. The sum of inhabitants was 551.These were "boom"
years for many families in this north-eastern region of Suffolk.
In 1822,
the village was the site of a riot involving several hundred
labourers who destroyed threshing machines in both Cratfield
and Laxfield. In the same way as it affected other parishes,
it seems that the combinaton of English rural poverty and
the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries,
cleared Cratfield of many people, and by the time of the 1841
and 1851 census, the town had shrunk considerably.
|
 |
|
|
|
Check
out of family photos below
| Family
Photos |
 |
|
