|
|
|
|
The Parish Council are currently building a website. Situated to the north of Saxmundham, Kelsale cum Carlton is really two or more adjoining villages or hamlets such as the curiously named Dorley's Corner and Curlew Green, plus East Green and North Green falling within its boundaries. Kelsale has a Primary School. In Kelsale village centre there is an Old Guildhall of 1495 that is now used as a training centre, and up on the hill the Parish Church of St Mary and St Peter has a distinctive Lych gate. Inside there is an elaborate pulpit dated before 1631 and a statue of Samuel Clouting by Thomas Thurlow of Saxmundham. Carlton is immediately north of Saxmundham and is the location for all the larger businesses based at the Carlton Park Industrial Estate. Adjoining this is the Carlton Park Sports ground which is owned by Saxmundham Sports Club, also the location of the Carlton Park Caravan Site. Also on the Carlton Park is Carlton Hall former home of Richard Garrett III who is buried there in the churchyard. The Church of St Peter has a brick tower set amongst arable land in the grounds of Carlton Park. Prominent on the skyline is a disused Tower mill. Benhall and Sternfield
|
 The ford over the River Fromus at Benhall Green |
The villages of Benhall and Sternfield adjoin Saxmundham to the south and in parts are separated by the A12 and river Fromus. Benhall itself is spread out comprising the hamlets of Benhall Low Street and Benhall Green, with the parish church of St Mary further isolated from any dwellings along Deadman's Lane. The church has box pews and a Jacobean pulpit and is often open to visitors. In Benhall Green, there is the Ford crossing the Fromus and nearby is The Wadd, a protected marshland site. There is a small village primary school in Benhall Green, and in the same street is a house of 1698 with distinctive pargetting. Benhall has a very lively Flower Show in August.
Signposted off at Bigsby's Corner is Sternfield with the parish church of St Mary Magdalene and Sternfield House situated in the same grounds. The chuch has a painting of Christ Healing the Blind Man by Benjamin West.
 Rendham village sign erected in 2000 |
Village website: www.onesuffolk.co.uk/RendhamPC
Rendham is 3 miles west of Saxmundham, on the River Alde. The Saxmundham clockmaker Jerome Bright and his family attended the Congregational Church there (built 1750) and several generations of Brights are buried there.
Among the rectors of the parish church of St Michael is the poet George Crabb who wrote his poem The Borough here, amongst others. A current well-known resident is the artist Maggi Hambling, who is currently undertaking a commission to create a sculpture commemorating the composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the opera Peter Grimes, the subject of Crabb's The Borough.
In 1907 a boy swimming in the River Alde at Rendham bridge found a bronze head, part of a life size statue of the Emperor Claudius. According to the British Museum, the statue may originally have been located at the Roman settlement at Colchester and that its destruction occurred during the rebellion of the British tribal leader Boudica (in AD 61): how the head then got to Rendham is the subject of many theories. The original object is now in the British Museum with replicas in Ipswich and Colchester museums, and its discovery at Rendham is commemorated in the village sign.
Knodishall adjoins Saxmundham to the east, taking in Knodishall Green, Knodishall Common and Coldfair Green, the site of a winter or 'cold fair' which has been revived in recent times. The church of St Lawrence has a painting of Jacob and Rachel of 1851 by William Dyce. At Knodishall Green there is the Red House Farm house of 1678 which is built on the tudor E-plan (although still labeled as Red House Farm on the Ordnance Survey map, this house has long been known as Buxlow Manor.)
| Top of page | Home
| Legal | Site
map © Saxmundham Town Council, 2006. |
