Belstead is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Babergh district of the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. Located on the southern edge of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

, around south-west of Ipswich town centre. It had a population of 202 according to the 2011 census. Belstead has amenities such as a village hall, St Mary's the Virgin Church, The bridge school for children with learning difficulties and Belstead Brook Hotel and Spa. It is in the Belstead Brook

electoral division An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provid ...

Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Governme ...

History

In John Marius Wilson's ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' Vol. I, p.151 (1870) Belstead is described like this:

BELSTEAD, a parish in Samford district, Suffolk; near the
Eastern Union railway The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. T ...
, 3½ miles SW of Ipswich. Post Town, Ipswich. Acres, 1,022. Real property, £1,849. Pop., 292. Houses, 57. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £370.* Patron, the Rev. E. J. Lockwood. The church is tolerable; and there is an Independent chapel.

The

Ipswich Hoard There are two notable Ipswich Hoards. The first was a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins discovered in 1863. The second was a hoard of six Iron Age gold torcs that was discovered in 1968 and 1969. The latter hoard has been described as second only to t ...

was found near Belstead in 1968. It is now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, but there are copies of the gold

torc A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few hav ...

s in the Ipswich Museum.The Celtic Coin Gallery
, Sheshen Eceni, accessed 20 August 2010

The Bridge School

The Bridge School is situated 1.9 miles from Belstead on Sprites Lane. The school is a special school for children aged between three and sixteen years which have severe, profound and complex learning difficulties. The school aims to create a supportive learning environment and to allow their pupils to learn through their achievements. The Ofsted inspection of the school which was carried out in January 2015 gave the school a ‘good’ rating overall.

St Mary's the Virgin

St Mary's church is located in Belstead. The church holds services for special events such as Remembrance Sunday and a Christmas Carol function as well as monthly events. In 2005 the church almost became redundant with it needing repairs. With support from the community it became possible for St Mary's Church to remain open as there was support from the community of Belstead. Work took place to clear the graveyard and clean the church. The structure of the church is believed to be 700 years old. The church is described as below on its website.

Graves & memorials have been identified from 1611 onwards by our village historian. The building is of simple design, unpretentious and attractively rustic, the tower dates from the early 14th century, and is one of only 22 Suffolk towers which form porches. The interior is graced with a number of fittings and memorials dating from its earliest days, including the 15th-century
rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...
with paintings of saints and others, all of which were mutilated by Tudor reformers or later by Puritans in the 1640s, a rood loft staircase set into the thickness of the outer wall,
monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved church monument, sepulchral memorial once found through Western Europe, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional church monument, monuments and effigy, effigies carve ...
es, and wooden pews.

Population

The population graph from 1881–2011 shows an increase in population up until 1851 when the population was at its highest total population with 308 people living in Belstead. The population then began to decrease with the lowest total population occurring in 2001 when 189 people were living in the village. The decline in population began in the 1850s. In 2005 it had an estimated population of 190.Estimates of Total Population of Areas in Suffolk
Suffolk County Council

Occupation

1881 Occupations - The occupations in 1881 as shown in the graph represent both types of work undertaken by both male and females in the village. In the graph it can be seen that the total highest number of workers for one particular occupation was in the agriculture sector with a total of 50, all male, workers. Females dominated more in domestic office or services as well as all professionals living in the village being female. There were only males working in most other sectors with many females having unknown or being without specified occupations. 2011 Occupations - The total number of residents of a working age of 17 to 74 in 2011 has decreased to a total of 105 workers in employment. Most employed people have professional occupations, at a total of 17 residents. The lowest employment area, with a total of seven people being employed, was in sales and customer service occupations. There has been a vast decrease in the number or residents being employed in the agricultural sector with a decrease from 50 workers in 1881 to 8 in 2011.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Babergh District