Creeting St Mary 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

Mid Suffolk Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just three towns, being Stowmarket, Needham Market and Eye. Its council was based in Needham Market until 2017 when it moved to sha ...

district of

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 ...

in eastern England. Sandwiched between the A14 and A140 to the north of

Needham Market Needham Market is a small town in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, set in the Gipping Valley. Nearby villages include Barking, Suffolk, Barking, Darmsden, Badley and Creeting St Mary. The town is located just east of the A14 road ( ...

, the parish also includes the hamlet of Creeting Bottoms. In 2005 the parish population was 710, which decreased to 697 at the 2011 Census.

History

Formerly three parishes, Creeting All Saints and Creeting St Olave were consolidated into Creeting St Mary on 25 March 1884. The consolidated parish had 3,115 residents and in 1901 had 636.

Heritage

The buck of a windmill survives in the village. It was used as a

dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot (Scots Language, Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house Domestic pigeon, pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or b ...

after ceasing to be a

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

. St Mary's Church has been listed

grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

by English Heritage. The parish was originally in the Hundred of Bosmere and Claydon.

Notable people

* John Austin (1790–1859), legal thinker responsible for the theory of

legal positivism In jurisprudence (also known as legal philosophy), legal positivism is the theory that the existence of the law and its content depend on social facts, such as acts of legislation, judicial decisions, and customs, rather than on morality. This con ...

, was born here, the eldest son of the miller. * Michael Peck (born 1967), a first-class cricketer, was born here.

Amenities

The village has a voluntarily aided

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

with 80–90 pupils. The Victorian building of the school, still in use for some classes, dates from 1871. The village also has a charitable pre-school based in the Diamond Jubilee Hall. There are public playground facilities in Blacksmiths Field. Creeting St Mary has a pub/restaurant, ''The Highwayman'', and several other catering, retail and service outlets.Busines
Retrieved 26 November 2016.
Semi-soft Suffolk Gold cheese has been made here since 2004 by a family firm.

References

External links

Village website
Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District Bosmere and Claydon Hundred {{Suffolk-geo-stub