Elmsett 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 ...

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 ...

, England. Located around three miles north-east of Hadleigh, it is in Babergh district. In 2005, it had a population of 826, reducing to 788 at the 2011 census.

History

The first record of Elmsett comes from 995 when it was written Ylmesaeton (Ylme for Elm, Saeten for dwellers). The village was in

Cosford Hundred Cosford was a hundred (subdivision), hundred of Suffolk, consisting of . The hundred consisted of Hadleigh, Suffolk, Hadleigh, the only town of any size, and seventeen other parishes in western Suffolk. The area is undulating and agriculturally- ...

. By 1900, the village had around 16 farms and the Elmsett Mill, together employing most of the residents. In 1932, the village made national news when Charles Westren, a farmer at Elmsett Hall, refused to pay his

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

to the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

. As a result, goods were seized from the hall. This is remembered by the Tithe memorial opposite the church, on which it is inscribed (the inscription contains the spelling mistake "commerate" instead of "commemorate"):

1934. To commerate the Tithe seizure at Elmsett Hall of furniture including baby's bed and blankets, herd of dairy cows, eight corn stacks and seed stacks valued at £1200 for tithe valued at £385.

The incident was one of many across the country, and the events were documented by

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

in ''

A Clergyman's Daughter ''A Clergyman's Daughter'' is a 1935 novel by English author George Orwell. It tells the story of Dorothy Hare, the titular clergyman's daughter, whose life is turned upside down when she suffers an attack of amnesia. It is Orwell's most formall ...

''. On the night of 11–12 May 1941, during a widespread German air raid on the district, a bomb demolished a row of cottages in the village and killed 10 civilians. Today, the village is home to numerous

listed building 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, Hi ...

s, though most of its

Elm tree Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, p ...

s were killed off by Dutch Elm Disease in the 1960s and 1970s. The parish contains Elmsett Park Wood, an area of

Ancient Woodland In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). The practice of planting woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 i ...

classified as an

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. Borley's Wood, Langham Close Wood and Lucy Wood are also protected Ancient Woodland. In 2005, Elmsett Greenlife Grove Scheme (EGGS) created a community wood near the school There is a small grass airfield in the west of the parish.

St Peter's Church

The parish church of St Peter is a Grade I

Notable people

* Jade Holland Cooper (born 1986/87), British fashion designer *

John Short Hewett John Short Hewett (1781 – 12 December 1835) was an Anglican priest and academic who served as Chaplain and Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Chaplain to the Forces and Rector of Rotherhithe. He came f ...

, cleric and academic, was Rector of Elmsett

References

External links

Parish council websiteElmsett airfield
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk Cosford Hundred