Glemsford 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 in

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, near the town of Sudbury. Glemsford is located near the River Glem and the River Stour also flows nearby. Glemsford is surrounded by arable farmland and is not far from historic Suffolk villages such as

Lavenham Lavenham is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Lavenham Guildhall, Guildhall, Little ...

and Long Melford. In 2021 it had a population of 3693.

History

The village is first recorded before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

in th
S1051 charter
of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

granting lands to Ely Abbey. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 records the population of Glemsford in 1086 to be 40 households made up of 16 villagers, 1 freeman, 18 smallholders, and 5 slaves along with 8 cattle, 32 pigs, 200 sheep, 3 other animals, 12 acres of meadow, 5 woodland pigs, a mill and a church. The village has noteworthy features such as Monks Hall, which is a medieval timber structure. It is said that a tunnel once connected Monks Hall to the nearby Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, which the monks formerly used to access the church instead of mixing with the ordinary villagers. Only a small part of this tunnel remains. The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin dates back to the early 14th century, with the earliest recorded rector being Hugh de Poynton in 1302. The church features the Golding Chapel, built in memory of the rich Glemsford cloth merchant, John Golding. Golding lived in the Angel House, another timber building adjacent to ''The Angel'' public house, which serves traditional real ales. Golding left money for the chapel to be built when he died, likewise as with other parish churches St Mary's Church tower was rebuilt in the 19th century. Monks Hall itself has gone through changes of use and appearance through the centuries and is now a private residence. Glemsford Methodist Church is situated at the other end of the village and dates from the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

. In the early 16th century, Glemsford became the home of George Cavendish who was a local nobleman and gentleman-usher to Cardinal

Thomas Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( ; – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal (catholic), cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's Lord High Almoner, almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and ...

. Upon Wolsey's death in 1530, Cavendish retired to Glemsford and in the mid-1550s he finalized a biography on Cardinal Wolsey which was published after his own death in 1562. The village and the surrounding area, like much of

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

, was strongly

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

during much of the 17th century. By 1640, several families had departed for the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during the Great Migration. Glemsford railway station was on the route between Sudbury and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, known as the Stour Valley Railway. The station opened in the 1860s and saw its busiest period during the First and Second World Wars when it, along with nearby Cavendish station, was bombed. This was because Glemsford station was one of the places which harboured ammunition trains. The station was closed during the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

in 1967; only the Station House (now private), goods shed (now converted to flats) and one level crossing post remain. Glemsford is a large village by Suffolk standards; it also has a considerable number of shops and public houses.

Governance

Glemsford is part of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

called Glemsford and Stanstead. In 1894 Glemsford became part of Melford Rural District, in 1896 Glemsford became an urban district which became part of the administrative county of

West Suffolk West Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * West Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * West Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral di ...

in 1889, the district contained the parish of Glemsford. On 1 April 1935 the district was abolished and merged back into Melford Rural District and as such the parish became part of Melford Rural District again. In 1974 Glemsford became part of Babergh district in the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a subdivision of England used for local government. The non-metropolitan counties were originally created in 1974 as part of a reform of local government in England and Wales, and ...

of Suffolk.

Notable residents

* George Cavendish (1497 - 1562), writer, best known as the biographer of

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

. * Edmund Boldero (1608–1679), royalist clergyman and academic, Master of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

from 1663. * William Falkner ( - 1682), Anglican divine and learned champion of the

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, ...

. * Charles Morgan (1678-1736), clergyman and

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

from 1726 until his death. * Frederick Cradock (1886 – 1943), boilerman posthumously awarded the

George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational Courage, gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, ...

for heroism in his attempts to save a workmate from boiling steam from an accident in the parish. * Billie Whitelaw (1932 – 2014), stage and film actress. * Jonathan Green, author and investigative journalist specialising in narrative non-fiction. * Nigel Balchin Author and screenwriter. Lived at Greyhound House. * Cassandra Balchin Womens Rights Activist Lived at Greyhound House.

External links

Glemsford Parish Council websitewww.glemsford.org.uk
Rev Kenneth W. Glass, former Rector of St. Mary the Virgin, Glemsford.

References

* Mee, Arthur, Ed., ''The King's England, Suffolk, our Farthest East'', London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1947 (reprint), 171–72. {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk