Wenham Magna, also known as Great Wenham, is a village and a

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

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The parish also contains the hamlets of Gipsy Row,

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

and

Wenham Hill Wenham can refer to: Locality *Wenham, Massachusetts, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States **Wenham Historic District, historic district in Wenham, Massachusetts **Hamilton/Wenham (MBTA station), Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co ...

. In 2005 it had a population of 150, increasing to 185 at the 2011 Census. Wenham Magna is the birthplace of

Matthew Hopkins Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He was mainly active in East Anglia and claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that titl ...

, the infamous witchfinder general. Gaskill 2005: p. 9 Deacon 1976: p. 13 His father, James Hopkins, was vicar of St John's Church and the family held land in the area. James Hopkins appears to have been popular with his parishioners, one of whom left him money to purchase bibles for his children.

Church of St John

The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St John is a Grade II*

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 ...

. The chancel is 14th-century with a later, timber-framed, south porch. There is a 14th-century nave with north and south porches and a 15th-century west tower of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

with stone dressings. The rest of the church is plastered with only the stone windows exposed. The church has red plain tiled roofs.

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

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