Henstead is a village near

Kessingland Kessingland is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located around south of Lowestoft on the east coast of the United Kingdom. It is of interest to archaeologist ...

and the A12 in the civil parish of Henstead with Hulver Street, in the county of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, England. It has a church called Church of St Mary which is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

. It has very few housing areas, and is a rural area. It is situated near Rushmere. The parish has a population of 408, and is in the district of

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

, which contains many very similar sized civil parishes. The Private preparatory school, The Old School Henstead, is also located in the village. The Old School, Henstead - geograph

. The church has a Norman doorway, and an embattled tower. The village stands three miles from the coast, and five miles south-east of

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town A market town is a Human settlement, settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular marketplace, market; this d ...

railway station.

History

The name "Henstead" means 'Hen place'. In 1771 the landscape artist, Thomas Hearne spent six weeks with the young

George Beaumont Sir George Howland Beaumont, 7th Baronet (6 November 1753 – 7 February 1827) was a British art patron and amateur painter. He played a crucial part in the creation of London's National Gallery by making the first bequest of paintings to tha ...

in Henstead at the home of the latter's tutor at Eton, Charles Davy (a priest). For Beaumont it proved the inspiration for his future profession as a landscape painter himself. Through time, Henstead has had a history of having job opportunities mainly in agriculture, retail and handicraft.

''In 1831, out of a total of 144 people, 107 worked in agriculture, 20 worked in retail and handicraft, and 17 worked in other domains.''

The structure of jobs in Henstead has not changed, it is still a rural area, with most jobs available in the agricultural domain. For example in 1881, around 130 jobs were in the agricultural domain, the highest of all sectors.
This is a description from the 1870s:

''The parish contains also the hamlet of Hulver, which has a post office under Beccles. Acres, 1, 918. Real property, £2, 090. Pop., 534. Houses, 120.''

Henstead has had a history of a poor social structure: In 1831, 134 people lived in Henstead and 106 of those were labourers or servants. There were very few occupations that offered high wages, most were in primary industry. A map of Henstead from the 20th century is shown to the left.

References

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk