Polstead 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 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 ...

, England. The village lies northeast of

Nayland Nayland is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Nayland-with-Wissington, in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is in the River Stour, Suffolk, Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of t ...

, southwest of Hadleigh and north of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

. It is situated on a small tributary stream of the River Stour. In 2011 the parish had a population of 851.

History

The name Polstead is derived from "Place by a pool" There are still two large ponds in the village. The village was the site of the

Red Barn Murder The Red Barn Murder was an 1827 murder in Polstead, Suffolk, England. A young woman, Maria Marten, was shot dead by her lover William Corder at the Red Barn, a local landmark. The two had arranged to meet before eloping to Ipswich. Corder se ...

in 1827. The victim Maria Marten was re-buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, but her gravestone was subsequently entirely removed by souvenir hunters. Marten is now commemorated by a sign located near to the grave site,"Polstead" at beautifulengland.net
and by Marten's Lane which adjoins Water Lane and Mill Street. The church dates from the 12th century and features some very early English-made bricks. The tower, which is 14th-century, is the only one in Suffolk which still has its original spire, although Pevsner says the spire is later than the tower. The tower at one time contained six bells. The interior of the church contains two brasses, one of which is of a priest and bears a date of 1460.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

(1961),

Buildings_of_England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

: Suffolk,

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, ''Polstead''. Polstead Hall - geograph

Next to the churchyard is Polstead Hall, rebuilt in the

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...

in about 1819. In the grounds of the hall are the remains of the "

Gospel Oak Gospel Oak is an area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-ea ...

", which finally collapsed in 1953, but which is believed to have been the tree under which Saint

Cedd Cedd (; 620 – 26 October 664) was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from the Kingdom of Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which r ...

preached to the heathen

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

. A new oak tree has been planted as a replacement.

Features

The main village is situated around Polstead Green and the Hill, although Polstead also comprises several hamlets including Polstead Heath, Hadleigh Heath, Bower House Tye, Bell's Corner, Mill Street and Whitestreet Green. The village has one pub, the 17th century Cock Inn, a community shop and post office and a playing field. The playing field hosts an annual music festival around the

summer solstice The summer solstice or estival solstice occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). The summer solstice is the day with the longest peri ...

called "Polstice". In the 19th century a two-day fair was held on Polstead Green.Polstead at genuki
/ref> Polstead is famous for its

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

and lends its name to a variety, the Polstead Black. In recent years more Polstead Black cherry trees have been planted in and around the village, as these trees had declined in numbers.

Bower House Tye

Bower House Tye is a hamlet near the A1071 road within the parish. There are five Listed buildings: Bower House, Brewery Farmhouse, Holly Cottage, Holmwood Cottages 1 and 2 en The Bower Close.

Hadleigh Heath

A Baptist chapel was erected in Hadleigh Heath in 1801 and was removed to Polstead in 1849.

Polstead Heath

A primitive Methodist chapel was erected in Polstead Heath in 1838.

Notable residents

* Sir (Frank)

Patrick Bishop Sir Frank Patrick Bishop, Order of the British Empire, MBE (7 March 1900 – 5 October 1972) was a British advertising copywriter, barrister, businessman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician. Early career Bishop was born i ...

(1900–1972), advertising copywriter, barrister, businessman and Conservative Party politician *

Eric Buckley Eric Rede Buckley (31 August 1868 – 6 March 1948) was Archdeacon of Sudbury from 1930 until 1932. Buckley was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and St John's College, Oxford; and ordained in 1892. His first post was a cura ...

(1868–1948), Archdeacon of Sudbury, the first Archdeacon of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

and Rector of Polstead from 1921 to 1945 * Air Chief Marshal Sir Gareth Clayton (1914–1992) senior

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

officer who served as

Air Secretary The Air Secretary and Chief of Staff, Personnel is the Royal Air Force officer with responsibility for appointments, promotions, postings, and discipline of high ranking members of the British air force. From 1978 to 1983 the Air Secretary was ...

from 1970 to 1972 *

Percy Edwards Percy Edwards (1 June 1908 – 7 June 1996) was an English animal impersonator, entertainer and ornithologist. Biography When he was a child, bird impressions were often done with the assistance of hands on the mouth, however he was able to ...

(1908–1996), animal impersonator, ornithologist and entertainer * Simon Gales (born 1964), contemporary artist *

R. P. Keigwin Richard Prescott Keigwin ( ; 8 April 1883 – 26 November 1972) was an English schoolmaster, sportsman, translator, and author. He played first-class cricket for University of Cambridge, Cambridge University, the Marylebone Cricket Club, Essex ...

(1883–1972), academic and cricketer *

Ruth Rendell Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion ...

, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE (1930-2015), author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries

References

External links

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