Semer is a small 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 adjacent to a bridge over the

River Brett The River Brett is a river 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 ...

on the B1115 between Hadleigh and

Stowmarket Stowmarket ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. o ...

, it is part of Babergh district. The parish also contains the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Ash Street and Drakestone Green. The parish was recorded in the 2011 census as having a population of 130, down from 158 in the previous census.

History

The name Semer is derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

elements "sǣ" (lake or sea) and "mere" (pool or lake). As the name therefore means "lake pool", it may be that the mere element was added at a later date. Semer is recorded in 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 ...

as belonging to

Bury St Edmunds Abbey The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine Monastery, monasteries in England, until its Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolution in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suff ...

in both 1066 and 1086. The abbey acted as both

Lord of the Manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

and

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

. It is recorded as home to 20 households: six villagers, 13 small holders and one slave. It is recorded as having enough ploughland for 3 lord's plough teams and 3 men's plough teams; and the village also had of meadow, a mill, a church, of church land, 16 cattle, 2 cobs, 24 pigs and 97 sheep. In 1086 the village is valued as worth £6 a year to its lord, the Abbey, a £1 increase on its value in 1066. Its taxable value is recorded as 3.8 geld units and 2.5 villtax.

All Saints Church

The small church is set a few hundred yards off of a minor road across a meadow beside the

, It is almost entirely Victorianised with a chancel that was rebuilt in 1870. One notable feature of the graveyard, to the east of the church, is a marble

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

angel scattering roses. The church has a plain square-cut

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

which is thought to be 14th-century, as is the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

. There is also a Royal Arms of

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

, painted before the union with Ireland. The church has been 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 ...

since 10 July 1980.

Hamlets

Ash Street

The small hamlet of ''Ash Street'' is centred approximately east of Semer church; it is located to the north of a bridge over the River Brett. Ash Street is recorded in the Domesday Book as a very small settlement of just five smallholders, with of meadow and a mill; the hamlet had a taxable value of 1.5 geld units. Prior to 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 ...

of 1066, the hamlet was owned by an unnamed "Free Woman". After the Conquest it is recorded as under the Lordship of

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

's half-brother,

Robert, Count of Mortain Robert, Count of Mortain, first Earl of Cornwall of 2nd creation (–) was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother (on their mother's side) of King William the Conqueror. He was one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror at t ...

Drakestone Green

The small hamlet of ''Drakestone Green'' is centred approximately south of Semer church.

References

External links

* * {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk Cosford Hundred