Sibton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

on the A1120 road, in the

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 ...

district, in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

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 ...

. It is near the towns of Saxmundham and Halesworth, the village of Peasenhall and the hamlet of Sibton Green. The church is dedicated to St Peter; there is also the remains of a medieval abbey,

Sibton Abbey Sibton Abbey, an early Cistercian abbey located near Yoxford, Suffolk, was founded about 1150 by William de Chesney, High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. A sister house of Warden Abbey, near Bedford, Bedfordshire, Sibton Abbey was the only C ...

. There is a large stately house set in the grounds of Sibton Park which dates back 1827 in the Georgian period, which is now used as a hotel. The estate consists of 4500 acres, being part of the Wilderness Reserve where there are holiday cottages and a lake. The Parish is also in close proximity to the River Yox which runs past the White Horse Inn and down through Pouy Street, it then goes on past both the A1120 road and a small wooded area called Abbey Woods to pass through the grounds of Sibton Park and then on to Yoxford.

History

The name Sibton derives from Old English, where the word "Sibba" is a personal name and the word "tun" means an enclosure, a farm, village or an estate, essentially meaning "Sibba's farm or settlement". Sibton was 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 with a population of just 51 people. In the 1870s, Sibton was described as

Occupations

The graph shows the occupations of the citizens of Sibton in 1881 and the main occupation was in agricultural work, with 96 men and 3 women working in this sector. The second highest sector was in domestic service or offices. Census information from 1831 states that nearly 3/4 (91 people) of Sibton's population was a labourer or a servant and 21 people were employers or professionals. This is similar to the 1881 occupation statistics as we can see that 99 people work in agriculture which is a similar figure for how many labourers there were in 1831 suggesting there was little change in these years. However, in 2011 the occupation statistics of the parish were very different, with just 7 people working in agriculture. The highest sector of employment for Sibton in 2011 was people working in accommodation or food industry with 15 people working in this industry.

Population

According to the 2011 census Sibton had a population of 182- 96 of these people being male and 86 being female. This is the lowest the population has been since census records began in 1801.The population hit a peak in 1821, when there were 569 people living in the parish. Since then the population fluctuated slightly between the years of 1821 and 1841 but has continued to decrease since then. One reason for this drastic change was due to a boundary change of the parish, which was in 1885 when part of Sibton became part of Peasenhall. This change was recorded in the 1891 census and meant the parish size was reduced. A continued decrease in population has also occurred as people became less dependent on farming as their main source of income and many people also moved towards the bigger towns, such as Ipswich, for work. In 2011, 159 people living in Sibton were over the age of 16 and 23 people were under the age of 16, with the mean age being 48.6. 56 people in the parish had qualifications of level 4 and above suggesting Sibton is a Parish where people with a high level of qualifications choose to live, this may be because they can afford to live in an area away from services and be able to travel to work.

St Peter's Church

St Peter's Church at Sibton lies above the busy A1120 road and was founded in the reign of William II (c.1100) by Robert de Camodo. The oldest part of the building is the south door, which was made in the Norman era and was originally part of Sibton Abbey. The church once had a spire which was added, along with a tower, in the 15th century. However, this spire came down about 200 years ago, although the tower still remains. After being out of use for many years the church has recently been restored, and £50,000 was raised to repair part of the roof; a further £45,000 was given by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

which has helped the church regain its parish status, and regular services now take place.

War Memorial

The parish's war memorial is located at the entrance to the churchyard in the form of a

lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style c ...

. Eleven men from Sibton lost their lives in the First World War; their names are carved into the memorial. Two of the men are buried in the graveyard. During the Second World War, a further two men lost their lives, and their names were added to the memorial.

Notable residents

* Peter Purves (1939- );

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), l ...

. * Nicholas Clay (1946–2000);

. *

Margaret Bruce Wells Margaret Caroline Bruce Wells née Margaret Caroline Bruce (13 June 1909 – 4 December 1998) was a British artist known for her use of woodcut and linocut techniques. Biography Although born in Murthly in Perthshire, Wells attended Queen Marga ...

(1909–1998); artist who specialised in

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only t ...

and

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

techniques. * Egerton Bagot Byrd Levett-Scrivener (1857-1954);

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

Flag Lieutenant.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Suffolk Coastal