Stanstead 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 ...

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 name Stanstead comes 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 ...

for "Stony place". Located off the B1066, it is around from

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...

, and is part of Babergh district. It is about from

Glemsford Glemsford is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district in Suffolk, England, near the town of Sudbury. Glemsford is located near the River Glem and the River Stour also flows nearby. Glemsford is surrounded by arable farmland and i ...

, from Hadleigh, and from

Lavenham Lavenham is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Lavenham Guildhall, Guildhall, Little ...

Etymology

The name Stanstead is Anglo Saxon for "stony place" and it is easy to appreciate how this came about when viewing the surrounding fields, particularly in the lower part of the village, which are strewn with glacial flint. There is much evidence of earlier Iron Age and Roman settlements in the surrounding area.

Geography

Stanstead is situated in Glem Valley to the north east of

. The Parish borders Long Melford in the west, Glemsford to the south, Boxted to the east and Shimpling to the north. The village is T-shaped; the lower half of the settlement (Lower Street) follows the B1066 along the bottom of the valley past the old Stanstead

osier beds Osier may refer to: * Willow or osier, a genus of deciduous trees and shrubs ** Common osier (''Salix viminalis''), a species of willow * Red osier (''Cornus sericea''), a species of flowering plant *Osier, Colorado, an unincorporated community al ...

. The upper part of the village is reached by a 30-metre climb up the hill past Stanstead Hall towards the church and a cluster of houses, a small green and then on to Upper Street and Blooms Hall Lane.

Governance

Stanstead lies in the Babergh district of the shire county of

. The three tiers of local government are administered by *

Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Governme ...

Babergh District Council Babergh District (pronounced , ) is a local government district in Suffolk, England. In 2021 it had a population of 92,300. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just two towns, Sudbury and Hadleigh. The council was based in Hadleig ...

* Stanstead Parish Council

Transport

Shimpling is served by one

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

service operated by

Hedingham & Chambers Hedingham & Chambers was a bus operator, part of the larger Go East Anglia unit within the Go-Ahead Group, consisting of the #Hedingham, Hedingham and #Chambers, Chambers brands. The group was formed when Go-Ahead purchased the two firms in Jun ...

Education

The village is served by Hartest CEVCP School, a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

currently catering for pupils aged 5–11. Older children attend Sudbury Upper School and Arts College.

Demography

According to the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

, at the time of the

United Kingdom Census 2001 A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th Census in the United Kingdom, UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organise ...

, Stanstead had a population of 316 with 127 households.

Population change

Notable former residents

Robert Calef Robert Calef (baptized 2 November 1648 – 13 April 1719) was a cloth merchant in colonial Boston. He was the author of ''More Wonders of the Invisible World'', a book composed throughout the mid-1690s denouncing the recent Salem witch trials of ...

(1648 - 1719), cloth merchant in colonial Boston and author. *

Edmund Rice Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

(c.1594 – 1663), politician and founder of

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high ...

References

External links

Parish Council website
Suffolk Churches {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk