Wattisfield 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

Mid Suffolk Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just three towns, being Stowmarket, Needham Market and Eye. Its council was based in Needham Market until 2017 when it moved to sha ...

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 ...

in eastern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Located on the

A143 The A143 is a road that runs from the Gorleston-on-Sea area of Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk to Haverhill in Suffolk. For much of the route (between Gorleston-on-Sea and Bury St Edmunds) the road is classified as a primary route. Over the years ...

around seven miles south-west of Diss, in 2005 its population was 440, increasing to 475 at the 2011 Census. The village name in Domesday Book is Watesfelda, derived from the Old English meaning Wastel's clearing. It is situated in the ancient hundred of Blackbourne. Its

Grade II* listed 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, H ...

medieval church is dedicated to St. Margaret. Due to the abundant source of mica clay the village has a tradition of pottery making going back to the Bronze Age and there is still a commercial pottery called Watsons which has a factory shop open to the public. A Romano-British or Anglo-Saxon cemetery was found in 1934 by

Basil Brown Basil John Wait Brown (22 January 1888 – 12 March 1977) was an English archaeologist and astronomer. Self-taught, he discovered and excavated a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, which has come to be called "one of t ...

, who later rose to fame for his discoveries at

Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeology, Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbed ship burial containing a wea ...

. The village once had three licensed pubs but now it has none. The Royal Oak was part of Whitbread's pub estate but closed in 1968 and was sold on as a private dwelling, which it remains today directly opposite the church of St. Margaret's. The white post outside the building is a vestige of the old pub sign which used to hang from it. The White Swan was built in the 17th century and closed early 20th century; the building remains as a farmhouse to the north of the A143. The Black Swan closed in the 1920s but the building remains as a private dwelling on the south side of the A143 near its junction with Calkewood Lane. A post-Medieval post mill stood near Manning's Lane; it was demolished circa 1965. The Post Office and general store closed in 1997 and the building is currently occupied by a ladies hair stylist. A stream which rises to the south of the village is called The Grundle and is one of the tributaries of the

Little Ouse The River Little Ouse, also known as the Brandon River, is a river in the east of England, a tributary of the River Great Ouse. For much of its length it defines the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk. It rises east of Thelnetham, close to ...

river which eventually joins the Great Ouse and discharges into

The Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...

Wattisfield Hall

Atop a hill south-west of the village centre,

Wattisfield Hall is an early 17th century timber-framed

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

, most recognizable by its towering, octagonal, Tudor-brick chimneys––twelve in all, grouped into four large stacks.

Crusade against the art world

From 1967 to 1971, it was occupied as both a home and

art restoration conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preve ...

studio by famous

art forger Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

Tom Keating Thomas Patrick Keating (1 March 1917 – 12 February 1984) was an English artist, art restoration, art restorer and Art forgery, art forger. Considered the most prolific and versatile art forger of the 20th century, he claimed to have faked mo ...

, and his business partner and lover, Jane Kelly. While running their picture cleaning and repair business, Keating secretly continued painting large numbers of

Sexton Blake Sexton Blake is a fictional British detective, whose adventures captivated readers for over eight decades from 1893 to 1978. Blake featured in more than 4,000 stories by approximately 200 different authors, making him one of the most prolifica ...

s––his rhyming slang for fakes––in the styles of

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, Saskatchewan, Ca ...

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

and many others, including the

Samuel Palmer Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and p ...

fakes that led to Kelly and him facing charges for art fraud at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

in 1979. In May 1977, Keating gave a national audience a tour of his former haunt, sharing fond memories of him and Kelly pretending to be Lord and Lady of the manor, in a BBC1 special called ''A Picture of Tom Keating: An exclusive study of a master forger.''

Motocross

Several dates during the summer months see motocross scrambling action in the grounds of Wattisfield Hall.

References

External links

Wattisfield Community Centre & Recreation Ground websiteParish Council websiteWattisfield Church
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District