Westleton 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 English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

. It is located north of

Leiston Leiston ( ) is a town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is close to Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at th ...

and north-east of

Saxmundham Saxmundham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is set in the valley of the River Fromus about north-east of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed ...

near the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast. The village is on the edge of the Suffolk Sandlings, an area of lowland heathland. The village lies along the B1125 road, to the east of the A12 and Darsham railway station. Westleton Heath National Nature Reserve is north east of the village. The heath is crossed by a minor road from Westleton to the coastal village of

Dunwich Dunwich () is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon ...

, to the east. The famous Minsmere RSPB reserve lies immediately to the east of the village. The fourteenth-century village church of St Peter in Westleton was built by monks from

Sibton Abbey Sibton Abbey, an early Cistercian abbey located in Sibton near Yoxford, Suffolk, was founded about 1150 by William de Chesney (sheriff), William de Chesney, High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Abbey is a daughter house of Warden Abbey, near ...

near Saxmundham. The church has twice seen the collapse of its tower: in 1776 under the strain of hurricane winds; and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when the smaller wooden replacement had to be demolished following bomb damage. It is a grade II* listed building. Westleton retains some other basic services, helped by its proximity to the coast and Minsmere. These include a post office, two bookshops, a garage and two pubs, the White Horse and The Crown. The latter is a historic

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of t ...

dating from the 12th century.Welcome to Westleton Parish Council's website
Westleton Parish Council. Retrieved 2011-04-26. Westleton Primitive Methodist chapel was opened in 1868 and closed in 1968. Now used as a bookshop, Chapel Books, it has been depicted in print in Julie Myerson's 2003 novel, '' Something Might Happen'', as the location for a seduction scene.

References

External links

Home » Westleton
Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk {{Suffolk-geo-stub