Assington is a village in

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 Lowes ...

, England, south-east of

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

. At the 2011 Census it had a population of 402, estimated at 445 in 2019. The parish includes the hamlets of Rose Green and Dorking Tye.

History

According to

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to ...

, the meaning of the name is "homestead of Assi". Before 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 Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

, the village was held by

Siward Barn Siward Barn ( ang, Sigeweard Bearn) was an 11th-century English thegn and landowner-warrior. He appears in the extant sources in the period following the Norman Conquest of England, joining the northern resistance to William the Conqueror by th ...

. 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 records the village as being made up of 78 households including 5 villagers, 6 freemen, 55 smallholders, and 12 slaves along with 23 cattle, 60 pigs, 90 sheep, 12 goats, 6 beehives, 30 pigs, 1 mill, and 16 acres of meadow. At the time the Lord and tenant in chief of the village was Ranulf PeverelAssington
Open Domesday. Retrieved 2015-10-23. 78 households implies a population similar to that of today A church on the site of St Edmunds was recorded in the Domesday Book, with the earliest recorded mention of a vicar being in 1349 and that of a dedication to St Edmund in 1459.

Historic buildings

The parish church is dedicated to St

Edmund the Martyr Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869) was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by t ...

and built of flint and dressed stone. It dates from the 15th century and was restored in the 19th century.Church of St Edmund, Assington
British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 23 October 2015. A ring of six bells hangs in the tower, the largest of them weighing about 10.5 cwt (533 kg). All six were cast and hung in 1890 by

John Warner & Sons John Warner and Sons was a metalworks and bellfoundry based in various locations in the UK, established in 1739 and dissolved in 1949. Previous businesses A company was founded by Jacob Warner, a Quaker, in 1739 and originally produced water pu ...

in a modified frame. Ringing is currently prohibited. Assington Hall, which is adjacent to the church, was the home of the Gurdon family for several centuries.

John Gurdon Sir John Bertrand Gurdon (born 2 October 1933) is a British developmental biologist. He is best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation and cloning. He was awarded the Lasker Award in 2009. In 2012, he and Shinya Yamanaka ...

(c. 1544–1623) was elected a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the borough of

Sudbury, Suffolk Sudbury (, ) is a market town in the south west of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour near the Essex border, north-east of London. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 13,063. It is the largest town in the Babergh local government ...

, in 1571, as was his son Brampton Gurdon (died 1648) in 1621, who became

High Sheriff of Suffolk This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Suffolk. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The Sheriff was originally the principal law enforcement officer in the county a ...

in 1629. Later members of the Gordon family were involved in local charities through the 18th century. The hall was pulled down in 1957 after a fire, but the stables and coach house remain and are grade II listed.

Transport

Assington is served on Monday to Saturday by daytime buses between Sudbury and Colchester. The nearest railway station is at Bures (about 3 miles – 5 km – away). Hourly trains to and from

Marks Tey Marks Tey is a large village and electoral ward in Essex, England; it is located six miles west of Colchester. Facilities Marks Tey is one of a group of villages called the Teys, also including Great Tey and Little Tey. Its main features includ ...

link with mainline trains to and from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

Amenities

The village has a farm shop, a pub-restaurant (the ''Shoulder of Mutton''),Own site. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
/ref> a village hall and a post office, all in The Street running off the main A134 road between Sudbury and Colchester.

References

External links

*
Assington Church, St Edmund King & MartyrAssington Mill
* {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Babergh District