Fressingfield 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, east of
Diss, Norfolk. In 2015 it had a population of 1021, with one shop (a
Mace (shop)
Mace is a convenience shop symbol group operating as three separate entities with different ownerships in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The shops are independently owned and join the groups, paying a fee for marke ...
), a medical centre, public house, restaurant, primary school, and three churches, with Anglican, Baptist and Methodist congregations. A vineyard, Oak Hill Wines, is also located nearby.
The parish of Fressingfield contains . Of the more than 500 parishes in Suffolk, Fressingfield is the 16th largest.
History
A
Roman Road
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
15 miles (24 km) long, from
Pulham St Mary
Pulham Saint Mary is a rural village and civil parish in Norfolk, that lies next to the village of Pulham Market. It is situated approximately northeast of Diss and south of Norwich, covers an area of and a population of 892 at the 2011 censu ...
to
Peasenhall
Peasenhall is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. The population of the civil parish at the 2021 Census was 525. It lies on the A1120 tourist route; neighbouring villages include Sibton a ...
, passes through the parish of Fressingfield. Its route is recognisable as the present
B1116 passing through
Weybread ("Weybread Straight"). At the present-day Gooch's Farm, however, an early medieval diversion takes traffic into Fressingfield.
''Fessefelda'' as it was spelt, or perhaps misspelt, at the time, was first documented 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 ...
(1086).
[A. D. Mills, 2011, ''A Dictionary of British Place-Names'' (1st ed., rev.); Oxford; Oxford University Press, p. 195.] Later variants of the spelling have included ''Frisingfeld'' (1185),
and ''Freshingfield'' (17th century).
Fressingfield is an
Old English
Old English (, ), 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 was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
name.
[James Rye, 1997, ''Popular Guide to Suffolk Place Names''; Dereham, Norfolk; The Lark's Press, p. 22.] It appears to have been initially ''*Frisa''/''Fyrs''/''Fyrsen'' + ''inga'' ("people) + ''feld'' ("field").
The original meaning of the prefix is unclear and there are two theories about it:
* a derivation from the
furze
''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are na ...
(gorse) plant,
and/or;
* the area was once owned by someone called ''Frīsa'' – a personal or nickname implying
Frisian origins,
i.e. "Frisa's people's field" which would be
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
with other Suffolk place names, such as Friston and Freston, both of which mean "the Frisian's
farmstead
A homestead is an isolated dwelling, especially a farmhouse, and adjacent outbuildings, typically on a large agricultural holding such as a ranch or station.
In North America the word "homestead" historically referred to land claimed by a set ...
".
The Church of St Peter & St Paul was constructed from the early 14th to late 15th centuries. The belfry hangs a ring of eight bells with the tenor weighing 17-0-20 cwt (872.67 kg).
In the late 16th century, the Norwich-born playwright
Robert Greene named a character, "Margaret, the Fair Maid of Fressingfield" in his play ''
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
''Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay'', originally entitled ''The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay'', is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by Robert Greene. Widely regarded as Greene's best and most significant play, ...
''.
The
Guildhall
A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...
was built in the
Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
era and still stands, although now it is a restaurant called "The Fox and Goose".
Faith Mills of Fressingfield was hanged for
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
in 1645, after confessing to
Matthew Hopkins
Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...
to having
familiar
In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to r ...
s.
The peak population of 1,491 people was recorded by the 1851 ''Census''.
In 1887, to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, a well was sunk at the junction of the Stradbroke and Laxfield Roads. For 60 years, until the provision of a mains water supply, the "Jubilee Pump" and the "Low Pump" (which still exists) supplied the central area of the parish with water. The site of the Jubilee Pump is now known as Jubilee Corner. A
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Symbolism
Historical usage
It has ...
stands beside the still-standing "Low Pump".
The 1953 Coronation Celebrations Committee chose Jubilee Corner as the site of a village sign, depicting a pilgrim and his pack mule. The sign reflects the parish's association with the pilgrimage to Bury St Edmunds that commenced during the late Anglo-Saxon period. In 2002, to mark Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, a new sign was commissioned, the previous one having been given to the school.
While Fressingfield once had five public houses it now has only one, the Swan Inn.
Facilities
There is a playing field in Fressingfield which is used by Fressingfield
FC for training and home matches on Sundays. Because of this, there are two permanent goals and many other non-fixed goalposts. Alongside the football pitch there are
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
courts and a
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
green. There is also a privately owned swimming pool, which is rented out for swimming lessons to Water Lillies Swimming School Ltd.
Fressingfield also has a park with two slides, a swing set, a wooden climbing frame and multiple benches.
It is also home to the 1st Fressingfield Scout Group, a group which has been in existence since 1908.
Bottle banks are located next to the playing field.
Notable residents
*Sir
John de Fressingfield was born in Fressingfield in about 1260. His grandfather Seman of Fressingfield is said to have been a
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
. John rose through sheer ability to become a judge first in Ireland, then in the
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
and finally in England. He was also a
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
and a member of the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
. He held substantial lands in Suffolk,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
and
Ireland. He died sometime after 1322.
*
William Sancroft
William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indul ...
was born at
Ufford Hall Ufford Hall may refer to the following buildings in England:
* Ufford Hall, Cambridgeshire
* Ufford Hall, Suffolk
{{dab ...
on 30 January 1617. He became Dean of
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
in 1664, assisting with the rebuilding after the Great Fire. From 1678 he was
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
, crowning
James II in 1685. Following the Revolution of 1688, having already given allegiance to James, he felt unable to swear a new oath to
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
and
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
and was deposed as archbishop in 1690, returning to
Ufford Hall Ufford Hall may refer to the following buildings in England:
* Ufford Hall, Cambridgeshire
* Ufford Hall, Suffolk
{{dab ...
where he died on 24 November 1693. Sancroft made financial provision for the spiritual, education and administrative care of Fressingfield: in his arrangements the Vicar, a Village Schoolmaster and the Parish Clerk.
*
William Etheridge, 18th-century engineer and architect, was born circa 1709 in Fressingfield. His best-known works are two wooden bridges, the short-lived
Old Walton Bridge
Old Walton Bridge is the name given to the first Walton Bridge built across the River Thames between Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton in Surrey, England (the latter then in Middlesex). The wooden bridge was completed in 1750, was painted by Canale ...
between
Walton-on-Thames
Walton-on-Thames, locally known as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide ran ...
and
Shepperton
Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...
in Surrey (depicted in two paintings by
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.
Painter of city views or ...
), and the
Mathematical Bridge
The Mathematical Bridge is the popular name of a wooden footbridge in the southwest of central Cambridge, England.
It bridges the River Cam about one hundred feet northwest of Silver Street Bridge and connects two parts of Queens' College. It ...
in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
(surviving as a faithfully rebuilt 1905 replica, as well as the original 1748 scale model).
Footnotes
External links
Fressingfield websiteDiss Express- village's local newspaper website
{{authority control
Villages in Suffolk
Mid Suffolk District
Civil parishes in Suffolk