Frostenden 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the East Suffolk district of the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

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 ...

. It is around south-west of

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

and north-west of

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is a ...

and lies on the A12 road between Wrentham and

Wangford Wangford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wangford with Henham, in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, just off the A12 trunk road on the edge of the Henham Park estate just outside Southwold ...

. Neighbouring parishes include Wrentham,

Sotterley Sotterley, originally ''Southern-lea'' from its situation south of the river, Suckling, A.I., (1846). 'Sotterley', in ''The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk'', 2 vols (W.S. Cowell, Ipswich 1846), Ipp. 81–96(British History Onli ...

Uggeshall Uggeshall is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, located approximately 6 miles (10 km) south of Beccles and 4 miles (6km) north east of Halesworth close to the A145. The mid-2005 popu ...

Wangford with Henham Wangford with Henham is a civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is around east of Halesworth, north-west of Southwold and south of Beccles.Reydon Reydon is a village and civil parish, north-west of Southwold and south-east of Wangford, in the East Suffolk district and the ceremonial county of Suffolk, England. Its population of 2,567 in 2001 including Easton Bavents eased up to 2,582 a ...

and South Cove.Village profile: Frostenden

East Suffolk District Council East Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England, which was established on 1 April 2019, following the merger of the existing Suffolk Coastal and Waveney districts. At the 2011 census, the two districts had a combined population of ...

, October 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2023. At the

2011 United Kingdom census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

the population of the parish was 167. The parish council operates jointly with the neighbouring parishes of South Cove and Uggeshall.Frostenden, Uggeshall & South Cove
Healthy Suffolk. Retrieved 25 March 2023. The parish church, All Saints, is one of around 40

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshi ...

es in Suffolk.

History

Frostenden appears 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 ...

. Prior to 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 manor, which had three

carucates The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

of land, was held by Thorth son of Ulfkil. In 1086 it formed part of the land held by Ralph Baynard and was part of

Blything Hundred Blything was a hundred of eastern Suffolk, and with an area of was the largest of Suffolk's 21 hundreds. The origins of the hundred centre on the ancient royal estate of Blythburgh, whose hall housed the hundred's central meeting place. Listed ...

. The population was listed as 33 households, or approximately 165 people. The village is listed as having two churches at the time of the Domesday survey, although one of these may be the church of St Lawrence in neighbouring South Cove.Monument record SCV 006 - Church of St Lawrence
Suffolk Heritage Gateway,

Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the administrative 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 Government Association. History Establ ...

. Retrieved 28 March 2023. A port is recorded in the parish in 1086, with salt production having also taken place prior to the survey.Monument record FOS 046 - Record of a Medieval port and former salthouse in the Domesday Survey of 1086
Suffolk Heritage Explorer,

. Retrieved 2023-03-28. It is believed that this was sited along the eastern boundary of the modern parish where the low-lying marshland which forms the border with South Cove was previously navigable. During the 1870s, Frostenden was described by

John Marius Wilson John Marius Wilson (c. 1805–1885) was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazetteers. The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (published 1870–72), was a substantial topographical dictionary in six volumes. It was a c ...

in the ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'':

''The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £348. Patron, Thomas Barne, Esq. The church is chiefly early English; has a round western tower; and contains an early English piscina and a later English font. Charities, £28''.

Mound

There is a historically significant mound and ditch typically described as in Frostenden and associated with the sea port recorded at Domesday, but actually across the parish boundary in South Cove. It is approximately equidistant between Frostenden Corner and Cove Bottom. It is a suspected Viking-era Danish fortification, the only one in Suffolk identified by Ben Raffield's study of the National Monuments Record,

Medieval Archaeology ''Medieval Archaeology'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering the archaeology of the medieval period, especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in 1957 by the Society for Medieval Archaeology and is publishe ...

Archaeology Data Service The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) is an open access digital archive for archaeological research outputs. It is located in The King's Manor, at the University of York. Originally intended to curate digital outputs from archaeological researchers ...

, and Suffolk's Historical Environmental Record. It was first suggested as a Danish fortification by

Claude Morley Claude Morley (22 June 1874 – 13 November 1951) was an English antiquary and entomologist who specialised in Hymenoptera and Diptera. He has been described by Peter Marren as "Suffolk's best-known entomologist". Morley was born at Astley ...

in 1924, after finding a site on the nearby river bank that he suspected to be the Domesday port. Ernest Cooper, writing with Morley, stated that the fort was built to protect the port, which included a dock in which the Vikings would lay up ships for the winter, though also said it may be a ship burial. Sometime between its discovery and 1951, Hugh Braun suggested it was too small to be a Danish fortress and was more likely the location of a Normal hall. The site was the excavated by Peter Woodard in January to February 1951. He told journalists that it might be a ship burial, but later stated in a letter to the

East Anglian Daily Times The ''East Anglian Daily Times'' is a British local newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, based in Ipswich. History The newspaper began publication on 13 October 1874, incorporating the ''Ipswich Express'', which had been published since 13 August ...

that it was only one of a number of possibilities he was considering. During the excavation, he found glazed tiles (which he dated to the thirteenth century), a Gallic pot, the foundations of a wall, the remains of timber, evidence of burning and a mound of burnt flint at the jetty. Transcript:

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 th ...

visited the site with Guy Maynard (then curator of

Ipswich Museum Ipswich Museum is a registered museum of culture, history and natural heritage located on High Street in Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk. It was historically the leading regional museum in Suffolk, housing collections drawn from both the fo ...

) during the excavation (on the 31st of January), and suggested it might have been constructed to prevent landing from the river. Transcript: It was surveyed again by Charles W. Phillips, working as an archaeological officer for Ordnance Survey in 1954, who stated that it was unlikely to be a ship burial as these were constructed on the highest available land near the water, and the mound is within a slight valley. He added that while it was not impossible for it to be a fortification, "it is very oddly sited in relation to the surrounding ground", again because of the valley. Phillips described the suggested dock as "not impossible but very difficult to prove." The site was surveyed again on the 11th of January 1972. The surveyor stated that "its position rules out the possibility of it being a round barrow, motte, or windmill mound" and that the suggested dock "is a line of natural slopes". The river was dredged around 1978. Gatehouse Gazetteer opined that statements dismissing the possibility of it being a fortification were probably overstated and "based on false ideas about the function of castles." It describes it as "a ditched mound, with a palisade and clearly used in C11." The site may also have been excavated by Eustace Grubb.

Demography

In 1881, the population of the parish was 386; by 2011 it had decreased to 167. The highest population recorded was in the 1851 census with a total of 456 people.

Church of All Saints'

A key feature of Frostenden is the

, which is now a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The tower is one of the oldest in

and dates back to either the Norman or Saxon era. The church however dates back to the 13th century. Above the southern door to the church sits a distinctive and bright sundial, thought to be from the 18th century, reading "''vigilate et orate''" meaning "Watch and Pray" in Latin. The stained glass windows of the church are much newer, dating back to the early 20th century. There are several memorials on the site of the church, for both

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Unusually for the area, the parish lost more men during the Second World War, which is uncommon in rural areas.

History

Mound

Demography

Church of All Saints'

Notes

References

External links