Great Finborough 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
Mid Suffolk
Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council was based in Needham Market until late 2017, and is currently sharing offices with the Suffolk County Council in Ipswich. The largest town of Mid Suffolk is Stowmarket. ...
district, in the county of
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; about south west of
Stowmarket
Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket
Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 road (Great Britain), A14 trunk ...
and near one of the sources of the
River Gipping
The River Gipping is the source river for the River Orwell in the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, which is named from the village of Gipping, and which gave its name to the former Gipping Rural District. The name is unrelated to ...
. It has two schools, a pub and an active church. In 2001 the parish had a population of 755, increasing to 808 at the 2011 Census.
Public Transport
Route 461
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
service operated by Beeston's connects Finborough with
Sudbury,
Bildeston and Stowmarket on Tuesday and Thursday only.
Schools
Great Finborough has a primary school, Great Finborough CEVC Primary School, founded in 1873. Two new classrooms were added to the original buildings in 2000. The school's catchment area includes Great Finborough and the neighbouring village of Buxhall; places are offered first to children from the two villages and then to others from beyond the catchment area up to the school's intake limit. The primary school is a feeder for Stowmarket High School, to which pupils transfer at the age of 11.
The independent school
Finborough School is also located in the village. About 250 pupils attend the school, which includes Nursery, Pre-Prep, Prep School, Senior School and Sixth Form.
Religion
St Andrew's Church is the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
church. The current church is
Victorian, apart from the
Tudor porch, and the spire nearly reaches 300 ft. There has been a place of worship on the site for over 1000 years and in 1086 the church as well as
Finborough Hall were recorded 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 ...
.
There was also a
Congregational
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
chapel built in 1862 which is now a private residence.
History
Inside St Andrew's Church the side chapel is filled with monuments dedicated to the Wollaston family who played a big part in the Finborough Estate. They owned the estate for a century and there are monuments dedicated to nearly all the family members. The Pettiward family also played a big role: they took control of the estate after the Wollastons and owned it until the mid 1930s.
The connection with the Pettiward family meant that it gave its name to
Finborough Road
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, th ...
in
Earls Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
,
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 ...
, developed as part of the
Pettiward Estate and later the
Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world p ...
.
Bog Race
Since 1897 each Easter Monday two teams of six men from
Haughley
Haughley is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk, about two miles from Stowmarket in the Mid Suffolk District. The village is located miles northwest of the town of Stowmarket, overlooking the Gipping valley, next to the ...
and Great Finborough race a mile across boggy fields from Boyton Hall to The Chestnut Horse pub in Finborough.
The origin of the race is believed to come from a group of men who were faced with being sacked from their jobs at nearby Boyton Hall for drunkenness had to fight it out for the contract with a rival group of workers from Haughley. The farmer from Boyton Hall is believed to have thrown the contract in the air and let the two teams compete to see who could get it across the fields to the pub first.
The race starts at the pub, The Chestnut Horse, where the teams from Haughley and Great Finborough get considerably drunk and are taken to a nearby farm, Boyton Hall, where they have to race over the fields, about a mile, to get to the pub with the scroll. The first man at the pub with the scroll wins and his village is declared the winner.
Notable people
*
William Skrene
William Skrene (c. 1357/8–1419/20) was an Irish-born barrister and judge who spent most of his adult life in England, where he became King's Serjeant and a judge of assize. He also served briefly as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer in 1395-7 ...
(–1421), a prominent judge who became Lord of the Manor of Great Finborough in circa 1390.
*
John Green Crosse
John Green Crosse, FRCS, FRS (6 September 1790 – 9 June 1850) was a well-known English surgeon of his day, at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
After completing his apprenticeship in Stowmarket, he studied at St. George's Hospital and at th ...
(1790–1850), surgeon, was born at Boyton Hall, near Great Finborough.
*
William Wollaston I (1659–1724),
Enlightenment philosopher and author of ''
The Religion of Nature Delineated
The ''Religion of Nature Delineated'' is a book by Anglican cleric William Wollaston that describes a system of ethics that can be discerned without recourse to revealed religion. It was first published in 1722, two years before Wollaston's death. ...
'', lived at
Finborough Hall.
*
William Wollaston II (1693-1757),
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
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
1733–1734
*
William Wollaston III 1731-1797,
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
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
1768–1784
*The
Pettiward family
The Pettiward Family were a landed family prominent in Putney and Great Finborough, Suffolk who control the Pettiward Estate in Earl's Court, London.
John Pettiward
In 1630 John Pettiward married Sarah White daughter and heiress of Henry White of ...
reside at
Finborough Hall.
*
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
(1939–2004), radio broadcaster, lived in a cottage nicknamed "Peel Acres" in the village from the 1970s, in which many of his shows were produced. His body was buried in the graveyard of St Andrew's Church.
References
Bibliography
* William White, ''History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Suffolk, and the Towns Near Its Borders'' (1844).
External links
Great FinboroughStowmarket Sport (Grassroots coverage of sports, clubs and teams in a three-mile radius of Stowmarket)
{{authority control
Villages in Suffolk
Mid Suffolk District
Civil parishes in Suffolk