Wissett 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

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 north-east of the market town of

Halesworth Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tributary of the River Blyth, upstream from Southwold. T ...

in the East Suffolk district. Historically, it was in the

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 ...

.Wissett
Suffolk Heritage Explorer,

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 2021-03-04. 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 parish had a population of 268. The village is spread along the Halesworth road with the Lowestoft to Ipswich railway cutting through the extreme eastern edge of the parish. The nearest railway station is

Halesworth railway station Halesworth railway station is on the East Suffolk Line in the east of England, serving the town of Halesworth, Suffolk. It is also the nearest station to the seaside town of Southwold. It is down the line from and measured from London Live ...

.Wissett
Healthy Suffolk, 2016. Retrieved 2021-03-04.Wissett Conservation Area Appraisal

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 ...

, 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-04. The parish borders the parishes of

Rumburgh Rumburgh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of the market town of Halesworth in the East Suffolk District. The population of the parish at the 2011 United Kingdom census was 327. The village is ...

St James South Elmham St James South Elmham is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-west of the market town of Halesworth and south-west of Bungay in the East Suffolk district. It is one of the parishes around Bungay ...

Spexhall Spexhall 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 ...

, Halesworth and

Chediston Chediston is a village and a civil parish on the B1123 road, in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. It is located 2 miles west of Halesworth, its post town. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 19 ...

History

Wissett manor was held by

Ralph the Staller Ralph the Staller (or Radulf Stalre or Ralph l'Écuyer / Ralph the Squire ( 1011 – 1069) was a noble and landowner in both Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest England. He is said to have been born in Norfolk of high born Breton and English par ...

, Baron of Gael in Brittany 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 ...

. Ralph was created

Earl of East Anglia The Earls of East Anglia were governors of East Anglia during the 11th century. The post was established by Cnut in 1017 and disappeared following Ralph Guader's participation in the failed Revolt of the Earls in 1075. Ealdormen of East Anglia U ...

in 1067, but his son lost the title and the manor passed to

Count Alan of Brittany Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz (Breton), Alain le Roux ( French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond, was a Breton nobleman, kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror (Duke William II of No ...

and Richmond in 1075. 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 that Wissett was then combined with

; the site of

Rumburgh Priory Rumburgh Priory was a Benedictine priory located in the village of Rumburgh in the English county of Suffolk. The priory was founded in about 1065 as a cell of St Benet's Abbey at Hulme in Norfolk.Page W (1975) 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Pr ...

which had 12

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks. It had four

carucate 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 ...

s of land and a population of 97 families. The village chapel was a cell of the priory.Page W (1975) 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Rumburgh' in ''A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2'', pp. 77–79.
Available online
at British History Online. Retrieved 2011-05-02.)Wissett
Open Domesday. Retrieved 2021-03-04. The artists

Vanessa Bell Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen). Early life and education Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...

and

Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...

, and Grant's lover the writer

David Garnett David Garnett (9 March 1892 – 17 February 1981) was an English writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life. Early ...

, lived in Wissett for the summer of 1916. Bell's sister,

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, wrote after visiting them that: "Wissett seems to lull asleep all ambition. Don't you think they have discovered the secret of life? I thought it wonderfully harmonious."

Culture and community

The parish church is dedicated to

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...

. It 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 and dates from the 11th century. The tower has a floor partly dated to the 12th century, one of the oldest recorded church tower floors in the United Kingdom. The church was built as a chapel to

. Two doors and the tower arch are the remaining elements of

Norman architecture The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used fo ...

. The church is 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 ...

.Knott S (2019
St Andrew, Wissett
Suffolk Churches. Retrieved 2021-03-04.Church of St Andrew
List entry,

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

. Retrieved 2021-03-04.Kiddy M (1997) ''St Andrew's, Wissett: A Guide''. Wissett: St Andrew's church. The carved wooden statue of St Andrew was crafted from driftwood in 2006 by

Peter Eugene Ball Peter Eugene Ball (19 March 1943) is an English sculptor. He is best known for his religious work which can be seen in churches and cathedrals throughout Britain. He also produces secular sculpture using predominantly driftwood and found obje ...

. The parish is now one of fourteen which together form the Blyth Valley Team Ministry in the Diocese of Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich.Churches in the Blyth Valley Team Ministry
Blyth Valley Team Ministry. Retrieved 2021-03-04. The village has a village hall and a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, ''The Plough Inn'', which also operates as a village shop. Wissett Hall is a red-brick manor house dating from the 17th century, whilst Manor Farmhouse dates from the 16th century and The Grange from the 14th; both are Grade II* listed buildings. The Old Chapel, a former dissenters' chapel, is now a private dwelling. The parish council operates a regular newsletter, ''The Wissett Web''. Valley Farm Vineyard was established in the parish in 1987 and has produced United Kingdom Vineyard Association Gold Medal winning wine.

Education

The Wissett School Board was formed in 1878, and the village school opened the following year, 1879. It operated as a

board school School boards were public bodies in England and Wales between 1870 and 1902, which established and administered elementary schools. School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaignin ...

until 1902, when it became a local authority primary school under the provisions of the

Education Act 1902 The Education Act 1902 ( 2 Edw. 7 c. 42), also known as the Balfour Act, was a highly controversial Act of Parliament that set the pattern of elementary education in England and Wales for four decades. It was brought to Parliament by a Conservat ...

. The school continued to operate until 1961, when it closed due to the small size of its roll. Children now attend primary school in Halesworth and secondary school at

Bungay High School Bungay High School is a mixed-sex secondary school with academy status in the town of Bungay in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It caters for children aged 11 to 18. The school was founded as Bungay Grammar School in 1565 and became B ...

The Wissett Hoards

Early in 2011 two

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

s of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

axe heads and spears, together with a single rapier blade, were discovered in Wissett by two metal detectorists. The hoards were found about nine metres apart. The second hoard was excavated fully by the County Archaeological Team, and expert examination of the objects has shown them to be over 3,000 years old, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. It is considered unusual to find two hoards so close together. From the identical alloy used in both hoards, it has been suggested that they are contemporary with each other. Several of the items are of a type that have never previously been found together. In all, fifteen objects were authenticated by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, and were valued at £4,300. They were purchased by the Halesworth and District Museum.The Wissett Hoards
Halesworth Museum. Retrieved 2021-03-04.

Notes

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Waveney District Year of establishment missing