Stradbroke ( ) is an English village in the Mid Suffolk district of the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 ...

. The ''Census'' of 2011 gave the parish a population of 1,408, with an estimate of 1,513 in 2018.

Heritage

The village was listed in the Domesday Book of 1096 as being in the Bishop's Hundred,Open Domesday: Stradbroke
accessed February 2020. later renamed Hoxne Hundred. The village name was sometimes spelt Stradbrook in the Middle Ages and in local documents as late as the early 19th century. A post-medieval source states that the prominent medieval philosopher Robert Grosseteste, also Bishop of Lincoln, was born in Stradbroke in about 1175, but there is no medieval evidence to confirm this. Its parish church of All Saints, with a 15th-century tower and a raised stair turret, dominates the village as a landmark.Stradbroke All Saints'
Suffolk Churches Website. Retrieved 2013-02-05. In October 2014 the state primary school marked the 150th anniversary of its predecessor's opening on 28 September 1864. The village used to host a Navy Day on the last Saturday in July, to mourn the end of the Royal Navy's rum ration in July 1970. as part of the celebration a tot of rum was processed round the village. The last such event was held in 2007.

Amenities

Stradbroke's position as a centre for smaller villages and hamlets means it has more facilities than its population might suggest. It serves as an education centre for Mid Suffolk, with a primary school and a high school in the village. There are two pubs, several shops, and local services that include a public library, a community centre, a swimming pool and a gym. It has a playing field for cricket and football, three tennis courts, two bowling greens and a fitness track. The village includes some of public footpaths, maintained by local government two or three times a year. Near the community centre there is a doctor's surgery and a play area for young children. At Westhall there is another play area and a recreation ground for informal games. The village post office reopened in 2014 in the local library, housed in the historic courthouse building. The previous post office in a shop had closed. Library staff work on both the post office and library counters. The village shop was refurbished in 2014. There is also a bakery, a butcher's shop, a wedding shop, and an antiques centre and cafe. In 2012 a field of was bought on Drapers Hill and 28

allotment gardens An allotment (British English), or in North America, a community garden, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants, so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the user. Such plot ...

laid out, along with a community orchard and wild flower meadow. A pond was donated at the top of the site, overlooked by donated public seats. There are views of the church towards the centre of the village. Stradbroke has a free magazine, the ''Stradbroke Monthly'', and an online community radio station, Radio Stradbroke. The

Stradisphere Festival Stradisphere Festival is an annual music festival held in Stradbroke, Suffolk, England, in July. It celebrated its 5th year in 2018 with headliners Badly Drawn Boy and Sam and the Womp Sam and the Womp is a British pop group consisting of ...

was an annual music event held between 2013 and 2018 in the village featuring acts including Badly Drawn Boy.

Transport

Stradbroke lies midway between

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and

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 ...

on the B1117 and B1118 secondary roads, some 7 miles (11 km) from the Suffolk town of

Eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

and 9 miles (14.5 km) from the Norfolk market town of Diss, where the village's nearest railway station is located. Train services from Diss take an hour and a half to reach

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 ...

. There is a limited public school bus service linking Stradbroke to Eye,

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4, ...

and

Notable people

In birth order: * Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253), scholar and Bishop of Lincoln, was born in Stradbroke. *

Mary Matilda Betham Mary Matilda Betham, known by family and friends as Matilda Betham (16 November 1776 – 30 September 1852), was an English diarist, poet, woman of letters, and miniature portrait painter. She exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1804 to ...

(1776–1852), diarist, poet and miniature painter, was born in Stradbroke. *

William Betham (1779–1853) Sir William Betham (1779–1853) was an English-born Irish herald and antiquarian who held the office of Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, Ulster King of Arms from 1820 until his death in 1853. He had previously served as the Deputy Ulster from 1 ...

, antiquarian, brother of Mary Matilda, was born in Stradbroke. *

J. C. Ryle John Charles Ryle (10 May 1816 – 10 June 1900) was an English evangelical Anglican bishop. He was the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool. Life He was the eldest son of John Ryle, private banker, of Park House, Macclesfield, M.P. for Maccles ...

(1816–1900), became Vicar of Stradbroke in 1861 and set in motion a restoration of the church in the 1870s. He later became Bishop of Liverpool. * Herbert Edward Ryle (1856–1925), son of J. C. Ryle, was brought up in Stradbroke. He later served successively as

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

and Dean of Westminster.

Notes

References

*S. Govier, 2010, ''An Illustrated History of Stradbroke and Denham''

External links

* * {{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District