Benacre 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 authorit ...

in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. The village is located about south of Lowestoft and north-east of Wrentham, between the main

A12 road This is a list of roads designated A12. Entries are sorted in alphabetical order by country. * A012 road (Argentina), a road around the city of Rosario * A12 motorway (Austria), a road connecting Kufstein and the German Autobahn A 93 to Landec ...

and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

coast. Neighbouring villages include

Kessingland Kessingland is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located around south of Lowestoft on the east coast of the United Kingdom. It is of interest to archaeologists as Palaeolithic and Ne ...

and

Covehithe Covehithe is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It lies on the North Sea coast around north of Southwold and south of Lowestoft. Neighbouring settlements include Benacre, South Cove and ...

with the town 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 ...

to the south. The village is dispersed around Benacre Hall, the estate of the Gooch family. It had a population of around 70 in mid-2008.''A profile of Waveney'', Waveney District Council, February 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-18. The population declined dramatically during the 20th century from 216 at the 1901 census.Benacre CP: Historical statistics – population
Vision of Britain. Retrieved 2011-05-07. The area of the parish extends from the

Hundred River 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

in the north to Benacre Broad in the south. At the

Domesday survey 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 ...

the village's name is given as ''Benagra'' within the Hundred of Blythling.Benacre
The Domesday Book online. Retrieved 2011-05-07. It formed part of the holdings of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, as it had before the

conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

, with one freeman recorded as living in the manor.Benacre
, Domesday Map. Retrieved 2011-05-07. The village has few basic services. The former parish church of St Michael is now privately owned by the Gooch family.Church of St Michael, Benacre
British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 2011-05-07. It is medieval in origin and a Grade II* listed building, although extensively rebuilt following a fire in the 18th century. The church of St Andrew in Covehithe now acts as the parish church for Benacre.Covehithe with Benacre, St Andrew, Covehithe with Benacre
Church of England. Retrieved 2011-05-10. Benacre Broad forms part of the Benacre National Nature Reserve, an important reserve for over 100 bird species including the

marsh harrier The marsh harriers are birds of prey of the harrier subfamily. They are medium-sized raptors and the largest and broadest-winged harriers. Most of them are associated with marshland and dense reedbeds. They are found almost worldwide, excluding ...

little tern The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was formerly placed into the genus ''Sterna'', which now is restricted to the large white terns. The genus name is a diminutive of '' Sterna'', "tern". The specific ' ...

and

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' in Old English; the word "bittern ...

.Benacre NNR
''Natural England''. Retrieved 2012-11-01. The shingle beach also forms an important habitat and the coastal area of the parish is part of the Pakefield to Easton Barents Site of Special Scientific Interest.

References

External links

Benacre Estate
Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Waveney District {{Suffolk-geo-stub