Cratfield is a village in northern

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 ...

, England. "It has a population of 292 according to the 2011 census." Neighbouring villages include

Laxfield Laxfield is a small ancient village in northern Suffolk, England. It is located at a distinct bend in today's B1117 road. History Laxfield arose in Saxon times as it is known that an early church was there and the village itself appears in ...

, Metfield,

Cookley Cookley is a village in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England, a few miles to the north of Kidderminster, and close to the villages of Kinver and Wolverley. It lies on the River Stour, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Can ...

, Huntingfield,

Heveningham Heveningham is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located four miles south-west of Halesworth, in 2005 it had a population of 120. Heveningham Hall, a country house built in 1777, once bel ...

. The nearest town,

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 ...

, is approximately 6.7 miles (10.7 km) away.

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 ...

is a popular, nearby coastal town. The market town of

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of 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 4,016 in 2019. Nearby villages include ...

is also close by. Cratfield is a small farming and residential community. It currently has no shop, but there are several

bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...

hotels. Its only pub, ''The Cratfield Poacher'', closed in 2017. Cratfield is also home to the Grade I listed St Mary's Church (14th/15th/16th century) – built of flint and with a square tower, mainly Perpendicular and noted particularly for its very fine font. Cratfield has had two churches and three cemeteries in the past, however in the current day it only has one church (St Mary's) and two cemeteries (St Mary's and Burial ground). The oldest part of the church is from the 14th century, however the tower is from the 15th century. In 1547 under Edward VI, "the parish sold all its silver rather than let it fall into government hands and therefore spent the proceeds on decorating the tower, for which they are to be commended and remembered." Crafield means 'Craeta open land' which refers to open country, land without trees, level ground, land without buildings) and arable land (from late tenth century).

Statistics

The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) ranks Cratfield as 13,041 out of 32,844 in England. It is believed that employment is better than 65% of areas in England, Health is better than 86%, education is better than 53%, crime is better than 74% and overall better than 39% of the country. Cratfield's population shows that it is one that is neither significantly of old age, but neither is it a youth population. The largest age group is the 45 to 59 and the second largest is 30 to 44, this shows that it is very middle aged and for people with family which explains the 70 people under the age of 19 living in Cratfield. The population density is 0.3 persons per hectare. According to the 2011 census there is not a large difference of people working full-time and people working part- time (full-time 170 and part- time 112). However, for the people who are in full-time work, the highest number of people have to travel between 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres (between 6.2 and 12.4 miles) to get to work, furthermore according to the census 7 people have to travel over 60 kilometres ( 37.3 miles and over). This shows that Cratfield is a distance from most businesses and industrial areas, which are located in bigger towns such as

which is approximately 6.7 miles away.

Geography

Cratfield is approximately 115 miles North East from London, 29 miles north of Ipswich and equally 29 miles south of Norwich. Furthermore, it is 7.5 miles from the coast line and lies 49 metres above sea level. In addition to this the area is built on a mixture of

London Clay The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from ...

(which is very dense) and chalk and believed to be aged between 1.5 and 3.5 million years old, this is also mixed in with volcanic ash which proves that there must have been volcanic activity in the past.

Historical writings

In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes ...

described the village as: :''Cratfield, a parish in Blything district, Suffolk; 6 miles WSW of Halesworth r. station. It has a post office under

. Acres, 2, 085. Real property, £3, 964. P, 604. Houses, 139. The property is divided among a few. Part of the land is common. The living is a vicarage in the

Diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Church of England that forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. History It traces its roots in an unbroken line to the diocese of the Bishop of the Eas ...

. Value, £116. Patron, the Rev. E. Hollond. The church is later English, with square tower, and good; and there is an Independent chapel. A school has £9 from endowment; and other charities £171.'' In 1887,

John Bartholomew John Bartholomew (25 December 1831 – 29 March 1893) was a Scottish cartographer. Life Bartholomew was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, John Bartholomew Sr., started a cartographical establishment in Edinburgh, and he was educated ...

also wrote an entry on Cratfield in the Gazetteer of the British Isles with a much shorter description: :''Cratfield, par., E. Suffolk, 6 miles SW. of Halesworth ry. sta., 2085 ac., pop. 495; P.O.''

Notable residents

John Laney John Laney (died 1633), of Cratfield and Ipswich, Suffolk, was an English politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is l ...

, politician, lawyer and member of parliament during Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

's reign and especially in the years between 1586 and 1589 as he was occasionally made of use by the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

to settle disputes in

. *

William Keable William Keable (or Keeble) (1715–1774) was an English painter of portraits and conversation pieces. He was the son of John and Ann Keable and baptised at Cratfield, Suffolk in October 1715. His main period of success as an artist was in the 17 ...

, 18th C. painter of portraits and

conversation piece A conversation piece refers to a group portrait in a domestic or landscape setting depicting persons chatting or otherwise socializing with each other. Cratfield 20th century map

Economy

According to the 1831 occupation census in Cratfield, there were 22 professionals, 43 middling sorts, 103 servants and then 6 'others'. The 43 middling sorts were the middle class and meant that they were either craftsmen or farmers. In the case of Cratfield due to its open, arable land, most or all of them were small-scale farmers. To add to this, the 22 professionals that were in the area made up the upper class, whom would have employed a large number of the servants in the area. Occupation structure from 1881 census

The 1881 Occupation structure census shows that a large proportion of people worked in agriculture or construction of carriages. This is because, as explained in the name Cratfield (Craeta open land), there is arable land which can and is used for farming and agricultural needs. As well as this, there is a noticeable number of domestic servants which shows that there must have been a few wealthy people living in this area during this time period. According to the 2011 census, the number of people aged between 16 and 74, in employment in Cratfield, was 141. To break down the 141 people employed in Cratfield, 18 of them are managers, directors, or senior officials. 20 of them are technical occupants which covers jobs in the public sector such as health and teaching, while 13 have administrative jobs, 34 have skilled trades which include jobs such as plumbers and builders. 12 are employed in care, leisure, 2 are in sales, 7 are in machine operations and 18 are in elementary occupations.

Current day

Cratfield currently has 26 listed buildings within it, 25 of them Grade 2 listed and St Mary's church being Grade 1 listed. Cratfield has a village hall situated on Manse Lane which can hold up to 100 people at one time and is used for the monthly 'Pop up Pub' on the first Friday of each month, along with regular clubs and societies who use the hall. The nearest primary school is All Saints Church of England primary school in

and the nearest secondary school is Stradbroke High School. Unfortunately Cratfield has no bus services only the exception of home to school transport contracts operating under Suffolk County Council to Stradbroke High and Thomas Mills in Framlingham. As well as this Cratfield has two cottages that are available to stay in (School farm cottages and Holly tree barns). The area also has a fairly high car and van count with the number being at 252, adding to the 77,473 other vehicles based in the Suffolk Coastal region. Cratfield doesn't have much cultural diversity according to the 2011 census report with 201 of its population being of a Christian background and another 86 with non-or not stated their religion. There was one

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and two of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

religion. This shows that Cratfield has not been culturally diversified, this could be to do with its lack of job prospects and homing.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk