Kessingland is a village and civil parish in the

East Suffolk East Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * East Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * East Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * East Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral dist ...

district of 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 located around south of

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...

on the east coast of the United Kingdom. It is of interest to

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

s as Palaeolithic and Neolithic implements have been found here; the remains of an ancient forest lie buried on the seabed. The parish, which had a population of 4,327 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 ...

, borders the parishes of

Gisleham Gisleham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is on the edge of Lowestoft, around south-west of the town centre. The parish is in the East Suffolk district, situated between Carlton Colville and Kessingland. Th ...

Henstead with Hulver Street Henstead with Hulver Street is a civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is around south-west of Lowestoft, south-east of Beccles and north of the coastal town of Southwold.Benacre. It extends from the edge of the Pontins holiday park south of Pakefield in the north to the Hundred River which marks the southern border of the parish. The main A12 road cuts through the parish, bypassing the main built up area of the village.

History

There has been a settlement here since Palaeolithic times. Between the Hundred River and Latmer Dam was once a large estuary which was used by the Vikings and Romans. The sea provided the village with its main livelihood, and at one time the village paid a rent of 22,000

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

s to their Lords, which then made it more important than nearby Lowestoft. The Domesday Book of 1086 records: "Kessingalanda / gelanda: King's land, kept by Roger Bigot; Earl Hugh and Hugh FitzNorman from him; Hugh de Montfort Mill (100 herrings). 43 pigs." Roger Bigod or Bigot was a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

Knight who came to England in the Norman Conquest. During the early part of World War II, anti-tank defences and gun batteries were installed at Kessingland to help protect the adjacent stretch of vulnerable coastline and the south of Lowestoft itself. As the threat of invasion receded from 1942 onwards, defence levels were reduced, although the advent of V1s prompted a shift of focus to

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

defences. The village comprised two separate communities: the "beach" and the "street" and it was not until the 1960s that more housing united the village into a single community. The population is little over 4,000 – though this can double due to the holiday-makers in the many chalets and holiday villages in the area. The

Coast and Heaths area was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1970 and the Suffolk Coasts and Heath Project runs many conservation projects. Kessingland - Church of St Edmund

St Edmund's church is one of the finest in the region. With an imposing tower it was built in around 1436 for the Franciscans of London. The tower, built like many coastal churches to act as a beacon for ships out at sea, constitutes the majority of the medieval structure, the rest having been rebuilt in the ensuing centuries. Renovations continue in the contemporary era, with a new window by Nicola Kantorowicz being added in 2007.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

of the same name exists. This ward includes

and had a total population at the 2011 census of 5,105.

Features of the village

Kessingland is home to a Parkdean Resorts holiday park with

caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

s, chalets and various leisure facilities which are open to the general public, along with other independent parks. There is also a small

tearooms A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

housed in a repurposed and refurbished beach hut, which is next to a children's

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

and a fish and chip shop. Kessingland is also home to Africa Alive, an African-themed zoo. The village also has a medieval church.

Connections to the arts

Sir Henry Rider Haggard, novelist, was born in Bradenham, but later in his life spent his summers at Kessingland in a cliff-top house called The Grange (now demolished, however a local road, Rider Haggard Lane, is named after Haggard). He was visited here by his friend Rudyard Kipling. In a letter to Haggard dated 20 July 1912, his daughter Lillias documented a sighting of a sea serpent off the coast of Kessingland: "we are convinced we saw a sea serpent! I happened to look up when I was sitting on the lawn, and saw what looked like a thin, dark line with a blob at one end, shooting through the water at such a terrific speed it hardly seemed likely that anything alive could go at such a pace ... I suppose it was about 60 feet long." The letter was printed in the '' Eastern Daily Press'' shortly after. To counter the force of the North Sea and the winds off it, H. Rider Haggard sloped the cliff on the edge of his property and experimented with growing marram grass upon it. The experiment proved a success, and the slope increased in height rather than decreased. He spent the rest of the year at

Ditchingham Ditchingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located across the River Waveney from Bungay, Suffolk.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . History Ditchingham's name is of Anglo-S ...

some to the west. In 1928 Kessingland Grange was sold to a Mr Catchpole who established a holiday camp in the grounds, and subsequently demolished the Grange. The current Kessingland Cottages development was begun in 1979. Acclaimed social history photographer

Hardwicke Knight Frederic Hardwicke Knight, QSO (12 July 1911 – 25 August 2008) was a London-born photographer, historian and collector who emigrated to New Zealand in 1957 to take up a medical photography position in Dunedin. He lived at Broad Bay, New Zeala ...

visited Kessingland in the 1950s and documented aspects of the village in a series of vivid 35 mm Kodachrome slide images. German writer (and sometime lecturer at the University of East Anglia)

W. G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by literary critics as one of the g ...

in his second book ''

The Rings of Saturn ''The Rings of Saturn'' (german: Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt - An English Pilgrimage) is a 1995 novel by the German writer W. G. Sebald. Its first-person narrative arc is the account by a nameless narrator (who resembles the ...

'' (german: Die Ringe des Saturn) details a coastal walk along the Suffolk coast. In his book he describes Kessingland beach fishermen with their

oilskins Oilskin is a waterproof cloth used for making garments typically worn by sailors and by others in wet areas. The modern oilskin garment was developed by a New Zealander, Edward Le Roy, in 1898. Le Roy used worn-out sailcloth painted with a mixt ...

and thermoses as resembling "the last stragglers of some nomadic people ... at the outermost limit of the earth, in expectation of the miracle longed for since time immemorial, the miracle which would justify all their erstwhile privations and wanderings." He also mentions nearby Benacre,

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 ...

. The horror writer Joseph Freeman was a resident between 2000 and 2009, and has set some of his work here. Most notably the village appeared (as Freshfield, but featuring many familiar landmarks) as the setting for his novel ''Vermilion Dawn''.Vermilion Dawn
Retrieved 18 May 2013 BBC Radio 4's Jan Zalasiewicz recorded a programme about geology on Kessingland's stony beach. Fashion historian and television presenter

Amber Butchart Amber Jane Butchart is a British fashion historian and writer. She has researched and appeared in programmes on the BBC, Channel 4, and Sky Arts. In 2018, she presented the BBC documentary series ''A Stitch in Time''. Butchart teaches at London C ...

is from Kessingland.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Seaside resorts in England Populated coastal places in Suffolk Waveney District Beaches of Suffolk