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Sapiston is a small village and civil parish in the
West Suffolk West Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * West Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * West Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral dist ...
district of
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 ...
in eastern England, located near the
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 ...
- Norfolk border. It is in northern Suffolk lying on the river Blackbourn. The place-name 'Sapiston' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ''Sapestuna''. The name is thought to mean 'village of soapmakers', but this is not certain.
Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to ...
, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.404.
Sapiston is bordered to the south-west by Honington, to the north-west by
Fakenham Magna Fakenham Magna (or Great Fakenham) is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. The meaning of the word Fakenham can be split into two: 'Faken' and 'ham', both of which derive from Old English. ...
, to the north by Euston, to the east by Bardwell, and to the south by
Ixworth Thorpe Ixworth Thorpe is a small village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. The village is located on the A1088 road around north-west of the larger village of Ixworth and north-east of Bury St Edmunds. In ...
. It is 8 miles from
Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
and 6 miles from Thetford in Norfolk. Also nearby are RAF Honington and two Joint RAF/ USAF Bases, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall.


History

:Sapiston, a parish in the hundred of Blackbourn, county Suffolk, 3½ miles N.W. of Ixworth, its post town, and 7 from Bury St. Edmund's. The village, which is of small extent, is situated on the River Blackbourn, a tributary of the River Little Ouse. It is wholly agricultural. The living is a perpetual curacy in the
diocese of Ely The Diocese of Ely is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in Ely. There is one suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon. The diocese now co ...
, value £100. The church, dedicated to
St. 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 ...
, is an ancient stone structure, with a thatched roof and a square embattled tower. The interior of the church contains a monument to the farmer William Austin, who resided here with his nephew, the poet Robert Bloomfield. There is a parochial school, erected by the Duke of Grafton, who is lord of the manor. ::From ''The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1868) (edited version) Settled in the 1070s, one of the oldest references thus found of Sapiston is in th
history of the Drurys
one of the oldest Suffolk families. Matilda, one of that family, married Henry de Sapiston to become Matilda de Sapiston around 1185. Sapiston church dates back to the 12th century, (a little before the time of Matilda). It has not been in use since 1972 when the parishes of Sapiston and Honington were combined. The church is now maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust and, although Sapiston's church is redundant, occasional services are still held there. The village was originally right by the ford across the
Blackbourn Blackbourn is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *David Blackbourn (born 1949), British historian * Elizabeth Blackbourn, English table tennis player *Lisle Blackbourn Lisle William "Liz" Blackbourn (June 3, 1899 – June 14, 19 ...
(or Black Bourn). During the 14th century the entire village moved a few hundred yards north, possibly to escape from the
Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
. Now only the Church of St Andrew and The Grange farmhouse remain at the village’s original location. It was in Sapiston that the Suffolk poet
Robert Bloomfield Robert Bloomfield (3 December 1766 – 19 August 1823) was an English labouring-class poet, whose work is appreciated in the context of other self-educated writers, such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier and John Clare. Life Robert Bloomfield wa ...
, author o
"''The Farmer's Boy''"
(1800), worked from the age of ten to the age of fifteen. He was a farm labourer on the farm of his uncle William Austin (who is buried in Sapiston churchyard). Bloomfield was born in nearby Honington, and the church there contains a memorial to the poet, as well as many notes from admirers. The local lord of the manor was the Duke of Grafton in neighbouring Euston, Suffolk. The first Duke of Grafton, previously Earl of Euston, was Henry Fitzroy, the son of King Charles II. The third Duke of Grafton was briefly Prime Minister. The current Duke of Grafton is the 12th.


About Sapiston

Village Life & Folk Remembered
a book by Syd Thurlow, was written detailing many local stories about Honington & Sapiston. Here's what th
Gazetteer of Suffolk
had to say about it in 1855
Kelly's Directory of Suffolk
described it like this in 1912.


Dad's Army

This sleepy part of Suffolk proved to be an ideal filming location for the 1970s British TV show '' Dad's Army''. In common with much of the surrounding area, Sapiston and Honington were used for part of the series, in particular the episode
Dads Army Things that go Bump in the Night
. David Croft, the director/producer of ''Dad's Army'', ''
'Allo 'Allo! ''Allo 'Allo!'' is a British sitcom television series, created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, starring Gorden Kaye, Carmen Silvera, Guy Siner and Richard Gibson. Originally broadcast on BBC1, the series focuses on the life of a French caf ...
'', '' Are You Being Served?'', '' Hi-de-Hi!'', etc. lived in Honington.


References


Rampley.net
- Almost all of the information is from this great website
"''The Farmers Boy''"


External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury