Sibton 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 ...

on the

A1120 road The A1120 is an 'A' road in the English county of Suffolk. It links Stowmarket to Yoxford passing through the centre of the county.Clark.R (2003The long and winding road ''The Telegraph'', 2003-04-12. Retrieved 2011-04-05. It is long. Route ...

, in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. It is near the towns of

Saxmundham Saxmundham ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England, set in the valley of the River Fromus about north-east of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the main A12 road between London and Lowestoft. The town is ser ...

and

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 ...

, the village of

Peasenhall Peasenhall is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. The population of the civil parish at the 2021 Census was 525. It lies on the A1120 tourist route; neighbouring villages include Sibton a ...

and the hamlet of Sibton Green. The church is dedicated to St Peter; there is also the remains of a medieval abbey, Sibton Abbey. There is a large stately house set in the grounds of Sibton Park which dates back 1827 in the Georgian period, which is now used as a hotel. The estate consists of 4500 acres, being part of the Wilderness Reserve where there are holiday cottages and a lake. The Parish is also in close proximity to the River Yox which runs past the White Horse Inn and down through Pouy Street, it then goes on past both the

and a small wooded area called Abbey Woods to pass through the grounds of Sibton Park and then on to Yoxford.

History

The name Sibton derives from Old English, where the word "Sibba" is a personal name and the word "tun" means an enclosure, a farm, village or an estate, essentially meaning "Sibba's farm or settlement". Sibton was recorded in the

Domesday Book 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 manus ...

of 1086 with a population of just 51 people. In the 1870s, Sibton was described as

Occupations

The graph shows the occupations of the citizens of Sibton in 1881 and the main occupation was in agricultural work, with 96 men and 3 women working in this sector. The second highest sector was in domestic service or offices. Census information from 1831 states that nearly 3/4 (91 people) of Sibton's population was a labourer or a servant and 21 people were employers or professionals. This is similar to the 1881 occupation statistics as we can see that 99 people work in agriculture which is a similar figure for how many labourers there were in 1831 suggesting there was little change in these years. However, in 2011 the occupation statistics of the parish were very different, with just 7 people working in agriculture. The highest sector of employment for Sibton in 2011 was people working in accommodation or food industry with 15 people working in this industry.

Population

According to the 2011 census Sibton had a population of 182- 96 of these people being male and 86 being female. This is the lowest the population has been since census records began in 1801.The population hit a peak in 1821, when there were 569 people living in the parish. Since then the population fluctuated slightly between the years of 1821 and 1841 but has continued to decrease since then. One reason for this drastic change was due to a boundary change of the parish, which was in 1885 when part of Sibton became part of Peasenhall. This change was recorded in the 1891 census and meant the parish size was reduced. A continued decrease in population has also occurred as people became less dependent on farming as their main source of income and many people also moved towards the bigger towns, such as Ipswich, for work. In 2011, 159 people living in Sibton were over the age of 16 and 23 people were under the age of 16, with the mean age being 48.6. 56 people in the parish had qualifications of level 4 and above suggesting Sibton is a Parish where people with a high level of qualifications choose to live, this may be because they can afford to live in an area away from services and be able to travel to work.

St Peter's Church

St Peter's Church at Sibton lies above the busy

and was founded in the reign of William II (c.1100) by Robert de Camodo. The oldest part of the building is the south door, which was made in the Norman era and was originally part of Sibton Abbey. The church once had a spire which was added, along with a tower, in the 15th century. However, this spire came down about 200 years ago, although the tower still remains. After being out of use for many years the church has recently been restored, and £50,000 was raised to repair part of the roof; a further £45,000 was given by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

which has helped the church regain its parish status, and regular services now take place.

War Memorial

The parish's war memorial is located at the entrance to the churchyard in the form of a

lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

. Eleven men from Sibton lost their lives in the First World War; their names are carved into the memorial. Two of the men are buried in the graveyard. During the Second World War, a further two men lost their lives, and their names were added to the memorial.

Notable residents

Peter Purves Peter John Purves (; born 10 February 1939) is an English television presenter and actor. He played Steven Taylor in ''Doctor Who'' under the First Doctor, a role he continued to play in audio dramas for Big Finish Productions. He later became ...

(1939- ); television presenter and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. *

Nicholas Clay Nicholas Anthony Phillip Clay (18 September 1946 – 25 May 2000) was an English actor. Early life Clay was born in Streatham, London on 18 September 1946, the son of a professional soldier in the British Army's Royal Engineers. The famil ...

(1946–2000);

. * Margaret Bruce Wells (1909–1998); artist who specialised in

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

and

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

techniques. *

Egerton Bagot Byrd Levett-Scrivener Captain Egerton Bagot Byrd Levett-Scrivener (1857–1954) was a Royal Navy Flag Lieutenant and aide to Vice Admiral George Willes in the Far East. He was later promoted to Captain, and following his retirement became Bursar of Keble College, Un ...

(1857-1954);

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

Flag Lieutenant.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Suffolk Coastal