Sapiston

Sapiston is a small village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England, located near the Suffolk-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, ''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, to the north by Euston, to the east by Bardwell, and to the south by Ixworth Thorpe. It is 8 miles from Bury St Edmunds 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, value £100. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, 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 (or Black Bourn). During the 14th century the entire village moved a few hundred yards north, possibly to escape from the Black Death. 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, 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!'', ''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

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Villages in Suffolk
Civil parishes in Suffolk
Borough of St Edmundsbury