South Cove is a

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 ...

in the east of the English county of Suffolk. It is north of the coastal town of

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 ...

and south of the village of Wrentham in the East Suffolk district. Neighbouring parishes include

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 ...

Frostenden Frostenden is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is around south-west of Lowestoft and north-west of Southwold and lies on the A12 road between Wrentham and Wangford. Neighbouring pa ...

and

Reydon Reydon is a village and civil parish, north-west of Southwold and south-east of Wangford, in the East Suffolk district and the ceremonial county of Suffolk, England. Its population of 2,567 in 2001 including Easton Bavents eased up to 2,582 a ...

as well as Wrentham.South Cove

East Suffolk District Council East Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England, which was established on 1 April 2019, following the merger of the existing Suffolk Coastal and Waveney districts. At the 2011 census, the two districts had a combined population ...

. Retrieved 2023-03-25. The village lies to the east of the main

A12 road This is a list of roads designated A12. Entries are sorted in alphabetical order by country. * A012 road (Argentina), a road around the city of Rosario * A12 motorway (Austria), a road connecting Kufstein and the German Autobahn A 93 to Landec ...

, on the B1127 road between Wrentham and Southwold,Frostenden, Uggeshall & South Cove
Healthy Suffolk. Retrieved 2023-03-25. and is around from the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

coast.St Lawrence, South Cove, Suffolk
The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture. Retrieved 2023-03-23. The parish is sparsely populated. At the

1981 United Kingdom census The United Kingdom Census 1981 was a census of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland carried out on 5 April 1981. The census will be released in 2081 or 2082 after 100 years.South Cove
Suffolk Pubs, Campaign for Real Ale in Suffolk. Retrieved 2023-03-26. The parish council operates as a joint council with Frostenden and

Uggeshall Uggeshall is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, located approximately 6 miles (10 km) south of Beccles and 4 miles (6km) north east of Halesworth close to the A145. The mid-2005 popu ...

.Frostenden Uggeshall & South Cove Parish Council
Suffolk infoLink. Retrieved 2023-03-25.

History

Archaeological remains in the parish include flint tools from the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

period (4,000 to 2,000

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

) and two possible round barrow sites that may date to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

(2,400 to 700 BCE). A series of earthworks in the west of the parish were partially excavated during the 1950s and may be the remains of a camp used by Danish invaders during the Anglo-Saxon period or of a dock 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 ...

as being at Frostenden. Claude Morley discussed the possible origins of the site in 1923. South Cove is mentioned in the Domesday Book, at which point it was known simply as Cove, as part of Blything Hundred. The population was listed as 12 households, with

Count Alan of Brittany Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz ( Breton), Alain le Roux ( French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond, was a Breton nobleman, kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror (Duke William II o ...

and

Robert Malet Robert Malet (c. 1050 – by 1130) was a Norman-English baron and a close advisor of Henry I. Early life Malet was the son of William Malet, and inherited his father's great honour of Eye in 1071. This made him one of the dozen or so grea ...

holding land in the village.(South) Cove
Open Domesday. Retrieved 2023-03-26. By the 13th century the parish church was owned by Rumburgh Priory, a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

priory established during the 11th century. The manor, which was combined with Covehithe to form the manor of South Cove and North Hales, was held by a variety of owners until it was bought by the Blois family in the late 17th century.Page A (1844) South Cove Parish, ''Topographical and genealogical, The County of Suffolk''.
Available online
Retrieved 2023-03-26.)Copinger WA (1908) ''The Manors of Suffolk : notes on their history and devolution'', vol. 2, p. 44. Manchester: Taylor, Garnett, Evans.
Available online
Retrieved 2023-03-26.) A second manor, named Polfrey or Blueflory-Cove, was owned by the

Gooch baronets There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Gooch, one in the Baronetage of Great Britain and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Gooch Baronets of Benacre Hall The Gooch Baronetcy of Benacre Hall, in the Count ...

of Benacre Hall by the start of the 19th century. The family owned most of the land in South Cove and in neighbouring Covehithe by the middle of the century and remain the major landowners in the area. An Act of Parliament to enclose land in the parish was passed in 1797. The population of the parish peaked during the mid-19th century at around 200. It declined rapidly after the 1930s. The land has always been primarily used for agriculture, although clay dug in the parish was used for brick making at Cove Bottom from the 1870s until 2005. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the parish formed part of the immediate invasion defences and a number of anti-tank ditches and other invasion defences were built. From 1944 a heavy anti-aircraft battery operated in the east of the parish.

Geography

The majority of the land in the parish is used for agriculture, primarily arable crops. The underlying geology of

Norwich Crag Formation The Norwich Crag Formation is a stratigraphic unit of the British Pleistocene Epoch. It is the second youngest unit of the Crag Group, a sequence of four geological formations spanning the Pliocene to Lower Pleistocene transition in East Anglia. I ...

s is overlain with glacial clays, sands and gravels. The majority of the parish is classified as forming part of the North Suffolk Sandlings landscape with quick draining sandy soils. The

Sotterley Sotterley, originally ''Southern-lea'' from its situation south of the river, Suckling, A.I., (1846). 'Sotterley', in ''The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk'', 2 vols (W.S. Cowell, Ipswich 1846), Ipp. 81–96(British History Onli ...

and Benacre farmland plateau, with clay soil, extends into the north-east of the parish area. This produces a gently rolling landscape suited to arable crops.''Waveney District Landscape Character Assessment'',

Waveney District Council Waveney may refer to: * River Waveney, a river that forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England * Waveney District, a local government district in Suffolk, England * Waveney (UK Parliament constituency) * Waveney class lifeboat, a class ...

, April 2008.
Available online
Retrieved 2023-03-28.)Holt-Wilson T ''Tides of Change: 2 million years on the Suffolk Coast'',

Suffolk Coast and Heaths The Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Suffolk and Essex, England. The AONB covers ancient woodland, commercial forestry, the estuaries of the Alde, Blyth, Deben, Orwell and Stour rivers, farmland, sal ...

.
Available online
Retrieved 2023-03-28.) The southern and eastern boundaries of the parish feature areas of low-lying wetlands with marshland and reed beds classified as estuarine marsh. These form part of the Pakefield to Easton Bavents coastal Site of Special Scientific Interest, with areas in the south-east of the parish falling into the Benacre National Nature Reserve and the Benacre to Easton Bavents Lagoons

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

and

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...

. Much of the parish is designated as part of the

, an

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

. The B1127 roads crosses the marshland at Potter's Bridge, linking the parish to Reydon and Southwold to the south. The area has been subject to flooding, leading to extended road closures. The marshland areas were navigable in the early medieval period, with a port recorded at neighbouring Frostenden at the Domesday survey. The coast at Covehithe to the east and the former parish of Easton Bavents to the south-east, are subject to rapid coastal erosion.

Religion

The Church of England parish church of St Lawrence is in the centre of the parish alongside the B1127. It possibly dates from the late Saxon periodSt Lawrence's, South Cove
Sole Bay Churches. Retrieved 2020-08-09. and may have been included as one of the two churches listed at Frostenden at the Domesday survey.Monument record SCV 006 - Church of St Lawrence
Suffolk Heritage Gateway, Suffolk County Council. Retrieved 2023-03-28. It is certainly

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 ...

at the latest, with a 12th-century

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with original doorways and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

that dates from the 14th-century. It has a thatched roof and a tall, flint-built tower which dates from the 15th-century. Windows in the nave date from as early as 1300 and a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...

in the chancel has been dated to the 13th-century.Church of St Lawrence

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

. Retrieved 2023-03-28. Part of the rood screen survives, and a 15th-century painting of St Michael was rediscovered in 1929 and restored by Ernest William Tristram in the 1930s.History of the Church, St Lawrence, South Cove. Many of the original features of the church were destroyed by

William Dowsing William Dowsing (1596–1668), also known as "Smasher Dowsing", was an English puritan, and was a particularly notable iconoclast at the time of the English Civil War.G. Goodwin, 'Dowsing, William (?1596-?1679), iconoclast', ''Dictionary of Natio ...

in the 1640s as part of the Puritanical movement, and it is possible that this painting was white-washed or plastered over to protect it from Dowsing. The church was restored in 1877 and the building designated as Grade I listed in 1953. Today the parish is part of the Sole Bay benefice, a group of eight churches administered from St Edmund's Church, Southwold. The weathered 15th-century font in the church may have been moved from

Dunwich Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was ...

after the loss of one the town's churches to coastal erosion and flooding. The churchyard features a war memorial with five names from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and three from

. It is Grade II listed and also mentions the loss of an

American Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

plane in the parish in March 1945. The B24 Liberator bomber of the

409th Bombardment Squadron 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, 93d Bombardment Group, crashed near the church with the loss of all nine crew members. A hand-written memorial inside the church lists their names alongside the names of the men on the war memorial. The church was used as a filming location for the 2001 film ''

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

'', a biopic of

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...

Culture and community

The population of the parish is concentrated in a small cluster of buildings around the church and another at Cove Bottom, close to the site of the former brickworks. The ''Five Bells''

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

on the northern edge of the parish is technically within the parish area but generally considered to be within Wrentham. It has operated since at least 1835. Another pub, ''The Chequer'', is known to have been put up for sale in 1801, although this may have been an earlier name for the ''Five Bells''. Other than the church and pub, the parish has no services, although it shares a village hall with Frostenden.Frostenden and South Cove Village Hall
Suffolk InfoLink, Suffolk County Council. Retrieved 2023-03-28. A Sunday School is known to have operated during the 1830s.

Notes

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk