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Chediston is a village and a civil parish on the B1123 road, in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of
Suffolk
Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
. It is located 2 miles west of Halesworth
Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, 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 tribut ...
, its post town. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 195 and in 2018 it was estimated to be 234. Chediston shares a parish council with the nearby villages of Linstead Magna and Linstead Parva.
History
Chediston, mentioned inDomesday 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
also known as Cedestan, Cheddeston, Sedestane and other variations, is thought to take its name from Saint Cedd (Cedd's town). Another possibility is that Cedd preached from a large stone (Cedd's stone) which can still be seen at Rockstone in Chediston. The parish was once administered by the Augustinian Order, based in Pentney, Norfolk, along with four other parishes.
Sites
Cedd's Stone
Cedd's Stone, a large stone south of town located at Rockstone, is a large stone, once over 9 feet high, now mostly gone. The stone is said to have either been aDruid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...
ic sacrificial site or a sited dedicated to the Germanic god Woden / Odin, whose worship at the stone Bishop Cedd, who was in service of Æthelwold of East Anglia at the time, stamped out in 660AD. The stone is depicted as a hörgr/hearg with a large runestone
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...
and a sacred tree in the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla
''Assassin's Creed Valhalla'' is a 2020 action role-playing game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the successor to 2018's ''Assassin's Creed Odyss ...
.
Chediston Green
There is a dispersed settlement at Chediston Green lying about half a mile away from the church to the north. The pub at Chediston Green, named The Duke of Wellington, is now closed and has been converted into a private dwelling.Parish church
Chediston has aparish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
, dedicated to St Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...
. The bulk of the current building dates from the 13th century and the 15th century, although there are traces of Norman stonework, and some Victorian restoration features, including much of the glass.
Notable residents
* Walter Plumer, Member of Parliament for AldeburghLocation grid
References