Freston is a small 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Babergh district, in the 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 ...

, England, located on the

Shotley Peninsula The Shotley Peninsula is a rural area east of the A137 Ipswich-Colchester road located between the rivers River Stour, Suffolk, Stour and River Orwell, Orwell in Suffolk, England. The peninsula is named after the settlements of Shotley and Sh ...

, 4 miles south-east of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

. In 2001, the parish had a population of 122, reducing slightly to 120 at the 2011 Census.

History

Bubonic plague

Freston is notable as the location of the last outbreak of

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...

in England, in 1910. The centre of the outbreak was Latimer Cottages, where it is thought plague-bearing rats may have come ashore with smuggled goods. However, the diagnosis of plague has been disputed. A Neolithic causewayed enclosure lies just south of the village.

Amenities and places of interest

* St. Peter's Church * The Freston Boot public house, which closed in 2010 and reopened in 2018 * Freston Wood *

Freston Tower Freston Tower is a six-storey red brick folly south of Ipswich, Suffolk in the village of Freston. It stands on the banks of the River Orwell. History Construction date Arguably the oldest folly in England, the tower has various claims for co ...

, either a lookout tower or a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

Transport

For transport there is the B1456 road nearby.

Notable residents

William Latymer William Latymer (1498/1499 – 28 August 1583) was an English evangelical clergyman, scholar, and ecclesiastical administrator, best known for his roles as Dean of Peterborough (1560–1583) and Prebendary of Westminster (1560–1583). A chapl ...

(1499–1583), evangelical clergyman,

Dean of Peterborough The Dean of Peterborough is the head of the chapter at Peterborough Cathedral. On the Dissolution of Peterborough Abbey in 1539 and the abbey-church's refoundation as a cathedral for the new bishop and diocese of Peterborough, care for the abb ...

from 1560. He was chaplain to

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

* Isaac Eastey (1627–1712), husband of

Mary Eastey Mary Towne Eastey (also spelled Esty, Easty, Estey, or Eastwick) ( bap. August 24, 1634 – September 22, 1692) was a defendant in the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts. She was executed by hanging in Salem in 1692. Early life ...

, who was executed during the

Salem Witch Trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Not everyone wh ...

Clara Reeve Clara Reeve (23 January 1729 – 3 December 1807) was an English novelist best known for the Gothic novel '' The Old English Baron'' (1777). She also wrote an innovative history of prose fiction, ''The Progress of Romance'' (1785). Her first wor ...

(1729–1807), novelist best known for the

Gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean ...

The Old English Baron ''The Old English Baron'' is an early Gothic novel by the English author Clara Reeve. It was first published under this title in 1778, although it had anonymously appeared in May 1777 under its original name of ''The Champion of Virtue'', before ...

'' *

Foster Barham Zincke Foster Barham Zincke (5 January 1817 – 23 August 1893) was a clergyman, a traveller, and an antiquary. Zincke was born on 5 January 1817 at Eardley, a sugar estate in Jamaica. He was the third son of Frederick Burt Zincke, of Jamaica, by his ...

(1817–1893), clergyman, a traveller, and an

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sit ...

References

Sources

External links

* * {{Authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Babergh District