Hadleigh () is an ancient

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

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 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. The town is situated next to the River Brett, between the larger towns of Sudbury and

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, ...

. It had a population of 8,253 at the 2011 census. The headquarters of Babergh District Council were located in the town until 2017.

Origin of the name

Skeat, in his 1913 ''The Place-Names of Suffolk'', says this:

Spelt ''Hadlega'', R.B.; ''Hadleigh'', Ipm.; ''Hædleage'', in a late chapter, Thorpe, Diplomat, 527; ''Headlega'', Annals of St Neot, quoted in Plummer's ed. of the A.S.Chronicle, ii. 102; ''Hetlega'', D.B., p.184. In D.B. the ''t'' stands for ''th''; and the true A.S. form appears in a Worcs. charter, dated 849, as ''hæðleage''(gen.) with reference to Headley Heath (a tautological name) in Birch, C.S. ii. 40; see Duignan, Placenames of Worcs. The sense is 'heath-lea.' In a similar way the A.S. ð has become t in Hatfield (Herts.) which means 'heath-field'.

History

Guthrum Guthrum (, – c. 890) was King of East Anglia in the late 9th century. Originally a native of Denmark, he was one of the leaders of the "Great Summer Army" that arrived in Reading during April 871 to join forces with the Great Heathen Army, wh ...

, King of the Danes, is said to be buried in the grounds of St Mary's Church in the town. He was defeated by King Alfred at the

Battle of Edington The Battle of Edington or Battle of Ethandun was fought in May 878 between the West Saxon army of King Alfred the Great and the Great Heathen Army led by the Danish warlord Guthrum. The battle took place near Edington, Wiltshire, Edington in ...

in 878. The first documented lord of the manor was

ealdorman Ealdorman ( , )"ealdorman"
''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government ...

Byrhtnoth Byrhtnoth (), Ealdorman of Essex ( 931 - 11 August 991), died at the Battle of Maldon. His name is composed of the Old English language, Old English ''beorht'' (bright) and ''nōþ'' (courage). He is the subject of ''The Battle of Maldon'', an O ...

, who was killed at the

Battle of Maldon The Battle of Maldon took place on 10 or 11 August 991 AD near Maldon, Essex, Maldon beside the River Blackwater, Essex, River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the En ...

in 991. Hadleigh received its

market charter A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

in 1252 and had a grammar school by 1275. The manor of Hadleigh, along with those of Lawling in Essex and Monks Eleigh in Suffolk, were among those given to the Priory Church of Canterbury Cathedral. It made Hadleigh an "archiepiscopal peculiar" – under the direct control of the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

. Hadleigh was a moderately-sized town, with a reckoned population of about 1,100 or 1,200 in 1306. At that time there were 118 "unfree tenants", who had to pay rent and provide labour services, and 75 "free tenants" who had had fewer obligations and dues. The manor had . The manor was a working farm, with crops and some animals, and had quite an important dairy. Hadleigh Hall was the site of the medieval manor house, in . It has been suggested by Woods (2018) that

Wat Tyler Wat Tyler (1341 or – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in Kingdom of England, England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to City of London, London to oppose the collection of a Tax per head, poll tax and to dem ...

and his wife were Hadleigh tenants about 20 years before he was one of the leaders of the 1381

Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...

. Records show a Wat Tyler taking over a freeholding in Coram Street in 1358–59 and it is possible he worked as a tiler. In 1438, administration was passed from manorial control to trustees. The market was eventually sold to Babergh District Council in the late 20th century. Hadleigh was one of the East Anglian towns that derived its prosperity from its

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

and cloth industries. It has a 15th-century timber-framed

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

and many fine examples of timber and brick

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

, some with highly detailed 17th-century plasterwork or "

pargeting Pargeting (or sometimes called Wall pargetting) is a decorative or waterproof plastering applied to building walls. The term, if not the practice, is particularly associated with the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. In the neighbouring co ...

". Most of these buildings can be found in the High Street, Angel Street, Benton Street and George Street. Hadleigh Guildhall - geograph

The Guildhall buildings are, in fact, formed of three separate structures, all of which lie to the south of the churchyard: the Market House, the Guilds Halls and the New Town Hall (Grand Hall). They are located on land that belonged originally to the manor of Toppesfield Hall. In 1252, king

Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of John, King of England, King John and Isabella of Ang ...

granted a weekly market and an annual fair to Gilbert de Kirkeby, his wife Lauretta and their heirs. By 1438, the Lord of the Manor was William de Clopton, who granted these rights, to fifteen trustees, with an initial annual payment of 6s 8d. In 1438, the Hadleigh Market

Feoffment In the Middle Ages, especially under the European feudal system, feoffment or enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of t ...

was formed, to manage the market and buildings. The oldest part of the complex, the Market House, fronts the churchyard. Later the Guilds Halls were built and the final addition was the New Town Hall. Abutting the Market House to the west was the 'Long Hall newly built' (1438), which appears to have been the home of the Grammar School, the earliest record of which is dated 7 May 1382. Its last use was as

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

s and accommodation for the Dean's servants; but it was seriously damaged in a storm in 1884 and was demolished. In 1894 Hadleigh became an urban district which became part of the administrative county of West Suffolk in 1889, the district contained the parish of Hadleigh. On 1 April 1974 the district and parish were abolished and became part of Babergh district in the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a subdivision of England used for local government. The non-metropolitan counties were originally created in 1974 as part of a reform of local government in England and Wales, and ...

of Suffolk. A

successor parish Successor parishes are Civil parishes in England, civil parishes with a parish councils in England, parish council, created in England in 1974. They replaced, with the same boundaries, a selected group of Urban district (England and Wales), urban d ...

was formed covering the same area as the former district and its parish. The parish has a total of 246 listed buildings. Of these, four are Grade I: the grouping of St Mary's Church, the Deanery Tower, the Guildhall, and the Coffee Tavern in the High Street. Twenty-seven are II*. Hugh Pigot, curate of Hadleigh, identifies four 'remarkable' houses in his 1866 history of the town: Sun Court; a house in the High St; a house in George Street; and Place Farm (demolished). The house in George Street has since been identified as a hall house, known as Thorpes in the 1600s, and dated to 1380–1420. It was restored by Mr and Mrs Baines and given a Noel Turner Award by the Hadleigh Society in 2012. Hadleigh 03

The Georgian East House, on George Street, is designated a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. In March 2013, plans by Babergh District Council to redevelop the site and build houses on the land behind were withdrawn after strong local protest. The property was once used for community activities and the

Kray twins Ronald Kray (24 October 193320 March 1995) and Reginald Kray (24 October 19331 October 2000) were English gangsters or organised crime figures and identical twin brothers from Haggerston who were prominent from the late 1950s until their arres ...

were billeted at the property during the Second World War. Opponents of the plan had argued that the adjacent land had been used as a

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

for the previous 20 years. In 2018, the building was renovated into two private homes: East House and West Lodge by period property restorers Richard Abel and Ruth McCabe-Abel. The couple were awarded the Noel Turner Award by the Hadleigh Society in 2019 for their sympathetic restoration of East House and West Lodge. Originating in the 14th century, the Grade II* listed Toppesfield Bridge, over the River Brett, is the oldest in the county still carrying vehicles. It was widened in 1812. Hadleigh also had its own

Corn Exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

, completed in 1813. Hadleigh was formerly the home of Babergh District Council. In November 2017, the council vacated its offices on Cork Lane.

Religion

The Anglican church of St Mary the Virgin is an active

parish 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 ...

in the

archdeaconry An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Its earliest parts date from

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

times. On 26 April 1950, the church was designated a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

. According to the '' Annals of St Neots'', a chronicle compiled in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

, King

(later called Æthelstan, died c.890) was buried at ''Headleage,'' which is usually identified as Hadleigh. He may have built the original

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church at this site, traces of which were revealed in the churchyard to the south of the porch, in 1829 and in 1984. There is no real evidence, however, that Guthrum was the founder of the church. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, there is mention of a church at "Hetlega" being owned by Archbishop Lanfranc of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. The

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

, with a tall Tudor gatehouse in brick built just before the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, next to the church, is also a Grade I listed building. Hadleigh United Reformed Church - geograph

Like its near neighbour, East Bergholt, Hadleigh was known during the 16th century for its

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

radicalism. Rowland Taylor, a preacher from the town, and his curate, Richard Yeoman, were martyred by being

burned at the stake Death by burning is an list of execution methods, execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a puni ...

during the reign of Queen

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

. The

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

was said to have been founded in 1833 following a meeting in the deanery. Hadleigh

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

, off Market Place, was originally the town's

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

, founded in 1688. It was rebuilt in the early 19th century and restored in 1890. The

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

chapel was built in 1830. St Joseph's

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church was built in 1966. In 1814, the Wesleyan Methodists purchased the 14th-century Thorpes hall house in George Street and leased it to the Primitive Methodists, known as Ranters, in 1836. In 1848 the Wesleyans built a chapel on land adjoining Thorpes and enlarged it in 1875. The chapel is now a Grade II listed home. There was also an Episcopal Mission Chapel built on Hadleigh Heath in 1878 and restored in 1891; it was disused by 1912.

Economy

The former Kings Arms on Benton Street is a typical example of

timber framing Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

. The building, a pub for over 400 years, has sections that date to the 15th century. It was known unofficially as the "Old Monkey" and is still referred to by that name today. It is now a private residence and bed and breakfast. Hadleigh is home to several manufacturers, including Jim Lawrence Handcrafted Home Furnishings, and the Hadleigh Maid chocolate company. From November 2009 Hadleigh was the home of the Hellhound

microbrewery Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

; it moved to Bramford in June 2014 and ceased trading in June 2018. The Brett Works site, off Pound Lane, was for some years the home of Brett Valley Joinery and was later allocated by Babergh District Council as a potential site for a new foodstore. Supermarket

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

made a number of controversial proposals for the building of a store in the town. Their last proposal, for development of the Pound Lane site, was rejected by the council in July 2011. The proposal was rejected again in September 2013. The Lady Lane Industrial estate is the location of Celotex Saint Gobain, the manufacturer of the insulation component in the cladding used at

Grenfell Tower Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in West London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. Most of the tower was destroyed in a Grenfell T ...

Culture

The annual Hadleigh Show, first held in 1840 and also known as 'the May Show', is one of the oldest one-day agricultural shows in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

. Organised by the Hadleigh Farmers' Agricultural Association, the show enjoyed 12,500 visitors in 2013. Benton End House, a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on Benton Street, was originally a large medieval farmhouse. From 1940 it was the home of Sir Cedric Morris, artist and plantsman, who formed the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing there. Students included

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. His early career as a painter was inf ...

and

Maggi Hambling Margaret J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter, her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and '' A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, and the ...

. The Ansell Community Centre was established in 2004 to provide community facilities in the locality. It operates the cinema ("Hollywood in Hadleigh"), organises luncheon clubs and arranges events.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and

ITV Anglia ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

. Television signals are received the Sudbury TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Suffolk on 103.9 FM, Heart East on 97.1 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Ipswich & Suffolk on 106.4 FM,

Nation Radio Suffolk Nation Radio Suffolk is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting. It broadcasts from Ipswich in Suffolk. As of September 2024, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 26,000, according to RAJAR. Histo ...

on 102.0 FM and ICR FM, a community based station which broadcasts from Ipswich on 105.7 FM. Hadleigh has its own community newspaper, Hadleigh Community News but the town is also covered by the regional newspaper,

East Anglian Daily Times The ''East Anglian Daily Times'' is a British local newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, based in Ipswich. History The newspaper began publication on 13 October 1874, incorporating the ''Ipswich Express'', which had been published since 13 August ...

Sport and leisure

Hadleigh has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

club, Hadleigh United, who play at Millfield. The town is also home to Hadleigh Rugby Club (HRFC). Both the football and rugby club boast thriving youth and senior sections. The town's

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

clubs are among the oldest in Suffolk. The bowls club was founded in 1754. The cricket club is over 200 years old and pre-dates the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

. Other sporting clubs include the Hadleigh Tennis Club, Hadleigh Hares running club and Hadleigh Cycling Club. At Benton End Farm there is an equestrian centre and a

paintball Paintball is a competitive sport, competitive team sport, team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called Paintball equipment#Paintballs, paintballs that b ...

centre. A swimming pool was built in the 1960s, to which a sports centre was added in 2012; the pool was rebuilt in 2020.

Notable residents

(c. 835 – c. 890), reigned as Danish King of East Anglia, between c. 879 and c. 890, and was buried at Hadleigh. * John Preston, executed for his involvement in the

* Nicholas Shaxton (c. 1485–1556), Protestant Reformer and

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

1535–1539, curate at Hadleigh in the 1540s * Rowland Taylor (1510-1585), Rector of Hadleigh from 1544. Protestant martyr during the

Marian Persecutions Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558), and in smaller numbers during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–1553), Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and James I (1603 ...

, he was burnt at the stake at nearby Aldham Common. * John Overall (1559-1619),

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Norwich, Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. Th ...

in 1618,

Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield The Bishop of Lichfield is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers 4,516 km2 (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Powys, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwi ...

(from 1614), and Dean of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

from 1601. He served as a translator of the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

to 2 Kings for the 1611 and 1613 printings of the

Authorized King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

of the Bible. * Nathan Drake (1766–1836), essayist and

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who lived in Hadleigh from 1792 til his death. * Hugh James Rose (1795–1838), president of the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest unive ...

in 1817, rector of Hadleigh, hosted the 'Hadleigh Conference' a landmark in the early history of the Tractarian Movement, Principal of King's College, London. * Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), born in Hadleigh a sculptor and poet who was one of the founder-members of the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossett ...

. * Howard Henry Tooth (1856-1925),

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and one of the discoverers of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. * Evelyn Martin (1881-1945), sailor, writer and cricketer *

Cedric Morris Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet (11 December 1889 – 8 February 1982) was a British artist, Visual arts education, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea in South Wales, but worked mainly in East Anglia. As an artist he is be ...

(1889 - 1982) (artist and horticulturist) lived at Benton End and became notable for the Benton irises bred there. He is buried in Hadleigh. *Oswald Gayford (1893-1945) (pioneer aviator) was born in Hadleigh and lived at the family home, The Pink House on Angel Street. He became notable for his world record breaking flights, including the 5,340 mile flight from

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the RAF Colleg ...

to South Africa in 1933 on a Fairey Long-range Monoplane and the even longer flight from Egypt to Australia in 1938 which won the Britannia Challenge Trophy for RAF. He became the Commanding officer at RAF Wattisham at the start of WWII and retired from RAF as an

Air Commodore Air commodore (Air Cdre or Air Cmde) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...

in 1944. Gayford was made Regional Controller for the Ministry of Fuel and Power in 1944. * Derek Wragge Morley (1920-1969), academic noted for his study of ants * Patrick Newell (1932-1988), the British actor who played spymaster "Mother" in the television series '' The Avengers'', was born in Hadleigh. * Pauline Stainer (1941- ), English poet and author lives in the town. *

(1945- ), artist grew up in Hadleigh and has one of her paintings displayed in St Mary's Church. * Jonathan Glancey (1954- ), ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

s architecture critic, journalist, lives in Hadleigh. * Caryn Franklin (1959- ), fashion designer, also lives in Hadleigh. * Russell Swallow of folk duo Swallow and the Wolf was born in HadleighArchived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
*Ronald and Reginald Kray ( The Kray Twins) were evacuated to East House during the Second World War with their mother Violet Kray, and their brother Charles. *British

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band

Cradle of Filth Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved originally from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres. Their ly ...

were formed in Hadleigh. *Stewart Whiting, Co-Founder and CTO of British medical technology startup Current Health, which was acquired by

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

for $400m in 2021, grew up in Hadleigh. * Geoffrey Winters (1928- ), composer, lives nearby in Semer.

Arms

References

External links

Visit Hadleigh websiteHadleigh Town Council websiteThe Hadleigh Society website
{{Authority control Towns in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Babergh District Cosford Hundred