Kenton is a 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

Mid Suffolk Mid Suffolk is a local government district in Suffolk, England. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just three towns, being Stowmarket, Needham Market and Eye. Its council was based in Needham Market until 2017 when it moved to sha ...

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 ...

in eastern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Located 1.9 miles to the north-east of

Debenham Debenham is a village and civil parish located north of Ipswich in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Pub ...

, in 2005 its population was 170. The parish was formerly an exclave of the

Loes Hundred Loes was a hundred (subdivision), hundred of Suffolk, with an area of . Loes Hundred was long and thin in shape, around long and between 2 and wide. It followed the course of the River Deben from Cretingham to Ufford where it crossed Wilford (h ...

one of the

Hundreds of Suffolk The county of Suffolk was divided into hundreds between Saxon times and the 19th century when, although never formally abolished, they were effectively replaced for administrative purposes by districts. In 1831 the county was subdivided into tw ...

. The name Kenton comes from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

for ‘Kingly’, or ‘Royal’ and can trace its origins back to before the Norman conquest. Not to be confused by Kenton, a place partly in the

London Borough of Harrow The London Borough of Harrow () is a London boroughs, London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street, Watl ...

and partly in the

London Borough of Brent Brent () is a London boroughs, borough in north-west London, England. It is known for landmarks such as Wembley Stadium, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London, Swaminarayan Temple and the Kiln Theatre. It also contains the Brent Reservoir, W ...

, and Kenton, a place in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. Between 1908 and 1952 the village was served by the

Mid-Suffolk Light Railway The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (MSLR) was a standard gauge railway intended to open up an agricultural area of central Suffolk; it took advantage of the reduced construction cost enabled by the Light Railways Act 1896. It was launched with consi ...

, on which it had a station with a platform, which was located over 0.6 miles south. The station had a small building made externally of corrugated iron and internally of match-boarding. Kenton station was halfway between

Laxfield Laxfield is a small ancient village in northern Suffolk, England. It is located at a distinct bend in today's B roads in Zone 1 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, B1117 road. History Laxfield arose in Saxon times as it is known that an ear ...

and

Haughley Haughley is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is located northwest of the town of Stowmarket, overlooking the River Gipping, Gipping valley, next to the A14 road (England), A14 corridor. Th ...

on the branch line. Kenton Hall (around 1200) resides nearby about half a mile south-west from the church. Grass drying plant (operated by Eastern Counties Farmers) was just behind the old station.

Present day

All Saints (Church OS grid TM 191 659) is on the unclassified road between Occold and

Earl Soham Earl Soham is a small settlement in Suffolk, England. It is on the A1120 road and is west of the town of Framlingham. Earl Soham once belonged to the Earls of Norfolk, the Bigod family (sometimes spelt "Bigot" in old texts), who also owned nea ...

and Church Lane with Church Close nearby. It has a very fine brick built south aisle and chapel, flush with the porch and with its own entrance from it. It was built as a chantry chapel for the Garneys family in 1524, and was dedicated to St John. The south aisle is now furnished and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, rather than to St John. It once contained an excellent, intricate Garneys brass, contemporary with the chapel, which Cautley and Arthur Mee both saw in the 1930s. Kenton Post Office (on Eye Road IP14 6JW) now closed - was a couple of hundred yards north of Church Lane/Close. There are several farms in the area, Sycamore Farm (a few hundred metres north of the church), Moat Farm (an apple orchard a few hundred yards west of the church), and another near to the Hall. Kenton Lodge is to the extreme south-east of the village. The village is home to the prizewinning writer Niles Schilder who based his poem ''The Ditch'' on a location near his home.

References

External links

British Isle Genealogy
{{authority control Villages in Suffolk Civil parishes in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District