Wortham is a village and

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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, close to the border with

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. Its church, St Mary the Virgin, lies about a mile north of the present-day village. It is one of 38 existing

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berks ...

es in

and the one with the greatest diameter in England.

History

In the time of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

Wortham consisted of two parishes, each with its own church and parsonage. They had of

glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

between them and a combined value of seven

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

s. After the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

there were still two parishes, corresponding to the two Norman manors: Southmoor, held by the Abbots of Bury, and Eastgate (Wortham Hall) held by the Barons of Rye. In 1769 the parishes were combined under William Evans, Rector of Eastgate. The

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 in Southmoor disappeared and was never rebuilt, although the Rectory remained until 1785. A faculty was granted by the

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 ...

to Rowland Holt (Patron) and Henry Patterson (Rector) for "taking down and excusing the rebuilding of one of the parsonages belonging to the Rectory of Wortham Edward w. Jervis annexed." This parsonage was stated to be above a mile from the church and built of stud and clay work and covered with a thatch. Wortham was the family seat of the Betts family. The village was home to the author

Richard Cobbold Richard Cobbold (1797 – 5 January 1877) was a British writer. Life Richard Cobbold was born in 1797 in the Suffolk town of Ipswich, to John Cobbold (1746–1835), John (1746–1835) and the poet and writer Elizabeth Cobbold, Elizabeth (née ...

between 1825 and 1877. In addition to a famous story of

Margaret Catchpole Margaret Catchpole (14 March 1762 – 13 May 1819) was an English servant girl, chronicler, and Convicts in Australia, deportee to Australia. Born in Suffolk, she worked as a servant in various houses before being convicted of stealing a horse ...

, he published in 1860 ''The Biography Of A Victorian Village - Wortham'', which contains a series of drawings and character details of various members of the community during the mid-Victorian period. This is a useful source for genealogists. The novelist and agricultural writer Doreen Wallace moved to Wortham in 1922 for her married life. The local public house is ''The Manor House''. Wortham Ling is to the north.

Public transport

Diss (4 miles/6.4 km) has the nearest railway station. The village is served by infrequent daytime, Monday-to-Saturday bus services to

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 ...

and Diss.Bus time
Retrieved 22 September 2018.
/ref>

References

External links

A reference to Wortham is available at www.british-history.ac.ukLocation and pictures at www.geograph.org.uk
* Betts of Wortham in Suffolk Villages in Suffolk Mid Suffolk District Civil parishes in Suffolk {{suffolk-geo-stub