(pea)+Community+perspective

**A community perspective from the 1840s to 1920s contains entries for the community from the Suffolk Directories of White (1844) and Kelly (1929) and William Dutt’s gazeteer of Suffolk (1927; first prepared in the 1890s)**

White PEASENHALL is a large and well-built village, in a pleasant valley, on the south side of the small river Minsmere, 5 miles N.N.W. of Saxmundham, 7 miles S.S. W. of Halesworth, and 3 miles W. of Yoxford. Its parish has 845 inhabitants, and 1972A. 1R. 37P. of land. Rt. Sayer, Esq., is lord of the manor, but the greater part of the soil belongs R. Sheriffe, Esq., Alderman Manning, Esq., J. Rudkin, Esq., C. Baldry, Esq., Mr. T. White, J. F. P. Scrivener, Esq., and several smaller owners. In the reign of Edward I., the manor was held by Rover Bygod, and in that of Edward II, by Nicholas de Segrave. The Church (St. Michael) is a small ancient edifice, with a tower and five bells. The perpetual curacy, valued in 1835 at £117; was consolidated with the vicarage of Sibton till about the year 1818, when it was made a separate cure in the patronage of the vicar of Sibton. The Rev. Harrison Packard, B.A., is the incumbent. The principal landowners are impropriators of the great tithes, which were commuted in 1840, when the small tithes were also commuted for the yearly payment of £123. 2s. 6d. to the perpetual curate, and £9. 12s. 4d. to the vicar of Sibton. The Wesleyans have a chapel here, built in 1809. The Church Land comprises a garden and 1A. in Peasenhall, let for £6. 15s., and a cottage and 5A. 37P. of land, in Sibton and Peasenhall, let for £20.14s.a-year. Except an allotment of about one acre, this land was devised to trustees by Edmund Kempe, in 1490, partly for superstitious uses, and partly for the reparation of Peasenhall church. The rents are wholly absorbed in liquidating the expenses of the churchwardens, though, according to the deed appointing new trustees, in 1807, part of the income should be distributed among the poor parishioners. About 14A. of copyhold land in Peasenhall parish, and manor of Bruisyard, has been held in trust from time immemorial, for the exoneration of the parishioners from king's taxes, and for the relief of the poor. It is let for £14. 17s. 6d., and the rent, after deducting 24s. 6d. for land-tax wed quit-rent, is distributed in weekly allowances to the aged poor. A cottage and garden in this parish, but in the manor of Sibton, were left be Robt. Louffe, in 1580, for the relief of the poor of Peasenhall and Sibton, but the rent (£5) is wholly distributed among the former, who have also a yearly rent-charge of 52s. left by Edmund Cutting, in 1639, for a weekly distribution of 1s. worth of bread. It is paid out of Hubbards land, in Sibton. Post-office, at -Mr Thomas White's. Letters arrive at 9 morning, & are despatched at 5 evening. Andrews Moses, farrier Block Wm. vict. Angel Bradstreet Mr. Wm. Brown Rt. gent. Brown Wm. schoolmaster Dennison John, baker & confectioner Cooper Elizabeth, straw hat maker Forder Wm. plumber and glazier Gibbs Charles, bricklayer Girling Wm. and Son, auctioneers, land agents, and agent to theNorwich Union Fire Office. Hunt Thomas, cooper Lay Joseph J., M D. Lay Mr L.  Lay John, corn mercht. miller, etc. Rose Wm. saddler & collar maker Row Francis, land agent Rudkin John, surgeon, (in firm) Rudkin and Lay, surgeons Smith Robert, vict. Swan Teags Thomas, drill, &c. mfr. Tillett Robert, parish clerk Smyth Jas. (late Smyth and sons,) corn, seed, and manure drill mfr. (established in I800) Wright Jasper, tailor BLACKSMITHS. Bloomfield Wm. Ludbrook John Ludbrook J. jun. BOOT & SHOEMKRS. Barber Charles Cable John Gardner Sarah Gilbert Wm. Potter Wm. BUTCHERS Cockerell Saml. Herring Edwd. Pipe Robert FARMERS. Andrews Moses Baker Robert Chandler John Cole John Cross Samuel Girling Wm. Holmes K. Ingate Wm. Kemp John Lay John Mays Joseph Moore Wm. Prime Edw.&Bj. Robinson Jonas Shelley Benj. Squires Jerh. Westgate Wm. White Ths, sen. JOINERS Ludbrook Edmd. Welton Fulcher GROCERS & DRAPERS White Thos. jun. (and malster) White Wm. WHEELWRIGHTS Easthaugh Wm. (& shopkeeper) Kent Haward Robinson John CARRIERS. Samuel Noller, to Colchester & Norwich, and J. Sawyer, to Ipswich, Tu. and Fri. from the Swan ; and Thos. Coates, from the Angel to Ipswich, &c. Mon. and Fri. // Kelly //

PEASENHALL is a parish and large village on the river Minsmere, 4 miles west from Darsham station on the Ipswich and Lowestoft section of the London and North Eastern railway, 7 north-east from Framlingham and 7 south-west from Halesworth, in the Eye division of the county, Blything hundred, petty sessional division and union, Halesworth and Saxmundham county court district, rural deanery of South Dunwich, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The church of St. Michael is a building principally of flint, quoined with stone, in the Gothic style, and consists of chancel, nave, north, porch and an embattled tower with four pinnacles and containing 6 bells and a clock, placed by public subscription in 1899 as a memorial of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria: the nave and chancel were taken down and rebuilt in 1860 and 1861 at the expense of J. W. Brooke esq. of Sibton Park (d. 1881),who also placed two stained windows in the chancel; the tower was at the same time repaired and heightened: at the west end is a stained window, given by Mr. Thomas White, many years churchwarden: the reredos is a memorial to William White: a new organ was presented in 1894 by R. A. M. Smyth esq.: there are 300 sittings, most of which are unappropriated: in the churchyard is a marble obelisk, erected in 1877 by James Smyth esq. to his wife, and bearing a medallion portrait. The register dates from the year 1558. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £340, with 22 acres of glebe and residence, erected in 1873 at a cost of £1,473, in the gift of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, and held since 1926 by the Rev, Samuel Woodard Chorlton M.A. of Wadham College, Oxford. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels, and the Brethren have a preaching room. The cemetery, 1.5 acres in extent, is now under, the control of the Parish Council. The extensive corn and seed drill works of Messrs. J. Smyth and Sons Limited, the original inventors of the Suffolk drill, are in this parish, and were established about 1800. The Assembly Rooms are used for parochial meetings and public entertainments. The Mechanics' Institute, with reading room, was established in 1857. Peasenhall United Charities amount to about £10 yearly; and are distributed by trustees to widows and aged persons under the scheme of the Charity Commissioners, dated 1910; the Church lands, consisting of three enclosures of pasture land and cottage allotments in Sibton, of the total yearly value of £17 10s are for several church purposes. An alms-house was built In 1891 by E. L. Scrivener esq. for a few aged persons. Capt. Egerton B. B. Levett-Scrivener K.N. (ret.), J.P. who is lord of the manor, the Earl of Stradbroke K.C.M.G., C.B., C.V.O., C.B.E. and Lt.-Col. James. Alexander Clarke J.P. are the principal landowners. The soil is heavy; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans, peas and roots. The parish contains 2,184 acres; the population in 1921 was 676 in the civil and 659 in the ecclesiastical parish. By a Local Government Board Provisional Order, which came into operation, in 1885, a detached part of Sibton was amalgamated with this parish.

Parish Clerk, William Paternoster. Post, M. O.T.& T. E. D. Office. Letters through Saxmundham Carrier to Darsham- Joseph Dix, daily.

//Dutt //

Peasenhall (4 m. W. of Darsham) is a rather large and pleasant village on the little River Minsmere. Its church was, with the exception of the tower (Perp.), rebuilt in 1861.