Offton, Suffolk
Historical Description
Offton, a village and a parish in Suffolk. The village stands 4½ miles SSW of Needham Market, 4½ W from Glaydon station on the Ipswich and Norwich section of the G.E.R., and 7½ NW of Ipswich, and took its name from a castle of King Offa which stood at it. It has a post office under Needham Market; money order and telegraph office, Needham Market. The parish contains also the hamlet of Little Bricett, and comprises 1568 acres; population, 324. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. Tollemache Hall belonged to the ancient family of Tollemache, passed to the Kemps and the D'Autreys, and has been converted into a farmhouse. Offton Castle has left some remains, which are surrounded by a moat. The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Little Bricett, in the diocese of Norwich; gross value, £174 with residence. The church is a small building of flint and stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave and S porch, and a square embattled western tower with five bells. Its chief decoration consists of five beautiful stained glass windows.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Suffolk | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Offton St. Mary | |
Hundred | Bosmere and Claydon | |
Poor Law union | Bosmere and Claydon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Offton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Offton (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Suffolk is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Offton are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Suffolk papers online: