Botesdale

BOTESDALE, a chapelry and post town, and formerly a market-town, in the parish of Redgrave, union and hundred of Hartismere, W. division of Suffolk, 25 miles (N. N. W.) from Ipswich, and 86 (N. E. by N.) from London, on the road to Norwich; containing 633 inhabitants. The name, a contraction of Botolph's Dale, is derived from Botolph, the tutelar saint of the chapel, and from the dale in which the place is situated. The town consists principally of one long street, which extends into the parishes of Rickinghall Superior and Inferior; the houses are indifferently built: the inhabitants are amply supplied with water from wells. A small fair for cattle and pedlery is held on Holy-Thursday; and there are courts leet and baron held at Whitsuntide; at the former of which constables and other officers are appointed. The chapel is a small and rather mean building, of some antiquity. A free grammar school for six boys was founded and endowed in 1561, by Sir Nicholas Bacon.