Melford, Long (Holy Trinity)

MELFORD, LONG (Holy Trinity), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of Sudbury, hundred of Babergh, W. division of Suffolk, 22 miles (W.) from Ipswich; containing 2597 inhabitants. The parish comprises 5185a. 4p. The village is pleasantly situated on a branch of the river Stour, in one of the most fertile parts of the county, and is surrounded by very beautiful and richly-diversified scenery. Melford Hall, formerly a country-house of the abbots of Bury, and now the seat of Sir Hyde Parker, Bart., is a noble mansion in the Elizabethan style, forming an interesting feature in the landscape; Kentwell Hall, the residence of the family of Bence, is a venerable structure in the ancient domestic style, and contains much old painted glass. A large cattle-fair commences on the Thursday in Whitsun-week, and continues for three days: the market, on Tuesday, has been long discontinued; the pedestal of the old stone cross remains on the green. A court baron is held annually by the lord of the manor, and the county magistrates hold a petty-session for the division every fortnight. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £28. 2. 6., and in the gift of I. Cobbold, Esq. The church is a spacious and interesting structure, chiefly in the later English style, with a lofty embattled tower, and at the east end a Lady chapel of very beautiful character, which for some time was used as a schoolroom, but has been restored in all its pristine elegance. Under the upper and lower battlements surrounding the church and chapel are numerous inscriptions in black letter, partly in Latin, recording the names of various individuals by whom different parts of the edifice were rebuilt about the year 1480. The whole of the windows, nearly ninety in number, and mostly of large dimensions, appear to have been originally embellished, about the reign of Henry VII., with portraits of persons either recently dead or living at that time; and there are still many representations of characters eminent in history, but in a mutilated condition. The church contains many interesting monuments, among which are, one to the memory of Sir William Cordell, Knt., speaker of the house of commons and a privy councillor in the reign of Mary, and master of the rolls in that of Elizabeth; one to William de Clopton, dated 1446; one to John de Clopton in 1497; a monument to Admiral Sir Hyde Parker; and numerous brasses to the families of Clopton and Martin. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. An hospital, now very venerable and collegiate in appearance, for a warden, twelve poor men and two women, was founded in 1573, under letters-patent, by Sir W. Cordell, who endowed it with an estate and tithes now producing an income of £1000 per annum. Under the will of Mrs. Oliver, the poor receive annually coal to the value of upwards of £100. Sir John Milborne, lord mayor of London in 1521; Sir Roger Martin, mayor of London, in 1567; John Reeve, commonly called John de Melford, last abbot of Bury; and Dr. Johnson, Bishop of Worcester, and son of a rector of the parish, were natives of the parish.