Westley (St. Thomas à Becket)

WESTLEY (St. Thomas à Becket), a parish, in the union and hundred of Thingoe, W. division of Suffolk, 2 miles (W.) from Bury St. Edmund's; containing 144 inhabitants. It comprises by measurement 1232 acres; the soil is chalk, alternated with gravel, and the surface is undulated, in some parts rising into hills of considerable elevation. The living is a rectory, annexed to that of Fornham All Saints, and valued in the king's books at £9. 15. 5.: the tithes have been commuted for £302. 10., and the glebe comprises 31½ acres. The church, whose tower fell down in 1774, having become completely dilapidated, a new and remarkably handsome edifice was erected in 1837, by the liberal contributions of the Marquess of Bristol, Clare Hall, Cambridge, and the parishioners.