Blythburgh (Holy Trinity)

BLYTHBURGH (Holy Trinity), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union and hundred of Blything, E. division of Suffolk, 4 miles (S. S. W.) from Wangford; containing, with the hamlets of Hinton and Bulcamp, 837 inhabitants. Among the relics of antiquity that have been found are some Roman urns, dug up about 1768; which circumstance, together with the termination of the name of the parish, affords evidence of its having been a Roman station. In 654, a battle was fought at Bulcamp, between Anna, King of the East Angles, and Penda, King of Mercia, of whom the latter was victorious, and the former was slain, together with his son Ferminus, and interred in the church, whence their remains were afterwards removed to Bury St. Edmund's. A priory of Black canons, of uncertain foundation, was given by Henry I. to the abbey of St. Osyth, in the county of Essex, to which it remained subordinate till the Dissolution, when its revenue was valued at £48. 8. 10. The parish comprises 3711 acres, and is situated on the river Blyth; the quality of the land varies from a mixed soil to a sandy loam. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £45; patron, Sir Charles Blois, Bart.: the tithes have been commuted for £505. The church, a spacious and handsome building, but much dilapidated, consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a lofty embattled tower; it was formerly profusely ornamented with paintings, sculpture, monumental brasses, and stained glass, but the three first were destroyed in the time of Cromwell, and of the last only a few fragments remain. The house of industry for the union of Blything is situated at Bulcamp; the union comprises 49 parishes or places, and contains a population of 27,319. A portion of the ruins of the priory may still be discerned, and there are some slight remains of an ancient chapel, called Holy Rood chapel.