Boxford, Suffolk

Boxford is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located around six miles east of Sudbury straddling the River Box and skirted by the Holbrook, in 2005 the parish had a population of 1,270. decreasing to 1,221 at the 2011 Census.[1]

Boxford

St. Mary's Church, Boxford
Boxford
Location within Suffolk
Area5.38 km2 (2.08 sq mi)
Population1,221 (2011)
• Density227/km2 (590/sq mi)
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSudbury
Postcode districtCO10
Dialling code01787 21
PoliceSuffolk
FireSuffolk
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
Websitewww.boxfordsuffolk.com

History

According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is "the ford where box trees grow". During the Middle Ages, Boxford was a wool town.[2]

Historical writings

In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the village as:[3]

BOXFORD, a village and a parish in Gosford district, Suffolk. The village stands on an affluent of the river Stour, 4½ miles WSW of Hadleigh r. station, and 6 ESE of Sudbury; and has a post office† under Colchester, and fairs on Easter Monday and 21 Dec.—The parish includes also the hamlet of Hadleigh. Acres, 1,820. Real property, £4,174. Pop., 986. Houses, 236. The property is subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value, £710.* Patron, the Crown. The church is good; and there are an Independent chapel, an endowed grammar school, and charities £58.

In 1887, John Bartholomew also wrote an entry on Boxford in the Gazetteer of the British Isles with a much shorter description:[4]

Boxford, par. and vil., W. Suffolk, 6 miles SE. of Sudbury, 1820 ac., pop. 864; P.O., T.O.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. The population of this ward stretches north to Milden with a total population of 2,170.[5]

International connections

As part of the American Bicentennial celebrations the townspeople of Boxford, Massachusetts, visited the villages of Boxford (there are three) in England during 1975 looking for the source of the name of their own village and decided that Boxford in Suffolk was likely to be where the name of their own town came from.

As a result of this the villagers of Boxford, Suffolk, were invited to Boxford, MA, the following summer. This drew attention from the media: the Evening Standard incorporated a photograph of the villagers in a centre-page spread in one of their November 1975 editions, and a TV crew led by Bernard Falk for the BBC Nationwide programme accompanied the villagers when they left for a two-week stay on 23 July 1976. A TWA Boeing 707 was hired which flew the villagers from London Heathrow to Boston Logan, from where they were bussed to Boxford, MA, and dispersed amongst receiving families.[6][7]

Economy

There are two pubs in Boxford: The Fleece (a 15th-century grade II* listed coaching inn)[8] and the White Hart.

Riddelsdell Brothers was established here in 1900 and is believed to be Europe's oldest recorded working garage.[9]

Copella fruit juices are made at orchards at Hill Farm on the outskirts of Boxford.

The Fleece Hotel in Broad Street

Geography

Localities

Intrinsic to the parish of Boxford are 3 hamlets, Stone Street south of the church and the A1071 and that to the east as Calais Street, neither separated by buffer zones of more than 250 metres and well connected by pavements/footpaths as well as roads. Hagmore Green is south west of Stone Street.

Notable people

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  2. "Boxford Village Sign". Boxford. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  3. "BOXFORD | As described in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)". visionofbritain.org.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  4. "Boxford | As described in John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887)". visionofbritain.org.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  5. "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  6. "Everyone Welcome : BOXFORD, SUFFOLK". www.boxfordsuffolk.com. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  7. "BBC Archive 1976 Boxford". Twitter. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  8. Historic England. "The Fleece Hotel (1037389)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  9. "Riddelsdell Brothers Ltd, Boxford". WhoCanFixMyCar.com. 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

Location grid

Media related to Boxford, Suffolk at Wikimedia Commons

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