Acton is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

. The parish also includes the hamlets of Cuckoo Tye and Newman's Green

Newman's Green

Newman's Green is a hamlet in the parish of Acton, in the Babergh District, in the county of Suffolk. Nearby settlements include the town of Sudbury and the villages of Acton, Great Waldingfield, Long Melford and the hamlet of Cuckoo Tye.- References :*...

. According to Eilert Ekwall

Eilert Ekwall

Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall , known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Lund University, Sweden, from 1909 to 1942, and one of the outstanding scholars of the English language of the first half of the 20th century...

 the meaning of the name is Village by the Oaks.

The Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 records the population of Acton in 1086 to be 83. All Saints is the local church.

Between 2001 and 2002 the Reliant Robin

Reliant Robin

thumb|right|250px|1975 Greek advertisement for Mebea Robin The Reliant Robin is a small three wheeled car formerly manufactured by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England...

, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's best known three-wheel car, was produced in the village's industrial estate.

Notable former residents

William Jennens was known as the "Acton Miser." Jennens made his money loaning money to gamblers and was Britain's richest man at the time of his death, though he outlived his nominated executors and beneficiaries under his will. The case was litigated throughout the early 19th century until the whole estate (worth c. £2 million) had disappeared in legal fees. The case of Jennens v Jennens formed part of the inspiration for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce

Jarndyce and Jarndyce

Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a fictional court case in Chancery in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens.The case concerns the fate of a large inheritance. It has dragged on for many generations prior to the action of the novel, so that, by the time it is resolved late in the narrative, legal costs...

case at the centre of the plot of Bleak House

Bleak House

Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon...

by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

.

Another Acton resident, Catherine Foster, was believed to be the last woman to be hanged at Bury St Edmunds, in 1847. At the age of 17 she poison

Poison

In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....

ed her husband

Husband

A husband is a male participant in a marriage. The rights and obligations of the husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between cultures and has varied over time...

 by putting arsenic

Arsenic

Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...

 in his dumpling

Dumpling

Dumplings are cooked balls of dough. They are based on flour, potatoes or bread, and may include meat, fish, vegetables, or sweets. They may be cooked by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking. They may have a filling, or there may be other ingredients mixed into the dough. Dumplings may...

s.

Population change

Population growth Population growth Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....  in Acton from 1801 to 1891
Year	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1881	1891
Population	461	470	555	565	555	539	579	619
Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time

Population growth Population growth Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement.... in Acton from 1901 to 2001
Year	1901	1911	1921	1931	1951	1961	2001
Population	593	541	447	496	673	603	1,800
Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time