Nayland
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of the border between 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...
and Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
in England
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...
.
History
From an article by Rosemary Knox, WissingtonNayland village and the adjoining rural hamlet of Wissington (these days usually called 'Wiston'), were originally two separate parishes. However, in 1883 they were united into one civil parish, Nayland-with-Wissington
Nayland-with-Wissington
The Nayland-with-Wissington parish comprises Nayland village and the adjoining rural hamlet of Wissington . They were originally two separate parishes and were united into one civil parish in 1883...
, although the two ecclesiastical parishes remain separate.
Nayland and Wiston lie on the northern bank of the River Stour
River Stour, Suffolk
The River Stour is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 76 km long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury and the Dedham Vale, and joins the...
that divides Essex and Suffolk. Originally they were two different parishes with different histories. The name Nayland means an island, and the village developed on the higher ground amidst the lower river flood plain. It provided a good place for both a safe crossing of the river and an early manorial centre, probably a wooden castle. These advantages brought a market
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
by 1227 and, by the late Middle Ages, it was a successful small town. The owners of the manor moved away and the little town was ruled by its cloth merchants, many of whom were very well off by the standards of the day. They were surpassed in wealth only by the merchants of Lavenham
Lavenham
Lavenham is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is noted for its 15th century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walk. In the medieval period it was among the 20 wealthiest settlements in England...
and Long Melford
Long Melford
Long Melford is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately from Colchester and from Bury St. Edmunds...
. They built fine Tudor
Tudor architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
houses and a fine church and the prosperity continued into the beginning of the seventeenth century. From then on the cloth trade began to move away, and although other trades like leather and soap manufacture developed, Nayland came to rely mainly on being a centre of commerce for the surrounding countryside. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the village drifted gently on, a relative backwater. The navigation on the river opened up but it did not bring a large increase in trade and the Navigation Company struggled to survive. The good result of this period of partial stagnation was that relative poverty prevented the beautiful old houses being knocked down to provide smart new homes and thus Nayland still possesses its Tudor and Stuart streets.
Nayland did have a small agricultural area but most of it lay out in the middle of the parish of Wiston and is nowadays considered to be part of Wiston. Although the official name for Wiston is Wissington, early documents suggest that Wiston is the original name, and it is certainly the one the local people always use. It had been a part of the manor of Nayland in 1066 but by 1087 had been given to a separate Norman family who lived across the river in Essex at Little Horkesley
Little Horkesley
Little Horkesley is a village in Essex, England. It is situated approximately 4 miles north of Colchester on the south bank of the River Stour.In the time of Elizabeth I, the manor of Little Horkesley belonged to the Wentworth family, a branch of the notable Yorkshire family who became Earl of...
. From then on the history of the two places diverged. Wiston was administered from over the river and its links were with Little Horkesley rather than Nayland. The Lords of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
built the little Norman church
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
, which still survives as a separate parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, and they ran their estates in Wiston in conjunction with their land in Essex. The early wills and the taxation lists which still exist show only farmers in Wiston, and it remained purely an agricultural parish until the end of the nineteenth century. The manor was sold to more distant owners and the old manorial tenements became copyhold
Copyhold
At its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....
s and then freehold farms.
The village and the surrounding area, like much of East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, was a hotbed of Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
sentiment during much of the 17th century. At least as early as 1629, parishioners such as Gregory Stone were censured for not kneeling at communion. By the mid-1630s, the Stone family and others had departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during the Great Migration
Great Migration (Puritan)
The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects in the two decades from 1620 to 1640, after which it declined sharply for a while. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English settlers, primarily Puritans to Massachusetts and the warm islands of...
.
In 1883 the new West Suffolk
West Suffolk
West Suffolk was an administrative county of England created in 1889 from part of the county of Suffolk. It survived until 1974 when it was rejoined with East Suffolk. Its county town was Bury St Edmunds....
county council decided that the two strangely divided civil parishes should be joined together as Nayland with Wissington, a process which Wiston resented but could not prevent. The needs of the two parts of parish, part semi urban, part agricultural, still make a slightly uneasy union. The Nayland with Wissington Parish Council was created in 1894 as a result of the Local Government Act of that year.
But Wiston had not disappeared. In 1896 Dr Jane Walker bought two farms (both technically in Nayland) and founded the East Anglian Sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
. This opened in 1901 for private patients and soon a lower block for free patients was added. A children’s block was also built. The Sanatorium continued to treat TB
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
until that disease was conquered in the 1950s, when it closed. The lower block was sold away for housing and the upper block became a hospital for the mentally handicapped. While they functioned the Sanatorium and the hospital were the centre of Wiston as they provided most of the local employment. In 1991 the hospital itself closed under 'Care in the Community
Care in the Community
Care in the Community is the British policy of deinstitutionalization, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution...
'. The original 'arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
' Sanatorium, designed by Smith and Brewer, became a listed building and was converted into eight houses, while the rest was knocked down and replaced by another eight houses. Wiston still has seven working farms, six being old Wiston farms and one an old Nayland holding, while the other small farms and smallholdings have been absorbed into the bigger ones, leaving it is still predominantly agricultural. The mechanisation of farming has, however, cut the need for workers dramatically, so that most of the residents of Wiston now work either at home or elsewhere.
Nayland Today
The parish of Nayland with Wissington is in the district of BaberghBabergh
Babergh is a local government district in Suffolk, England. Its council headquarters is based in Hadleigh, whilst its largest town is Sudbury.The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Borough of Sudbury, Hadleigh urban district, Cosford Rural District, Melford Rural District and...
and the parliamentary constituency of South Suffolk
South Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency)
South Suffolk is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundary review:...
. It has a population of nearly 1,200 and is situated in the Dedham Vale
Dedham Vale
Dedham Vale is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Essex-Suffolk border in east England. It comprises the area around the River Stour between Manningtree and Bures, including the village of Dedham in Essex. It is part of the area known since the artist's lifetime as Constable...
, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
on the River Stour, the boundary between Suffolk and Essex. It was bypassed in 1969 by the A134 road
A134 road
The A134 road runs from Colchester to Kings Lynn. Other towns on the A134 road include Sudbury, Bury St. Edmunds and Thetford....
which links Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
, six miles south of Nayland, to Sudbury
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early history:...
, nine miles to its north.
There are 15th century buildings in the village, Alston Court being one of these (see image) which contains a 13th century section.
The village church of St. James contains a famous painting, Christ Blessing the Bread and Wine, by John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
.
Littlegarth School has been located at Horkesley Park, Nayland, since 1994.
Reference works that relate to Nayland
Source- Leigh Alston, et al. (2000) A Walk Around Historic Nayland, Nayland with Wissington Conservation Society.
- Sally Arnold (2003) The Cuddons of Nayland - An Ancient Suffolk Family (out of print, but a pdf version is available on line - link ), Private Publication.
- Eric Barton (2003) A Village Boy, Braiswick, Felixstow, Suffolk – ISBN 1-898030-38-3.
- R B Evans (1990) St James' Church - Nayland, Suffolk, Parochial Church Council - Revised (2004) J D Weston, T Wilson.
- Mary George (2004) A HISTORY OF NAYLAND SCHOOLS - Book 1, Nayland Primary School, Bear St. Nayland.
- Mary George (2004) NAYLAND SCHOOLS AT WAR - Book 2, Nayland Primary School, Bear St. Nayland.
- Mary George (2004) FOR KING AND COUNTRY - Book 3. Nayland Primary School, Bear St. Nayland.
- Denis Halliday, Rosemary Knox, Wendy Sparrow, Keith Worricker & Karen Warren (2003) Nayland - Suffolk Town and Village. Including a Brief History of Wissington - 2nd Revision, Nayland with Wissington Conservation Society.
- Rosemary Knox (2001) Is it Wiston or Wissington? Dennis Plenty & Co., Colchester, Essex – ISBN 0-9541105-0-1.
- Anna & Michael Smith (2000) Dr Jane Walker and Her Hospital, The Lavenham Press, Lavenham, Suffolk – ISBN 0-9535780-1-1
- Wendy Sparrow & Andora Carver (2002) Nayland & Wiston, 1860s - 1950s, A Portrait in Photographs, Nayland with Wissington Conservation Society.
- Patrick Surrey (2003) Faith of Our Fathers - A Story of a Suffolk Catholic Parish, The Hadleigh Catholic Parish, Hadleigh, Suffolk