Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LEISTON

LEISTON, a small town and a parish in Blything district, Suffolk. The town stands on the Aldborough railway, 2 miles from the coast, and 4 ESE of Saxmundham; is connected with the extensive manufacturing works of the Messrs. Garrett, and lighted with gas supplied from these works; carries on a manufacture of waterproof roquelaires; and has a post office ‡ under Saxmundham, a railway station with telegraph, a church, three dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institution, a parochial school, and charities £73. Messrs. Garrett's works manufacture agricultural machinery and implements; were established, on a very small scale, in 1788; and have gradually increased to such magnitude as to occupy about 7 acres of ground. and to employ about 600 men. The church stands about ¼ of a mile W of the town; was originally early English; was rebuilt in 1853; and is a handsome edifice of nave, transepts, and chancel, with a tower of flint.—The parish contains also the hamlet of Sizewell; extends to the coast; and comprises 4,500 acres of land, and 140 of water. Real property, £8,813. Pop. in 1851,1,580; in 1861,2,227. Houses, 470. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of Messrs. Garrett's works. Leiston Abbey is the seat of W. Rose, Esq.; Sizewell House is the seat off A. Ogilvie, Esq.; and the Cupola is the seat of Lord Beauclerk. Some new marine villa residences, and a coast-guard station, are at Sizewell-Gap. A premonstratensian canonry was founded on the coast section, in 11 82, by Ralph de Glanville; was rebuilt, on a site about a mile further from the sea, and about ½ a mile from the town, in 1363, by Robert de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk; was destroyed by fire before 1389, and rebuilt in that year; had a church 168 feet long; was given, at the dissolution, to the Duke of Suffolk; and is now represented by massive ivy-clad walls, two lofty pointed windows, and half-enclosed underground cells. A modern farm-house stands among the ruins; and a flower garden occupies the inner area. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Norwich. Value, £435.* Patron, alternately Christ's Hospital, London, and the Haberdashers' Company, London.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Leiston AP/CP       Blything RegD/PLU       Suffolk AncC
Place: Leiston

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