Saxmundham in 1842
Saxmundham is in the hundred of Plomesgate, 20 miles north-east of Ipswich, on the road to Yarmouth. The area of the parish is 1,460 acres ; the population in 1831 was 1,048, about one-fourth agricultural. The town consists chiefly of one long, narrow, unpaved street, running north and south along the high road, lined with neat, respectable looking houses. It is in a valley, through which, at the back of the houses, on the east side of the street, runs a small brook, a feeder of the Alde, which it joins about four or five miles south of the town. The church is a neat building just out of the town ; and there is a place of worship for Independents. Some business is done in malting and in shipping corn for London from the wharfs on the river Alde. The market is on Thursday, and there are two yearly fairs. The living is a rectory in the rural deanery of Orford, in the archdeaconry of Suffolk, in the diocese of Norwich, of the clear yearly value of £275, with a glebe-house. There were in the parish, in 1833, six day-schools of all sorts, with 132 children, namely, 51 boys and 81 girls ; and three Sunday--schools, with 147 children, namely, 80 boys and 67 girls. |