Ilketshall+St+John

Whites ILKETSTALL ST. JOHN, 2 miles S. by E. of Bungay, is the smallest parish among the four Ilketshalls, having only 71 souls, and 743 acres of land, five scattered farm houses, and three cottages. John Day, Esq., is lord of the manor, but part of the soil belongs to the Rev. R. Day, Mr. John Hall, and two smaller owners. The Church (St. John) is a small stuccoed edifice, covered with blue slate, and standing on a bold eminence. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £8. 13s. 4d., and in 1835 at £311, is in the gift of the Crown, and incumbency of the Rev. Charles James Hutton, A.B., who has a pleasant residence, and about 60A. of glebe. The tithes have been commuted for a yearly rent of £230, besides which the rector has about £50 a year from the tithes of the other three Ilketshalls. The Hall, a neat mansion of white brick, belongs to the Rev. R. Day, but is occupied by Richard Day French, Esq. The FARMERS are John Chilvers, Manor House; Geo. Dixon, and John Hall. Kellys ILKETSHALL ST. JOHN is a parish and small scattered village, 2 miles south-east from Bungay station on the London and North Eastern railway, on the road from Bungay to Halesworth, in the Lowestoft division of the county, Bungay petty sessional division, Wangford hundred and union, Beccles and Bungay county court district, rural deanery of South Elmham, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The church of St. John the Baptist is a structure of flint with stone dressings, in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing one bell: the stained east window was erected at the cost of R. D. French esq. the stonework being the gift of His late Majesty King Edward VII. then Prince of Wales, who, as a youth, was privately tutored for a time by the then rector: the church was completely restored in 186o, and affords 90 sittings, all free. The parish register dates from the year 1538. The living is a rectory, annexed to that of Mettingham, joint net yearly value about £400, in the alternate gift of the Lord Chancellor and the church pastoral Society, and held since 1927 by the Rev. Theodore Brocklesby Davis B.A. of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, who resides at Mettingham. About three-quarters of a mile eastward of the church is an ancient entrenchment, consisting of a conical hill, encircled by a moat with a breastwork and an outer ditch on the south. The principal landowners are Col. Ross-Johnson, Walter J. Alcock esq.,and James Gower esq. The soil varies considerably; in the upper part of the parish it is clayey; near the church it is mixed, with a subsoil of red sand. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The area is 755 acres; the population in 1921 was 92 in the civil and 295 in the ecclesiastical parish. Letters through Beccles. Bungay is the nearest M.O. & T. office. PRIVATE RESIDENT Tunmer Frank Jn. St. John’s Hall COMMERCIAL Marked thus * farm 150 acres or over. * Gower James, farmer & landowner, Hill House farm & St. John’s Lodge farm & manager to Walter J. Alcock esq. St. John’s Hall farm. * Howlett Edward Thomas, farmer Manor farm. Dutt Ilketshall St John (2 m. S.E. of Bungay).In this parish, about .75m. E. of the church, is a curious earthwork, consisting of a conical hill surrounded by a moat, with a small base court and an outer ditch on the S. The church is a small Dec. building, with traces of earlier work. The E. window is modern.

[|Picture gallery]