Kelly
BENACRE is a parish and village, 6.5 miles north from Southwold, 6 south-by-west from Lowestoft station on the London and North Eastern railway, 8 south-east from Beccles, in the Lowestoft division of the county, Blything hundred, petty sessional division and union, Halesworth and Saxmundham county court district, rural deanery of Beccles, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. To the north a small stream runs into the sea by a sluice, draining some marsh land. The church of St.Michael, rebuilt in 1769, at the sole expense of Sir Thomas Gooch, 3rd bart. is a structure principally of flint with stone dressings, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle and south porch and an embattled western tower containing one bell: there are 250 sittings. The register dates from about 1727, the earlier books having been destroyed by fire. The living is a rectory, consolidated with that of Cove-hithe, formerly called North Hales, joint net yearly value £526, with 22 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of Sir Thomas Vere Sherlock Gooch bart. and held since 1909 by the Rev. Lewis William Wingfield M.A. of University College, Durham. Benacre Hall, the property and residence of Sir Thomas Vere Sherlock Gooch bart. J.F. lord of the manor and sole landowner, is a large mansion of brick, situated in a park of 330 acres, timbered principally with oak, beech and ash; about 1.5 miles distant from the hall is Benacre Broad, a fine sheet of fresh water. The interior of the hall was destroyed by fire in 1925, but has since been rebuilt. The soil is mixed; subsoil, sand. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. The area is 2,521 acres of land, 23 of water and 13 of foreshore; the population in 1921 was 229 in the civil and 403 in the ecclesiastical parish.
Parish Clerk, Henry Cable.
Letters through Beccles, Suffolk. The nearest M. O. & T. office is at Wrentham.
Carriers from Southwold & Wrentham to Lowestoft pass through daily
Dutt
Benacre Hall (6. m. S. by W. of Lowestoft), the seat of Sir Thos. V. S. Gooch, Bart., stands close to the little town of Wrentham, its park bordering the main road from Lowestoft to Southwold. It is a large white-brick house, which has been the seat of the Gooch family for several generations. Two distinguished members of the family were Sir Wm. Gooch, 1st Bart., Lieut Governor of Virginia, who died in 1751, and Sir Thos. Gooch, 2nd Bart., Bishop of Bristol, 1737, Norwich, 1738, and Ely, 1747. Another Sir Thomas, 5th Bart., was the first person to suggest to the Government the raising of Yeomanry cavalry corps. The idea, however, seems to have originated with Arthur Young, the agriculturalist. The church, which contains some memorials to the Goochs, was practically rebuilt in 1769. Benacre is a coast parish, and on its E. side, near the beach, is a small broad with a wild-fowl decoy. Several rare birds have been shot in the neighbourhood, including a crane and a little bustard in breeding plumage.
Church view
http://www.suffolkchurches.plus.com/benacre.htm
EASTON BAVENTS is a parish situated on a high cliff, 1 mile north of Southwold: it was formerly a large and populous market town, but by the encroachments of the sea, it has been reduced to a few cottages only; it is in the Lowestoft division of the county, Blything hundred, petty sessional division and union, and Halesworth and Saxmundham county court district. The church of St. Nicholas has long since been swallowed up by the sea. A chapel dedicated to St. Margaret, through age and the diminution of the population of the parish, fell into irretrievable decay and was finally converted into a barn, not a vestige of which remains. The living is consolidated with Benacre. The sea is still encroaching here. Mr. Herbert Charles Boggis is sole landowner. The soil is mixed; subsoil, sand. The chief crops are wheat, barley and turnips. The area is 231 acres of land, 46 of water and 15 of foreshore; the population in 1931 was 18.
PRIVATE RESIDENTS.
Gooch Sir Thomas Vere Sherlock
Wingfield Rev. Lewis William M.A. (rector), Rectory
COMMERCIAL.Cargill Charles W. farmer. Walnut Tree farm
Jones George, head gardener to Sir Thomas V. S. Gooch bart. J.P
Baven Ernest Edmund, farmer, Walnut Tree Inn farm
Thrower Herbert Robert.gamekeener to Sir T V S Gooch bart.J.P.