Kelly
Theberton is a parish and pleasant village, on the summit of a slight hill, 2.5 miles from the sea, about 2.5 miles north from Leiston station on the Aldborongh branch of the London and North Eastern railway, and 4 north-east from Saxmundham, in the Eye division of the county. Blything hundred, petty sessional division and union, Halesworth and Saxmundnam county court district, rural deanery of South Dunwich, archdeaconry of Suffolk and diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The church of St. Peter is a thatched building of rabble and flint with stone dressings, in the Norman and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch, and a round embattled western tower, octagonal in the upper stage, ornamented with flint and freestone, and containing 5 bells: the church retains a fine Norman doorway: several stained windows were inserted in 1848, and the south aisle rebuilt at the expense of the late Charles Montagu Doughty: there is a memorial window to the Right Hon. Thomas Milner-Gibson P.C., M.P. (d. 1884); in 1915 a window was inserted in there are 300 sittings: in the churchyard there is the grave of 16 German airmen, the crew of Zeppelin L48. brought down in Theberton, June I7th, 1917. The registers date from the year 1548. The living is a discharged rectory, net yearly value £412, with 8 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Crown, and held since 1932 by the Rev. Thomas Johnston Bayly M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel at East Bridge, rebuilt in 1682. The late Miss Harriet Cavell, of Leiston, left in the year 1883 the sum of £1,200; the interest is distributed to the poor: there are also two other small charities, known as the Gannon charity and the Theberton poor fund. Theberton House, the seat of L. E. Meinertzhagen esq. is a handsome mansion, surrounded by a finely-wooded lawn and park of nearly 100 acres, about a mile sooth of the village. Theberton Hall, at present (1929) unoccupied, was erected in 1780 by George Doughty esq. and is a mansion in the Italian style, surrounded by a well-wooded park of nearly 100 acres, and commands a fine view of the sea, which is 3 miles distant. L. E. Meinertahagen esq. Mrs. Doughty-Wylie and the trustees of the 1st and last Baron Peckover are the principal landowners. The soil is various-heavy, mixed and light; subsoil, sand, gravel and clay. The eastern part is a low, swampy tract, called Minsmere Level, which, by draining and sluices erected at very great expense, has been rendered good pasture land.
The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans, peas and roots. The area is 2,0001 acres : the population of the parish, which comprised the hamlets of East Bridge, 1 mile south-east of the church, and POTTER'S STREET, half a mile distant, in 1921 was 477.
Sexton, Ernest John Folkhard.
Post Office, Letters through Leiston, Suffolk, which is the nearest M.O. & T. memory of Lt.-CoL C. H. M. Doughty-Wylie V.C., C.B.,C.M.G. who fell leading the assault at Sell-el-Bahr, 26 April, 1915; in the south aisle are monuments to the Doughty family and a brass to Henry Montagu Doughty esq. who d. 29th Jan. 1916:
Dutt
Theberton Church (2 m. N. of Leiston) is chiefly Perp., but with interesting remains of Norm. work, notably the N. doorway. Note also (1) the font; and (2) in the churchyard, near the S. porch, a quaintly inscribed tomb to " Honest John Fenn" (1678). The E. portion of this parish, a well-drained tract of marsh, is known as Minsmere Level.
Church view
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