| Acton | |
|---|---|
 All Saints church, Acton | |
  Acton Location within Suffolk | |
| Population | 1,811 (2011) [1] |
| OS grid reference | TL893449 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SUDBURY |
| Postcode district | CO10 |
| Dialling code | 01787 |
| Police | Suffolk |
| Fire | Suffolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
 | |
Acton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. The parish also includes the hamlets of Cuckoo Tye and Newman's Green.
According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the name is "Village by the Oaks".
The Domesday Book records the population of Acton in 1086 to be 83 households along with 50 acres for farming, wood for 40 pigs, 1 mill, 11 horses at hall, 31 cattle, 160 pigs, 423 sheep, and 7 beehives. The land was held by Ranulf Peverel, before the Norman Conquest, the village was held by Siward Barn. [2] It was located in Babergh Hundred.
All Saints is the local church. Five bells are hung in the tower for change ringing with the heaviest weighing 8cwt-1qr-4lb (928 lb), and the oldest dating from 1659 cast by Miles Graye III, the tower is affiliated to the Suffolk Guild of Ringers. [3] [4]
In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the village as:
ACTON, a parish in Sudbury district, Suffolk; near the river Stour, 2½ miles N by E of Sudbury r. station. It has a post office under Sudbury. Acres, 2,811. Real property, £4,159. Pop., 558. Houses, 122. The property belongs chiefly to two. Acton Place contains some old paintings and other interesting objects. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £255.* Patron, Earl Howe. The church contains five brasses, and is good. [5]
In 1887, John Bartholomew also wrote an entry on Acton in the Gazetteer of the British Isles with a much shorter description:
Acton, par., W. Suffolk, 2½ miles N. of Sudbury, 2811 ac., pop. 579; P.O. [6]
Between 2001 and 2002 the Reliant Robin was produced in the village's industrial estate. [7]
Acton is part of the Suffolk County Council electoral division of Sudbury East and Waldingfield, and is represented by Philip Faircloth-Mutton (Conservative).
It is also part of the Babergh District Council electoral ward called Long Melford, and is represented by Councillors Elisabeth Malvisi (Independent) and John Nunn (Independent).
William Jennens was known as "William the Miser" and the "Acton Miser". Jennens made his money through business in London and loaning money to gamblers, and was Britain's richest man at the time of his death in 1798, but aged 97 he had outlived the nominated executors and beneficiaries under his will. According to the BBC QI series, Jennens vs Jennens commenced in 1798 and was abandoned in 1915 (117 years later) when the legal fees had exhausted the Jennens estate of funds (worth c. £2 million). [8] [9] The case of Jennens v Jennens formed part of the inspiration for the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case at the centre of the plot of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. [10]
Another Acton resident, Catherine Foster, was the last woman to be hanged at Bury St Edmunds, in 1847. At the age of 17 she poisoned her husband John Foster by putting arsenic in his dumplings. The propriety of this case was discussed in the House of Lords and reported in Hansard. [11]
Ronald Blythe, writer, essayist and editor, best known for his work Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, was born in the village.
| Population growth in Acton from 1801 to 1891 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1881 | 1891 | ||
| Population | 461 | 470 | 555 | 565 | 555 | 539 | 579 | 619 | ||
| Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time [12] | ||||||||||
| Population growth in Acton from 1901 to 2011 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1951 | 1961 | 2001 | 2011 | ||
| Population | 593 | 541 | 447 | 496 | 673 | 603 | 1,800 | 1,811 | ||
| Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time [12] | ||||||||||
Babergh District is a local government district in Suffolk, England. In 2021 it had a population of 92,300. The district is primarily a rural area, containing just two towns, Sudbury and Hadleigh, which was the administrative centre until 2017 when the council moved to shared offices with neighbouring Mid Suffolk District Council in Ipswich, outside either district. The district is named after the medieval Babergh Hundred, which covered part of the area.
Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a fictional probate case in Bleak House (1852–53) by Charles Dickens, progressing in the English Court of Chancery. The case is a central plot device in the novel and has become a byword for seemingly interminable legal proceedings.
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Milden is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in Suffolk, England. Located around 4+1⁄2 miles from Sudbury. In 2021 the parish had a population of 118. The parish borders Brent Eleigh, Edwardstone, Groton, Lindsey, Little Waldingfield and Monks Eleigh. There are 18 listed buildings in Milden. St Peter's Church is a Grade I listed building.
Thorpe Morieux is a small village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is 10 miles south-east of Bury St Edmunds and 10 miles north east of Sudbury.
Groton is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district, Suffolk, England, located around a mile north of the A1071 between Hadleigh and Sudbury. In 2021 the parish had a population of 299.
Great Bealings is a small village in Suffolk, England.
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Clopton is a village and civil parish in Suffolk. It is located between Ipswich and Debenham two kilometres north of Grundisburgh on the River Lark. The village is no larger than a series of houses either side of the B1078, surrounded by farm land. The village itself has no clear centre; houses and other buildings are concentrated around the four manors of Kingshall, Brendhall, Rousehall and Wascolies, all of which are mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Timworth is a village and civil parish 65 mi (105 km) north east of London and 26 mi (42 km) east of Cambridge in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around two miles north of Bury St Edmunds, its 2005 population was 50. At the 2011 Census the appropriate Postal Code showed the population as being included in Ampton.
Hawkedon is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around 7 miles (11 km) south-south-west of Bury St Edmunds, the parish also contains the hamlet of Thurston End, and in 2005 had a population of 120. The majority of the village is classed as a conservation area.
William Jennens (1701–1798), also known as William the Miser, William the Rich, and The Miser of Acton, was a reclusive financier who lived at Acton Place in the village of Acton, Suffolk, England. He was described as the "richest commoner in England" when he died unmarried and intestate with a fortune estimated at £2 million, which became the subject of legal wrangles in the Court of Chancery for well over a century despite the fact that all Jennen's real and personal estate had been distributed to his closest living relatives in a relatively short time after his death. The Jennens case is often cited as having provided inspiration for Jarndyce v Jarndyce in Charles Dickens' serialised novel Bleak House.
Media related to Acton at Wikimedia Commons