Great Henny

Twinstead is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district in the county of Essex, England. It shares a parish council with Great Henny and Little Henny called "Hennys', Middleton & Twinstead". It was once part of the Hinckford Hundred, which is a subdivision of a county and has its own court. In 2001 the parish had a population of 165. In the 1870s, Twinstead was described as:"TWINSTEAD. Acres, 1,008. Real property, £2,179. Houses, 48. T. Hall is the seat of B. Sparrow, Esq. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £250.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor." Today, the village is made up of many farms, a riding school, a manor house and an Essex Volvo's business. It has one place of worship which is the Church of St John the Evangelist, which is a Grade II* listed building.

Little Henny (previously spelt Little Henney) is a hamlet and civil parish in the Braintree district in the county of Essex, England. It shares a parish council with Great Henny and Twinstead called "Hennys', Middleton & Twinstead". It is near the town of Sudbury in Suffolk. In 2001 the parish had a population of 48.

Middleton is a village and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. The village is 1 mile (1.6 km) south from the Ballingdon suburb of the market town of Sudbury. The parish, which is 2 miles (3.2 km) east to west and less than 1 mile north to south, is bordered at the north and east by the county of Suffolk, at the west by the Essex parish of Bulmer and the A131 road, and at the south by the Essex parishes of Little Henny and Great Henny. The River Stour also forms the eastern border. In the north of the parish at Middleton Hall Farm is small light industrial and services park which includes a vehicle sales company and the headquarters of a turkey farm. This was the only farm and only trade listed in 1882 and 1914. By 1894 a carpenter was trading, and in 1902, a baker. The parish contained a mixed National School for 40 children, built in 1875. This had become a Public Elementary School by 1914. Earlier, in 1818, the parish population of 90 had no school. At the end of the 19th-century parish area varied from 868 acres (3.5 km2) to 890 acres (3.6 km2). Parish soil was of clay, loam and gravel, on which was grown wheat, barley, beans and turnips. Between 1881 and 1911, the population dropped from 165 to 133. The Parish Church of All Saints', which dates to the mid-12th century, is a Grade I listed building. Within the church chancel is a 14th-century Purbeck marble figurative floor slab to the memory of a rector of Middleton, died 1349. The parish register dates to 1700. The church seats 150. All Saints' Church was restored in the 19th century, when the bell turret and south porch were rebuilt, a vestry added to the north, and an organ chamber installed. The living at the time was a rectory with a residence and 40 acres (0.2 km2) of glebe – land used for the support of the parish priest and church. In 1882 an oil-on-canvas painting of the Annunciation was reported to be above All Saints' chancel arch, which might have been the work of the 16th-century artist Andrea Schiavone. The rectory house was noted between 1882 and 1902, but not in 1914, as "beautifully situated with a small park in front and contains a splendid collection of oil and water colour paintings by English, Dutch, Flemish, French and Italian masters". At the centre of Middleton Hall Farm is Middleton Hall, built in 1864 but today unlisted; it is part surrounded by a mutilated rectangular moat as a listed monument. A Grade II listed thatched two-storey cottage dating to the 17th century is 250 yards (229 m) southeast from the church on a minor road to Henny Street. South from the church by 60 yards (55 m), and with access from Rectory Road is Queens Beeches, a Grade II listed early 19th-century grey brick house with attached stables and carriage house.

Henny Street is a hamlet in the civil parish of Great Henny and the Braintree district of Essex, England. The hamlet is on Henny Road at the east of the parish and adjacent to the west bank of the River Stour. Henny Street is a linear hamlet south from, but incorporating, the junction of the road to Middleton, the adjacent parish to the north. The hamlet holds three Grade II listed buildings. Henny Cottage dates to the 14th century, was formerly a hall house and is plastered, timber framed and thatched. The timber framed, plastered and gabled Street Farmhouse, the focus of Street Farm, dates to the 15th century with later additions and alterations. Mill House, on the Stour side of the hamlet is early 19th century, plastered over timber framing. Between Mill house and the Stour is the redeveloped site of the former Henny Mill which was a water powered corn mill, later using steam, served by the Stour. To the north from Street Farm is The Swan public house and restaurant, whose facilities include ground across Henny Road to the Stour. Within the property at the edge of the Stour are the remains of a Second World War Type 22 pillbox. The Swan and its victuallers are listed in trade directories from at least 1848 to at least 1933. Up to 1914 the victualler was also blacksmith, however, in 1863 he was also a farmer, and in 1894, a brewer. The miller at Henny Mill was the same person from at least 1863 to later than 1902. By 1914, the miller's executors were in control, the mill listed as using steam as well as water power, and from 1902 to at least 1914, the miller was also a baker. A miller was still trading in 1933. Farmers at Street Farm were listed from 1848 to 1933, the farmer in 1902 also employing a bailiff.

Belchamp was a rural district in Essex in England. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 from that part of the Sudbury rural sanitary district which was in Essex (the rest going to form the Melford Rural District in West Suffolk). The rural district contained the following parishes: Alphamstone Belchamp Otten Belchamp St Paul Belchamp Walter Borley Bulmer Bures Foxearth Gestingthorpe Great Henny Lamarsh Liston Little Henny Middleton North Wood Pentlow Twinstead Wickham St PaulOriginally, the rural district also contained part of the parish of Ballingdon, the rest of which was in West Suffolk. The Essex part of the parish was transferred to West Suffolk (and the borough of Sudbury) in 1896. Belchamp rural district was abolished in 1934 under a County Review Order, and merged into the Halstead Rural District.

Ballingdon is a suburb of the town of Sudbury and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sudbury, in the Babergh district, in Suffolk, England. Once a separate village in the county of Essex. It is the only part of the town to the south of the River Stour. In 1951 the parish had a population of 458. The village developed on the important ancient highway from Braintree and Halstead in Essex to Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds. It grew adjacent to a bridge (today known as Ballingdon Bridge) over the River Stour. It dates back to at least the 13th century, and remains the only crossing of the river for several miles in either direction. Ballingdon and Brundon (which formed the township of Ballingdon-cum-Brundon, then in Essex) were added to the borough of Sudbury (and the county of Suffolk) in 1888 as part of the Local Government Act. Around that time it had a population of 831. In 1972 the owners of Ballingdon Hall, responding to a housing development on adjacent land, had it moved half a mile up Ballingdon Hill on the back of a large transporter; the event was watched by 10,000 people. Ballingdon came to be home to many businesses, evidence of which can be seen in the architecture of the buildings, with large shop windows and other tell-tale signs. This was because before Ballingdon became part of Suffolk it was cheaper to open a business on the Essex side of the river, as no levy had to be paid to Sudbury town council. By 2011 only eight businesses remained open outside the industrial units, just three of them retail outlets. Ballingdon was home to two brickworks, long since vanished, but maps of their locations can be found online. The Allen family operation (on Middleton Road) was the most advanced, and barges made their way up a specially constructed cut from the River Stour, which passed the brickworks and even continued under Middleton Road. The clay was sourced locally, and brick makers were expected to meet a target of 1,000 bricks per day. The hand-making of bricks has long since been superseded by machines, but can still be seen at Bulmer Brick and Tile, who offer tours to schools and adults. Today Ballingdon Street is a conservation area and contains numerous listed buildings. King's Marsh Stadium, home of A.F.C. Sudbury, is located in the area. In September 2018, Ballingdon held its first fete in living memory, raising money for the Eden Rose Coppice. The fete, held on Kone Vale, has also taken place in 2019 and 2022, raising a total of £9,000 in its first three events for local good causes.

The Little Cornard derailment occurred on 17 August 2010 when a passenger train collided with a road vehicle on a level crossing on the Gainsborough Line near Little Cornard, Suffolk, and partly derailed. The vehicle, a tanker lorry, had begun crossing over the track when the Class 156 train from Sudbury destined for Marks Tey struck it whilst travelling at a speed of approximately 40 miles per hour (64 km/h). Twenty-three people aboard the train were injured, five of them seriously, including the driver. The lorry driver was subsequently jailed and disqualified from driving for causing the accident, after he admitted to having not used the crossing telephone to obtain permission from the signaller to cross the railway.

The Dominican Priory of Sudbury or Sudbury Priory, was a medieval priory of the Dominican Order, also known as the Order of Friar Preachers or "Black Friars", in the town of Sudbury, Suffolk, England. The community was dispersed and the buildings demolished during the English Reformation in the 16th century. The materials were used to construct a large house on the same site, which survived into the 19th century.

Alphamstone is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located 3+3⁄4 miles (6.0 km) south of Sudbury in Suffolk and is 20 mi (32 km) northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Braintree and in the parliamentary constituency of Braintree. The parish is part of the Stour Valley South parish cluster. The parish is 1,709 acres (2.67 sq mi; 692 ha) with a geology of fertile clay-soils, and is at an elevation of 216 feet (66 m) above sea level. The population is included in the civil parish of Lamarsh. The village is a mile west of the River Stour, which forms the Essex-Suffolk county-border in the local area. The village has one parish church, the C of E St Barnabas. It was built in the thirteenth century and went through restorations in the 16th and 19th centuries. The churchyard also features seven sarsen stones, potentially once a prehistoric stone circle. In 1831 the population of the village was 244 inhabitants. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the nearest railway station at Bures on the Sudbury Branch Line. Its nearest significant road link is the A131.

Sudbury Grammar School was a boys' grammar school in Sudbury, Suffolk. The school was founded in 1491. In 1972, the school was amalgamated with other local schools to form Sudbury Upper School.

Cornard Mere is an 8.5-hectare (21-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Little Cornard in Suffolk. It is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. This site has diverse habitats, with fen which is seasonally flooded, ruderal herb vegetation, woodland, grassland and scrub. Flora include water mint, gypsywort, skullcap, ragged robin and southern marsh orchid. There is access from Bures Road.

Gainsborough's House is the birthplace of the leading English painter Thomas Gainsborough. It is now a museum and gallery, located at 46 Gainsborough Street in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. It is a Grade I listed building. Some of the pictures on display have been acquired with the help of the Art Fund.