The Saints, Suffolk

Ilketshall St Margaret is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the market town of Bungay in the East Suffolk district. The parish is part of the area known as the Saints and had a population of 160 at the 2011 United Kingdom census. The parish is sparsely populated and situated to the west of the A144 road between Bungay and Halesworth. It borders the parishes of Bungay, Ilketshall St John, Ilketshall St Lawrence, Spexhall, Rumburgh, St Michael South Elmham, St Peter South Elmham, and Flixton. The parish church is dedicated to St Margaret. It dates from the early 11th century and features a round tower, one of around 40 round-tower churches in Suffolk. The village is mentioned in W. G. Sebald's novel The Rings of Saturn.

Wangford Rural District was a rural district within the administrative county of East Suffolk between 1894 and 1934. It was created out of the earlier Wangford rural sanitary district. It was named after the historic hundred of Wangford, whose boundaries it closely matched. It contained the group of small villages collectively known as The Saints. In 1910 a new urban district of Bungay was created out of a part of the northern side of the district. In 1934, under a County Review Order, Wangford Rural District was abolished and its parishes transferred to the new Wainford Rural District. In 1974 the area became part of Waveney district.

Wainford Rural District was a rural district in East Suffolk, England, between 1934 and 1974. It was created by a merger of the disbanded Wangford Rural District and parts of Blything Rural District, and contained the group of small villages collectively known as The Saints. The name Wainford is linked to that of Wangford, a historic hundred of Suffolk. The district was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and the area became part of the Waveney district.

Wangford was a hundred of Suffolk, England, consisting of 34,679 acres (140.34 km2). Wangford Hundred was an area of around twelve miles (19 km) from west to east and five across. The River Waveney formed its northern border separating it from Norfolk. To the east lay Mutford and Lothingland Hundred, to the south Blything Hundred and to the west Hoxne Hundred. It is a fertile district, particularly in the broad vale of the Waveney with its rich marshes for feeding cattle. On the south side of the vale the land becomes hilly with an agricultural region of predominantly loam soil. The towns of Bungay and Beccles are the largest settlements in the former hundred. The hundred also contained the thirteen parishes (Ilketshall, South Elmham, Flixton and Homersfield) collectively known as The Saints.

Ilketshall St John is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east of the market town of Bungay and is part of a group of parishes with similar names known collectively as the Saints. The parish is sparsely population and is estimated to have a population of between 40 and 50. It has an area of 3 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi) and borders the parishes of Bungay, Mettingham, Shipmeadow, Ilketshall St Andrew, Ilketshall St Lawrence and Ilketshall St Margaret. The A144 road between Bungay and Halesworth runs through the parish, passing just south of the parish church. Other than the church there are no local services. Mettingham Castle is just to the north of the parish.

Ilketshall St Lawrence is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of the market town of Bungay and is part of a group of parishes with similar names known collectively as the Saints. The parish is spread along a 3 miles (4.8 km) stretch of the A144 road which runs between Bungay and Halesworth. It has an elongated shape, with the parish church located close to the northern border of the parish and the village school, Ilketshall St Lawrence primary school, located close to the southern border. At the 2011 United Kingdom census the parish had a population of 158. It has an area of 5 square kilometres (1.9 sq mi) and borders the parishes of Ilketshall St Andrew, Ilketshall St John, Ilketshall St Margaret and Spexhall. Other than the school and the parish church, there are few services in the village. A garage and petrol station are located on the main road and an apple juice and cider making business operates from the parish. A public house, the Huntsman and Hounds, lies just south of the parish boundary in the hamlet of Stone Street, part of Spexhall parish. The parish church, which is dedicated to St Lawrence, dates from the 12th-century, although there was a church on the site at the time of the Domesday Book. The tower dates from the 15th-century. The church is a Grade II* listed building and is believed to be built on a Roman site, with pottery found in the grounds in 1929.

Waveney was a constituency of in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament that existed from 1983 to 2024. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the constituency reverted to its previous name of Lowestoft. Other than the town of Bungay, the abolished seat of Waveney has little in common with the new ‘Waveney Valley’ constituency, which covers a predominantly rural area bridging Norfolk and Suffolk.

St Michael South Elmham is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the market town of Bungay in the East Suffolk district. It is one of the villages surrounding Bungay which make up the area known as The Saints. The parish is sparsely populated with an estimated population of around 60. It borders the parishes of St Peter South Elmham, All Saints and St Nicholas South Elmham, Ilketshall St Margaret and Rumburgh. The parish council operates jointly with All Saints and St Nicholas and St Michael. With no residents killed during World War I, the village is one of two Thankful Village in Suffolk. It is one of only fourteen doubly thankful villages in England, in that it lost no residents in World War II either.

The A144 is an A road in the English county of Suffolk. It runs from the town of Bungay, close to the border with Norfolk, to the A12 trunk road near the village of Darsham, passing through the market town of Halesworth. It is around 14 miles (23 km) in length and is single carriageway throughout.

Mettingham College was a monastic college in the parish of Mettingham in the English county of Suffolk. The college was located within Mettingham Castle, although it was founded elsewhere.

Mettingham Castle was a fortified manor house in the parish of Mettingham in the north of the English county of Suffolk.

Ilketshall St Andrew is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of Bungay and the same distance south-west of Beccles in the East Suffolk district. St Andrew's church is one of around 40 round-tower churches in Suffolk. The parish had a population of 291 at the 2011 United Kingdom census. It is one of a group around Bungay known as The Saints, and is located east of the A144 road between Bungay and Halesworth. The parish borders the parishes of Shipmeadow, Ringsfield, Redisham, Westhall, Spexhall, Ilketshall St Lawrence and Ilketshall St John.