Hawstead, Suffolk

Description
Hawstead, a village and a parish in Suffolk. The village stands 4 miles S by W from Bury St Edmunds, and 3 W from Whelnetham station on the G.E.E., and was known at Domesday as Halstead. It has a post office under Bury St Edmunds; money order and telegraph office, Hoi-ringer; The parish, with Hardwick extra-parochial tract, comprises 2304 acres; population of the civil parish, 325; of the ecclesiastical, 344. The manor belonged to Bury Abbey; passed to the Fitz-Eustaces, the Cloptons, and the Drurys; and belongs now to the Cullum family. Hawstead Place, the old manor-house, was visited in the time of the Drurys by Queen Elizabeth, but afterwards became a farmhouse. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; net yearly value, £350 with residence. The church is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style of the 15th century, with a tower, and contains monuments of the Fitz-Eustaces, the Drurys, and the Cullums, and three brasses. There are some well-endowed almshouses for six aged persons, and a common of about 24 acres. Bishop Hall was rector.