Kessingland, Suffolk

Description
Kessingland, a village and a parish in Suffolk. The village stands on the coast 5 miles S from Lowestoft station on the G.E.K. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Lowestoft. Acreage of parish, 1679; population, 1275. The village, once a market-town and a place of considerable importance, still has a fair on 1 Dec. A thickly-populated spot on the coast, called Sea Eow, was swept away about the year 1835 by the sea, and other parts of the coast .are still subject to sea-eroi-ion. A coastguard station is on the beach. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich; net value, £310 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Norwich. The church, which is an ancient building of flint and stone in the Perpendicular style, was built by the nuns of St Clare in London, was partly rebuilt in 1694, comprises nave and S porch, with handsome lofty tower; has statues of St Edmund and angels with thuribles on the tower door, and contains an octagonal font with canopied effigies round the bowl. Some ancient ruins, seemingly ecclesiastical, are near the parsonage. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a few small charities.