Walton, Suffolk

Description
Walton, a parish, with a village, in Suffolk, half a mile from Trimley station on the G.E.R., and 4 miles from Harwich. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Ipswich, and a ferry across the Orwell to Harwich. Acreage, 2021; population, 1923. Orwell House and Coldham are chief residences. Walton Castle, which formerly stood on a sea-cliff, dated from the time of the Romans, but was undermined and destroyed by the sea. Roman coins, urns, rings, and other relics have been found. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Rochester Abbey, was founded here by R. Bigod, and went after the dissolution to successively Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke of Norfolk, and T. Leckford. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Norwich; net value, £135 with residence. The church is a structure of stone in the Early English style. An ecclesiastical district, with a church consecrated in 1895 and dedicated to St John the Baptist, was formed out of portions of Felixstow and Walton. The church stands in Walton parish. There are Baptist and Methodist chapels. The Foresters' Hall was erected in 1886.