Coordinates: 52°09′25″N 0°47′02″E / 52.1570°N 0.7840°E
| Cockfield | |
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  Cockfield
 Cockfield shown within Suffolk |
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| Population | 839 |
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| OS grid reference | |
| District | Babergh |
| Shire county | Suffolk |
| Region | East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BURY ST EDMUNDS |
| Postcode district | IP30 |
| Dialling code | 01284 |
| Police | Suffolk |
| Fire | Suffolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| European Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | South Suffolk |
| List of places: UK • England • Suffolk | |
Cockfield is a village and civil parish located approximately 3½ miles from Lavenham in Suffolk, England. The village consists of a central point and several outlying hamlets: Buttons Green, Colchester Green, Cross Green, Great Green, Oldhall Green, Smithwood Green and Windsor Green. Surrounded mostly by fields used for farming, and with few roads, its population was 839 in 2001.
The village previously had a train station on the Long Melford-Bury St Edmunds branch line, but it was closed in 1961 as part of the Beeching Axe. Its football team, Cockfield United play in the Suffolk and Ipswich Football League.
History
The present village has been inhabited for well over 2000 years. The finding of a sword (now in the Moyse Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds) is evidence of Bronze Age settlement, and a number of findings indicate a Roman encampment, known as the Warbanks.
The village's present name is derived from "Cochan-feld" probably indicating a site established by a person named Cochan. The village appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name of "Cothefelda" and is listed as a properous manor whose wealth had grown since the Norman Conquest. During the Middle Ages, the village became "Cokefield" and finally "Cockfield".
During the nineteenth century the parish was one of the largest and wealthiest in Suffolk and the seat of a number of prestigious rectors,[1] and becoming a centre a Puritanism during the 1600s.
St Peter's Church
A landmark visible for a distance across the neighbouring countryside, the church of St Peter's is one of the finest of Suffolk's many village churches, with the present building mostly dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. The church's size is unusual for such a rural location, but this becomes less surprising when one considers its location between the three great medieval merchant towns of Bury St Edmunds, Lavenham, and Sudbury.
There is no record of a church in the Domesday Book although a village of Cockfield's size would almost certainly have had one. The first surviving record of the parish's ecclesiastical history dates from 1190 when William de Cullum was installed as the first rector, although there is no existing record of the site prior to the building of the present church in the 14th century.[2]
The church fell under the patronage of the Abbot of St Edmundsbury until the Reformation when the Spring family, wealthy Lavenham clothiers and noblemen, took over, resulting in a close link with the region's strong wool trade. From 1708 the patronage fell to St John's College, Cambridge who appointed a number of distinguished Fellows of the College. Rectors of St Peter's have included John Knewstub the Presbyterian, William Ludlam the mathematician, and Churchill Babington the archaeologist and botanist.
The church's sizeable square flint tower dates from the 14th century and is buttressed almost to the top. The tower was nearly destroyed by a storm during the winter of 1774-5 and on August 2 1775, after repairs were nearly completed, an apparent lightning strike resulted in a fire that damaged it once again. The mathematician William Ludlam, rector from 1767, installed an astronomical observatory on the tower whose filled in windows can still be seen.[1]
References
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