History of Gestingthorpe

St. Mary's Church, Gestingthorpe
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History of Gestingthorpe >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

GESTINGTHORPE, a long straggling village, on a pleasant eminence, 4½ miles South West of Sudbury, has in its parish 834 souls, and 261lA.3R.22P. of land, and several scattered farm-houses. The soil is generally heavy, and partly a sandy loam. The heirs of the late George Walker, Esq., are owners and lords of the manor of Over Hall, a neat mansion, with pleasant grounds. The Earl of Mornington is owner of Nether Hall manor; and the estate called Parks belongs to A. Majendie, Esq. Here are several smaller owners, mostly copyholders, subject to arbitrary fines. Odewell was anciently a hamlet and chapery; and on the south side of the parish are several houses adjoining Maplestead.

The Church (St. Mary,) is a good brick building, with a nave, south aisle, and chancel, and an embattled tower, containing six bells. Over the altar is a fine picture of Christ rising from the Tomb, and on either side are paintings of Moses and Aaron. A mural monument, on the south side of the chancel, has, in a niche, the kneeling effigy of Capt. John Sparrow, who died in 1626. From an early period, there have been here a sinecure rectory and a discharged vicarage, the former valued in K.B. at £13.6s.8d., and in 1831 at £454. They are both in the patronage of J.P. Elwes, Esq.; and the Rev. Frederick Elwes, B.A., of Wixoe, Suffolk, is incumbent of the former, and the Rev. B.B. Syer, B.A., of the latter. The Vicarage-House has recently been rebuilt, and is a handsome mansion, near the church. The rectorial glebe is 96A.2R.33P., and the vicarial glebe 34A.2R. The tithes were commuted in 1840, the rectorial for £520.10s., and the vicarial for £181 per annum. The rent of a cottage and 12A. of land, called Rents Fields, let for £16, is applied in schooling poor children, but the donor is unknown.